GEO Brasil - UNEP

the State of Fishing Resowrces:
Fish Extraction and Agua culture
the state of environment in Brazil
among cultivated organisms and wild ones, the
dependence on world supplies of fish flours and oils
(basic ingredient for fish and carnivores feed), and the
conflicts related to the use of land and water On account
of this, producers have been suffering significant
pressures from public opinion and have started adopting
measures aimed at the sustainable development of their
activity, such as the use of less pollutant feeds, reduction
in the use of chemical products, preventive sanitation
measures, water recycling and reduction of animal origin
ingredients in their feeds These requirements suggest
different lines of research, especially those related to
“clean production technologies”, genetic improvement
of food products and quality in general (Carvalho &
Chamas, 1999)
On the other hand, people may ask why Brazil, a country
that has such great biodiversity, should need to introduce
exotic species in aquacultura Undoubtedly the answer lies
on our incipient knowledge of native species Although
there is an enormous amount of species that can be
potentially cultivated, only few have been studied and even
fewer could be considered reasonably domesticated and
possibly successful, considering currently available
technologies It is not by chance that the most widely
cultivated species in Brazil - marine carps, tilapias, trout,
shrimp and oysters - are also widely cultivated around the
world They are also the best studied species, and therefore
have clear production technology This highlights the
importance of not introducing or transporting other species
and the need to concentrate our efforts and resources to
define the most appropriate Brazilian fish for fish farming
Also, the market’s regional preferences and conditions
should be considered, besides the species’ intrinsic zootechnical
potential
In addition, there are a number of diseases caused by the
ingestion of badly prepared fish The World Health
Organisation (apud Cecarelli & Figueira, 1999) estimates
that 39 million people have been infected around the world
with parasites through the ingestion of freshwater fish and
crustaceans, either raw or improperly cooked These authors
ponder that, although the use of animal excrement in fish
farming has progressed a lot and contributes significantly
to fish production world-wide, one must never forget that
the these excrements contain a variety of virus pathogens,
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