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Mariculture Overview
Mariculture is the marine ( ocean ) version of agriculture ( land plants that are cultivated for food ) and acquaculture ( water plants and animals that are caught and harvested for food ). Mariculture is specifically cultivation of plants and animals in the ocean - mari=marine, culture=cultivation. This can mean seaweed for food or fertilizer, oysters for pearls, or shellfish for food like clam chowder.
- A family that grows acres and acres of corn practices agriculture.
- A family that goes out and catches fish in the sea or inland waters is practicing acquaculture.
- A family that grows and harvests seaweed on poles in the sea, or raises pearl oysters, practices mariculture.
Farming the sea has been a recorded source of food and economy for over 4,000 years, and probably has been a mainstay of seaside villages for well over 12,000 years.
Do you use marine products for food or for materials ? It is very likely you do, and in some products you are not even aware of as containing a marine product.
In some cases the sea-farmers, or mariculturists, are trapping and harvesting wild plants and animals near the shoreline or out on boats. In other cases they harvest plants they have intentionally grown in the ocean, or shell fish - like mussels, scallops or abalone - or crustaceans ( creatures with shells ) - like lobster or prawns - that they have grown in farms from larvae ( eggs ).
Farmers grow pearls by forcing grains of sand into the inside of oysters that are kept in specially controlled shoreline beds. Shrimp are farmed in large man made lagoons divided by earthen walls that stretch hundreds of feet forming a grid across the landscape. And the abalone that the Camp provides with a classroom expedition crate is grown on land beside the sea in very carefully monitored tanks fed fresh sea water daily.
These efforts at intentionally breeding and raising ocean food sources is a type of cultivation, just like planting seeds in the soil to grow vegetables. As the availability of wild food sources is depleted by over fishing, as a result of climate changes, or due to pollution of our open sea, the intentional farming if sea foods can help feed rapidly growing human populations. It is also a valuable source from which to discover new uses for sea-based products in many industries.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization predicts ocean farms can produce 22 million tons of sea food a year by the year 2000 - other scientists estimate 100-400 tons a year is a future possibility.