Mariculture

June 17, 2008 -- Kingston RI
















Today we focused on learning more about Mariculture, the practice of raising seafood in marine environments. It really is agriculture in the seas. The reason this practice is so important is because capture fisheries, the fisheries we have relied on for so long to provide relatively cheap, high quality protein, has reached a peak and is most likely in decline due to over harvest, pollution, and other environmental insults. Fish farming on the other hand is increasing rapidly.

Approximately 41 million people make their living from fishing today, 11 million of them are engaged in aquaculture.

We learned about seaweed and half-pearl cultivation in Zanzibar Through these relatively new initiatives, women in Zanzibar have been able to earn money and they have learned to swim and developed other business skills. The group had an interesting and lively discussion about gender equity issues, cultural differences, and the advisability of trying to change the current cultural gender conditions. It is a complicated question, with a whole suite of issues to consider. In some cases, when women start becoming more productive in terms of economic activity, the men become less so. However, according to our peers from Tanzania, the reality is that this improved economic status for women is seen as a good thing all around and that the men do not feel threatened by the change. Gilbert says "Men are actually happy that women are earning extra money."

The other African example had to do with farming milkfish in ponds converted from the production of salt. It is an interesting case study because the practice has the potential to be lucrative for the farmers, but there is also the danger that farmers will convert mangrove forests into milkfish ponds. Because mangroves are so important ecologically, the impacts to the environment could be really bad.

The last of our indoor activities had to do with analyzing value chains. Value Chains represent the whole series of activities that products pass through from raw resources to ourchase by the end consumer. Each step along the way adds value and provides an entry point for possible revenue enhancement. The example we used to examine this concept further was the developing half pearl mariculture efforts in Zanzibar. Half pearls are easier to seed into adult oysters than whole pearls. As a result, the entry requirements to participate are lower and more people can potentially engage in half-pearl farming.

One of the things that CRC learned from doing a project with half-pearls in Zanzibar was that just focusing on getting production of a commodity started is not sufficient in developing countries. One also needs to consider other points along the value chain else the project will likely fail.


The last learning exercise for the day was to take a field trip down to the Matunuck Oyster Farm where we talkd first with the coastal program's aquaculture specialist about the permitting process for oyster farms, and then with Perry, the founder of the oyster farm. Perry then took us wading out into the oyster farm to show us his operation.

It was a great field trip. Perry was a master educator and kept our crew moving through the farm, our minds busy with taking in information and our curiosities engaged. Perry is the guy in the picture at the top of the blog entry. The oyster in the photo ended up in my belly a few seconds after Perry gave us a lesson in oyster shucking and anatomy. It was wonderfully briny and fresh tasting.

We ended the day with a dinner out at Chelos and lots of laughter. I've loaded a bunch more photos from today on my photo album for the class (see the 'my photo albums' link on the left-hand navigation bar.) Now it's late and I'm off to bed.

Ciao