SEAFDEC DATABASE

a. Coverage and Definition
Aquaculture means the farming of aquatic organisms including fish, mollusks, crustaceans, echinoderms, and aquatic
plants. Farming implies some forms of intervention in the rearing process to enhance production, such as regular
stocking, feeding and protection from predators, etc. Farming also implies individual or cooperate ownership of or
rights resulting from contractual arrangements to the stock being cultivated primarily for livelihood and business
activities. For statistics purposes, aquatic organisms harvested by an individual or corporation, which has owned
them throughout their rearing period, contribute to aquaculture; whereas aquatic organisms exploited by the public
as a common property resources, with or without appropriate licenses, are the capture fisheries.
Considering the different ecology and resources in aquaculture, the statistics on aquaculture could be classified into
three sub-sectors, namely: mariculture, brackishwater culture, and freshwater culture. The distinction between these
categories should be based on culture environment where the aquatic organism is farmed or cultivated. Considering
aquaculture production, some aquatics species can be cultured in various environments, e.g. Java barb, tilapia,
milkfish, etc., its production then could be reported in more than one sub-sector.

b.1 Unit of Measurement
1) Production in quantity
Production in quantity represents the weight at farm gate. Production in quantity should be reported in metric tons, except those expressed in numbers. If production is reported in kilograms, this should be converted into metric tons estimated by rounding off to the nearest hundredths.
2) Production in value Production in value represents the producers’ price at farm gate. It is generally estimated by multiplying the quantity of production by the farm gate price by species. In reporting production in value, the amount reported in the national currencies should be converted to US$.
b.2 Statistics on Aquaculture Production Aquaculture production means the output of farmed aquatic organisms either for final consumption or as raw materials for transformation into other products or for trade. It includes commodities quantified by numbers rather than by weight such as ornamental fishes and hatchery outputs. The statistics on production could be classified into the following categories:
1) Production by culture environment
The statistics on production should be based on the culture environment where the aquatic organism was cultivated, such as mariculture, brackishwater culture and freshwater culture. One species can be reported in more than one type of environment depending on its tolerance and the culture status in each country.
2) Production by species
Production from aquaculture could be broken down by species from all types of culture environments in the Southeast Asian region. The list of species is provided in Appendix 3 and could be referred to from the List of Aquatic Animals and Plants in Southeast Asia.
3) Production by methods of culture
To facilitate aquaculture management, the production statistics should be reported by methods of culture such as ponds, pens, paddy field or paddy cum fish, etc. The definition of each method is described below: