Geographic Information Systems in Fisheries

Chapter 6: Geographic Information Systems Applications in Aquaculture

James McDaid Kapetsky

doi: https://doi.org/10.47886/9781888569575.ch6

Aquaculture commands increasing attention worldwide. It continues to be the world’s fastest growing food production sector (FAO Fisheries Department 2001). From 1970–1999, global output of cultured plants and animals increased twelvefold, attaining nearly 43 million metric tons in 1999 (FAO Fisheries Department 2003). In comparison, output from marine and inland capture fisheries together was about 94 million metric tons in 1999.

Mariculture accounts for 50% of aquaculture output, and freshwater culture is about 45%. Both are increasing at a rapid rate. In comparison, brackish-water culture makes up about 5% of output, and it is increasing at a relatively modest rate. Aquaculture production is greatly skewed among continental areas with Asia accounting for 91%. In terms of value, finfish account for 55%, crustaceans for 18%, mollusks for 16%, and aquatic plants for 10% (FAO Fisheries Department 2001).

Aquaculture is complex. It is a vast array of water-based, controlled production that can be viewed as a matrix of categories within criteria (Table 6.1). In consideration of its complexity, economic importance, and recent rapid growth, it should not be surprising that aquafarming faces many development and management.

The fundamental issue in aquaculture is to ensure its sustainability. For any expanse of area at any location, or at any level of detail, sustainability can be addressed with two basic criteria in mind: (1) suitability for aquaculture, and (2) consequences of aquaculture.

In turn, suitability can be measured in terms of the needs of the culture system that is used and the requirements of the organism to be cultured. Suitability also takes into account the broad “ecology” of aquaculture that includes the politico-administrative and socioeconomic climates, as well as the physical, chemical, and biological environments. Likewise, the consequences of aquaculture can be viewed from the same perspectives. Sustainability of aquaculture encompasses many other related issues that have spatial elements, and it is these that open the door for a broad spectrum of applications of geographic information systems (GIS).