Best Aquaculture Practices’ (BAP)
Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA).
site audits
Marine Harvest farms
seismic construction
seismic standards
recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS)
land-based aquaculture
geothermal heating and cooling
net-pen aquaculture
Sustainable Fish Farming
cage farming industry
closed containment aquaculture
land-based containment
Multiexport Pacific Farms (MPF)
Hatchery
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)
The Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS)
sea-based container culture approach (SBCC)
Broodstock: Adult fish retained for spawning.
Barrow Pits: Ponds and lakes created after the excavation of fill material used in road construction
Carrying Capacity: The population, number, or weight of a species that a given environment can support.
Cold Water Species: Generally, fish that spawn in water temperatures below 55°F. The main cultured species are trout and salmon. See Cool water Species; Warm Water Species.
Food Conversion: A ratio of food intake to body weight gain; more generally, the total weight of all feed fed to a lot of fish divided by the total weight gain of the fish lot. The units of weight and the time interval over which they are measured must be the same. The better the conversion, the lower the ratio.
Formulated Feed: A combination of ingredients that provides specific amounts of nutrients per weight of feed.
Free Board: The distance between the crown of a pond levee and the surface of the water inside the pond. Usually one to three feet of freeboard is recommended.
Fresh Water: Water containing less than 0.05% total dissolved salts by weight.
Genus: A unit of scientific classification that includes one or several closely related species.The scientific name for each organism includes designation for genus and speciesGills: The highly vascular, fleshy filaments used in aquatic respiration and excretion.
Gonads: The reproductive organs (testes or ovaries).
Hardness: The ability of water to neutralize soap, due to the presence of cations such as calcium and magnesium; usually expressed as parts per million equivalents of calcium carbonate. Refers to the calcium and magnesium ion concentration in water on a scale of very soft (0-20 ppm as CaCO3), soft (20-50 ppm), hard (50-500 ppm) and very hard (55+ ppm).
Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP): A mandatory Food and Drug Administration (FDA) seafood inspection program required by fish processors, wholesalers, and retailers.
Hybrid: Progeny resulting from a cross between parents that are genetically unlike.
Incubation (Eggs): Period from fertilization of the egg until it hatches.
Intensive Culture: Rearing of fish at densities greater than can be supported in the natural environment; utilizes high water flow or exchange rates, aeration, and requires the feeding of formulated feeds.
Juvenile: Fish less than one year old. Also refers to fingerlings.
Kettle: A constructed basin near the drain of a pond used for concentrating fish during harvest. Also referred to as a catch basin.
Liquid Oxygen: A form of oxygen cooled to a liquid state and used commonly in recirculating aquaculture systems because it is cheaper per unit than gaseous oxygen.
McDonald Jar: A type of incubator usually made from clear plastic designed to hold fertilized eggs during the hatching process.
Mouth Brooder: A species of fish in which either the female or male incubates the fertilized eggs in the mouth. Most species of tilapia grown in the United States are maternal mouth brooders.
Nitrogen: An odorless, gaseous element that makes up 78% of the earth's atmosphere, and is a constituent of all living tissue. It is almost inert in its gaseous form.
Nitrogenous Wastes: Simple nitrogen compounds produced by the metabolism of proteins, such as urea and uric acid.
Operculum: The bony covering that protects the gills.
Osmosis: The diffusion of liquid that takes place through a semipermeable membrane between solutions starting at different osmotic pressures, and that tends to equalize those pressures. Water always moves toward the more concentrated solution, regardless of the substances dissolved, until the concentration of dissolved particles is equalized, regardless of electric charge.
Oxygen Depletion/Low Oxygen: A condition, normally occurring at night, in which oxygen dissolved in pond water has been depleted mainly because of the decomposition of organic matter and respiration of organisms in the pond.
Phytoplankton: Microscopic plants suspended in water with little or no capability for controlling their position in the water mass; frequently referred to as algae.
Plankton The various, mostly microscopic, aquatic organisms (plants and animals) that serve as food for larger aquatic animals.
pH: An expression of the acid-base relationship designated as the logarithm of the reciprocal of the hydrogen-ion activity; the value of 7.0 expresses neutral solutions; values decreasing below 7.0 represent increasingly acidic solutions; values increasing about 7.0 represent increasingly basic solution.
Pokiothermic: The ability of fish to take on approximately the same body temperature as the ambient temperature of their environment. Also referred to as cold-blooded.
Pond Levee: The wall of a pond which is constructed to hold in the water.
Predacious/Carnivorous Fish: A fish species that eats other fish.
Quality Assurance: A procedure used to increase evidence of safety and quality of farm-raised food fish species.
Raceway: A production system in which water flows through a series of troughs or tanks at relatively high flow rate. Smaller fish are usually stocked at the beginning of the raceway and larger fish stocked toward the end.
Recirculating, Reuse, Recycle Aquaculture Systems: The use of water more than one time for fish propagation. There may or may not be water treatment between uses and different rearing units may be involved.
Sea Water: Water containing from 3.0 to 3.5% total salts.
Slope: The change of height (rise) or a given distance (run). Slope is calculated as c2 = a2 + b2 where slope is c2.
Sodium Bicarbonate: A chemical compound (NaHCO3) used as a buffer in recirculating aquaculture systems.
Spawning (Hatchery Context): Act of obtaining eggs from female fish and sperm from male fish.
Stress: A state manifested by a syndrome or bodily change caused by some force, conditions, or circumstance (i.e., by a stressor) in or on an organism or on one of its physiological or anatomical systems. Any condition that forces an organism to expend more energy to maintain stability.
Urea: A nitrogenous waste product of mammals containing two nitrogen ions.
Warm Water Species: Generally, fish that spawn at temperatures above 60°F. The chief cultured warm water species are basses, sunfish, catfish, and minnows. See Cold Water Species; Cool Water Species.
Water Quality: As it relates to fish nutrition and general fish health, involves dissolved minerals, gases, suspended, and settleable solids found in fresh water.
Xanthophylls: A class of naturally occurring yellow and orange plant pigments added to fish feeds to enhance the color of skin pigments or muscle. In white flesh fish, xanthophylls impart an undesirable yellow color.
Yeast: A component of fish feed, especially for larvae feeding used for its high protein content.
Zooplankton: Minute animals in water, chiefly rotifers and crustaceans, that depend upon water movement to carry them about, having only weak capabilities for movement. They are important prey for young fish.
Zygote: Fertilized egg.