Pond Fisheries

F. Martyshev

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9781138440715
• eBook ISBN:
  9781000154092
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Agriculture
• Index: Technology & Engineering

A comprehensive study of pond fisheries. Topics include the organisation and construction of fish ponds, production processes in fish farms for warmwater carp and cold-water trout, and irrigation networks and reservoirs constructed for multipurpose exploitation.

PART I

INTRODUCTION

Due to the steady rise in population throughout the world, considerable attention is being given to the problems of increasing protein resources and enhancing the biological value of different food products. Hence it is not by chance that pond fisheries have come under intensive study.

The area under fish ponds and fish yields are increasing, pisciculture technology is improving, and fish farming becoming accepted as a branch of agriculture.

Fish as a fairly valuable item of human nutrition is gaining greater recognition. The world catch of fish in 1969 was 57.5 million tons, with the specific weight of fish 45% higher, and the world production of meat of homoiothermal animals, including culled birds, tallow, and by-products in dressed weight was 127.7 million tons.

A significant part of a fish catch is subjected to one or another kind of processing, which reduces the nutritional value. From this point of view, the requirements of the consumer, which can be met to some extent by fresh, and to a greater extent by live fish, are assured by fresh-water resources, primarily fish ponds.

The increasing demand for proteinic food has made it necessary to exploit more completely and efficiently the waters available, especially those inland. Inland waters throughout the world comprise about 500 million hectares, yet the total production of this area is only 70 million quintals of fish or 15% of the total world catch, excluding catches of immature fish and miscellaneous angling.

The demand for fish as a nutritious food for man is increasing with each passing year. Simultaneously, inland resources in general and fish ponds in particular are being threatened by pollution from industrial effluents and toxic chemicals.

The widespread use of chemicals for plant and animal protection has led to a disruption in the biological balance in nature and a need has arisen for its restoration.

Often chemicals, especially hexachlorane, used for controlling harmful insects and in leaching waste water in ponds, have an adverse effect on the fish population. N.E. Kononiva, who studied the effect of chemical treatment of forests on wildlife in Ukrainian SSR, came to the conclusion that for trout, especially those living in man-controlled waters, exposure to high doses (200 kg/ha) of mineral-oil emulsion (DDT and hexachloro-cyclohexane or HCCH) is dangerous. In the absence of water replacement this emulsion leads to mortality among trout of all age groups, while in running waters it leads to a total mortality among young fish and a partial mortality among older ones.

In the USA, in 15 tributaries of the Alabama and Tennessee Rivers all the fishes died due to chlorinated hydrocarbons running off of fields (DDT, etc.). A total mortality of salmon was recorded in four large Canadian rivers as a result of spraying forests with chemicals. The widespread use of DDT in the USA as an insecticide has more than once led to mass mortality of small birds, fishes, and other animals. The residual effects of DDT and HCCH, spread over areas surrounding water resources, were recorded not only in the body of fish which had died, but also in fish which had survived the treatment. The fish died not only as a result of direct treatment of the water resources, but also as a result of insecticides washed by precipitation from the plants entering the ground water. Oil emulsions (polychloropinene, DDT, HCCH) are very toxic in nature.

Pesticides and insecticides of the DDT type, and toxaphene, heptachlor, and others have been detected in most of the large surface waters of the USA. In the course of field treatment these chemicals enter rivers and other water resources. Cases of pollution with insecticides and pesticides of ground water have also been reported. These substances have a cumulative property, as a result of which they gradually accumulate in the tissues of various hydrobionts. There have been cases of human poisoning due to the consumption of fish caught from waters polluted with insecticides.

Thus the widespread and annually increasing use of poisonous chemicals, especially DDT and other chlorinated compounds of carbon, has led to environmental pollution and a reduction in the number of beneficial, sometimes endemic, organisms, posing a serious threat not only to animals but also to man. The increasing pollution of soil and water must therefore be taken into account in the exploitation of ponds and other waters for the purpose of fish farming.

Various types of growth stimulants should also be used with caution until their effects on the water resource and its various populations, in addition to fish, and on man in consuming the same, have been thoroughly investigated.

The General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, L.I. Brezhnev, in one of his speeches said: “… an economic and rational use of natural resources, a concern for the earth, for the forests, for the rivers and clean air, and for the plant and animal kingdom—all these constitute a sincere communistic concern.”¹ The IVth Session of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (1972) was devoted exclusively to this problem.

The pond fisheries of the USSR have all the requisite conditions for large-scale development by collective and state enterprises. The main task before this branch of economy is to rear fish in specially adapted reservoirs, ponds, and small and floodland lakes to supply them to the people at various times for consumption in live or fresh form, since the fresher the fish the greater its nutritional value. From time immemorial fresh-water fish have been relished by the people. This need can be fully met with a wide assortment of fish if the problem of developing pond fisheries in the country is approached properly. With the passage of each year this problem has gained recognition, so much so that it is now an important State concern.

Essentially, the production processes of pond fisheries constitute a branch of agriculture. The methods of fish cultivation have much in common with the methods of rearing farm animals.

The development of pond fisheries as a branch of agriculture is determined by the fact that the foundation of socialistic agricultural exploitation of the land is based not only on the soil, but also on large expanses of water. It is known that water resources are extremely important for agricultural crops, especially in arid regions. Using such resources additionally for pisciculture is one way of increasing their profitability.

It is commonly stated that fish is an agricultural commodity; however, this statement is often disputed as it is generally considered that farm animals comprise cow, horse, pig, and so on. The affiliation with agriculture developed from the time man changed from simple fish catching to culturing fish in ponds and other waters used for agriculture. By constructing special ponds and providing proper conditions for growth, development, and feeding of fish, man treats them in the same manner as any other farm animal.

With each passing year the need for a wider development of pond fisheries is better appreciated. Gone are the days when the fish requirements of people could be met by angling alone, without the participation of man in the regeneration of fish stocks. The time has come for a greater preoccupation with fish cultivation, especially in those numerous water resources located within the boundaries of collective and state enterprises.

The XXIV Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in projecting the Five Year Plan for the development of the economy of the USSR during the period 1971 to 1975, made a provision for increasing fish production in the state fish farms by 2.7 times. Thus the development of pond fisheries in terms of agricultural production must be ensured.

Fisheries occupy a major position in the national economy and their role is increasing year after year since fish is a source of the proteins essential to man. The meat of such widely distributed culturable fish as c...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Preface
• Table of Contents
• Part I
• Part II
• Part III
• List of Basic References