Aquaculture and Fisheries as a Food Source in the Amazon Region - A Review

Abstract

This is a review of the importance of inland water fisheries and fish farming as a food source in the Amazon basin. Small-scale fisheries resources have been depleted and climate change poses a growing threat, failure to address the issues confronting the sector places the food safety and livelihoods of millions of people at risk. The governments should form partnerships with the communities for them to assist in managing the resources. The fishers would gain in this co-management but also have to assume responsibility for their decisions and actions. Co-management is always far better than no-management. From the landings, trade, and consumption of fish, it has been estimated that the total fish catch in the Amazon basin is above half a million tonnes/year in live weight. However, this figure is very rough given that 75 per cent of represented landings come from Brazil with no updated official statistics after 2010 on commercial landings. Aquaculture offers the largest potential to increase fish supplies in the long term but the rapid growth is unevenly distributed among countries. Three major aquaculture producers are Ecuador, Brazil and Colombia but Amazon basin aquaculture has some importance also in Peru. Aquaculture development in the region is facing many challenges including to combat against diseases and epizootics, the need for better hatchery and grow-out technology, brood stock improvement, appropriate and most economic feed production and water-quality management. This paper pays also attention to the unwanted spread of alien fish species often as escapees from aquaculture. Annual per capita fish consumption in kg/capita in the Amazon basin countries varies between 2.6-25.3 kg/year, the three leading countries being Guyana, Peru and Suriname. The consumption is fairly low compared to the European Union and the global averages which are around 27 and 22 kg/capita/year, respectively. However, in all Amazonian countries, 50 up to almost 100 per cent of artisanal freshwater fishing takes place for personal consumption, implying that it may not be fully recorded in official consumption statistics. Ornamental fish culture and trade have had an important role in the Amazon basin countries, the three biggest producers and exporters of aquarium fish being Brazil, Colombia and Peru. In 2008 economic crisis hit Brazil and started the decline of the ornamental fish trade. One reason for the decrease in the trade was the competition with neighbouring Colombia and Peru with less bureaucratic systems and fewer restrictions on which species can be exported. International pressure to stop the commerce of wild-caught fish intensified and the increase of husbandry practices and reproduction in Southeast Asia caused the downturn of the Brazilian Amazonian market. Thousands of families lost their livelihoods and many fishermen were forced to start working in sport fishing and commercial fisheries. Sport fishing is a hobby for those to whom money or fish food is not the main object but more important is to get a good phot...

Evolution and Prospects of Freshwater Fish Species and Aquaculture in Colombia: A Historical Perspective

“…In 2013 aquaculture produced almost 88,000 tonnes of fish for local consumption and export and in 2014 already 100,000 tonnes [112]. The same trend seems to continue as in 2020 total aquaculture production in Colombia was already 179,351 tonnes and in the next year 192,521 tonnes, the annual growth rate being 7.3 per cent [113]. The sector is largely dominated by inland freshwater pisciculture and small-scale farmers produce about a third of the total volume.…”