An understanding of the principles of operation of capture and culture fisheries helps to throw light on the definition of aquaculture. The expressions capture and culture fisheries are self-explanatory. In the former, one reaps the aquatic harvest without having to sow, where as, in the latter, one has to sow the seed, nurse it, tend it, rear it and harvest it when it grows to marketable size.

The principles of management of capture and culture fisheries are very different from each other. In the case of capture fisheries one has to attempt to harvest maximum sustainable yield by regulating fishing effort and mesh after taking into account parameters of population dynamics such as rates of recruitment, natural and fishing mortalities, fish growth and size at which recruitment occurs.

Management of capture fisheries requires knowledge of the dynamics of the fish populations under exploitation. The extended exclusive economic zone of 200 miles brings into focus the national and international complexities of regulating the capture fisheries of the seas and the oceans and apportionment of the marine harvest because fish populations do not abide by man-made boundaries.

An understanding of the principles of operation of capture and culture fisheries helps to throw light on the definition of aquaculture. The expressions capture and culture fisheries are self-explanatory. In the former, one reaps the aquatic harvest without having to sow, whereas, in the latter, one has to sow the seed, nurse it, tend it, rear it and harvest it when it grows to marketable size.

Culture fisheries are usually carried out in small water bodies which can be manipulated, pre-prepared for stocking; which are often manured and/or fertilized before, during and after stcking; and/or where fish are fed from extraneous sources.

All shades of intermediate stages between true capture and culture fisheries exist such as in man-made-lakes, which are stocked extraneously but where no manuring, fertilizing and feeding are generally done. Stocking is often done in large water-bodies such as lagoons and rivers where natural stocks have undergone ‘depletion’.