Knowra Mariculture Mariculture Mariculture is the cultivation of marine organisms in seawater, including fish, shellfish, and seaweed. It uses coastal or offshore systems to produce food, materials, and other products.
Aquaculture : The farming of aquatic organisms in freshwater, brackish water, or seawater. Mariculture is the marine-water branch of this broader farming practice.
Mariculture products : Goods produced by cultivating marine organisms, including seafood, seaweed, and biomaterials. These products connect marine farming to diets, manufacturing, and coastal economies.
Eutrophication : The enrichment of water with nutrients that can drive excessive algal growth and oxygen depletion. Uneaten feed and animal waste can add nutrients around intensive marine farms.
Wild fisheries : The capture of naturally occurring aquatic organisms for food or other uses. Mariculture grows organisms, whereas fisheries harvest them from wild populations.
Fish farming : The raising of fish under controlled conditions for food or other uses. Marine finfish are cultivated in cages, pens, and other systems.
Integrated multi-trophic aquaculture : A farming approach that combines species occupying different trophic levels to use nutrients from one another's production. It can pair fed fish with shellfish or seaweed that absorb waste nutrients.
Sea lice : Parasitic copepods that attach to fish, including farmed salmon and wild salmonids. Infestations at salmon farms can spread to migrating wild fish.
Freshwater aquaculture : The farming of aquatic organisms in freshwater environments. It shares farming methods with mariculture but uses water with much lower salinity.
Shellfish farming : The cultivation of mollusks and crustaceans for food and other products. Oysters, mussels, clams, and some crustaceans are common mariculture crops.
Sea ranching : The release of hatchery-raised organisms into natural waters for later capture or harvest. Unlike contained farming, it relies on growth and survival in open ecosystems.
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