2 Production trends in fisheries and aquaculture

The Asia-Pacific region continues to be the world's largest producer of fish. In 2004, this amounted to 87.1 million tonnes - 46.7 million tonnes from capture fisheries and 40.4 million tonnes from aquaculture [total aquaculture production less aquatic plants]. This represents 49 percent and 89 percent of the global production, respectively. When aquatic plants are included in the total aquaculture figures, aquaculture production outstrips that of capture fisheries for the first time (total aquaculture production of 54.3 million tonnes and 91 percent of the world's production).

Capture fisheries increased by 3 percent over that of 2002 (driven mainly by growth in Southeast Asia) and 14 percent for total aquaculture (driven mainly by growth in China and Southeast Asia). Of the top ten producers of capture fish, five States were from the Asia-Pacific region (China (1^st), Indonesia (5^th), Japan (6^th), India (7^th) and Thailand (9^th). For aquaculture, China alone is reported to have produced 70 percent of the world's aquaculture production (about four times greater than Peru's fisheries production, the number two fishery producer worldwide).

The fisheries of the Asia-Pacific region are dominated by pelagic species - in many sub-regions it is small pelagics that are the dominant group. The proportion of low value/trash fish is increasing in many areas, a trend that is meeting the growing demand for these fish for livestock/aquaculture feeds. Freshwater fish dominates aquaculture production. As expected, there is considerable variation in general trends among the five main sub-regions of Asia and the Pacific. Production from China, South Asia and Southeast Asia continues to grow. Capture fisheries production from Japan, Korea DPR and Korea RO have shown a steady decline over many years, while aquaculture production has remained relatively stable. Oceania's production is minor compared with the other sub-regions, but continues to increase, although many of the fisheries in the Pacific small island developing States, that operate at a subsistence level, are not recorded.

2.1 Capture fisheries production in the Asia-Pacific region

Production from the Asia-Pacific region's capture fisheries has increased by 1.3 million tonnes since 2002 and totalled 46.7 million tonnes in 2004. This represents an overall 3 percent increase over that of 2002. Inland capture fisheries have increased by 5 percent while that of marine capture fisheries increased by only 2.5 percent.

The region has been the world's largest producer of fish for decades, and contributed 49 percent of global production in 2004. Of the top ten producers of capture fish in the world, five States come from the Asia-Pacific area, namely China PR (1^st), Indonesia (5^th), Japan (6^th), India (7^th) and Thailand (9th). Total capture fisheries production has steadily increased since 1950, mainly from the marine capture fisheries sector (Figure 2). In inland waters, the regional share has had a minor decrease to 64.1 percent.

China PR is still by far the largest producer in the region with a reported production of 16.9 million tonnes in 2004, representing 37 percent of regional production. This is more than three times greater than the second largest producer in the region - Indonesia. Because of this enormous scale of production, China¹ is treated as a distinct sub-region in this review.

With the exception of China, total capture fishery production from marine waters peaked in 1989 at 25.5 million tonnes and then gradually declined. However, there appears to have been a gradual increase in recent years and has almost reached the same level of 1989 again, i.e. 25.2 million tonnes in 2004.

As seen in Figure 3, Southeast Asia has continued to increase production and has maintained the largest share (excluding China) of the APFIC region since 1994. Growth in South Asia has occurred but is relatively slow. The "other Asia" sub-region used to be the top contributor to the region, but has experienced a serious and continuous decline in production since 1988.

The recent increase in marine capture fisheries over figures for 2002 has occurred mainly in Southeast Asia, in particular Indonesia (12 percent increase), Philippines (9.5 percent), Viet Nam (10 percent), Myanmar (10 percent). Major increases in catch have also occurred in many of the previously minor producers in the Pacific such as the Cook Islands, Papua New Guinea, Tuvalu and Vanuatu that have all witnessed increases of over 50 percent as a result of an increasing share of the tuna catch. Major decreases have been reported by India (-5.1 percent), Korea RO (-6.0 percent), New Zealand (-6.35 percent) and Pakistan (-7.7 percent).

In inland waters, global capture fisheries production,² in general, has increased and its reported growth in the late 1990s was remarkable. However, it was during this period that a change in the way several States estimated their inland fisheries production occurred and it is likely that earlier production was underestimated. Myanmar has recently reported considerable increase in its inland fisheries production which is attributed to increased enhancement, but also due to improved understanding of the production from the "inn" fisheries (concession fisheries). Even today, there is considerable uncertainty about inland production figures - for example, Coates³ estimated that production from Southeast Asia was possibly under-reported by a factor of between 2.5 and 3.6.

Total inland production of the region in 2004 was reported as 5.9 million tonnes. The increase over that of 2 002 has come mainly from Myanmar (78.2 percent), China PR (0.1 percent but still a relatively large quantity), Bangladesh (6.3 per cent) and India (3.8 percent). Large decreases were reported in Cambodia (-30.6 percent), Viet Nam (-35.6 percent), Pakistan (-5.9 percent) and Laos P.R (-10.9 percent). South Asia and Southeast Asia contributed the greatest production compared with other sub-regions. (Figure 3).

The proportion of low value/trash fish is increasing throughout much of the region. In this report, this term refers to fish that are generally of relatively low economic value and typically small sized. They can be used for either human consumption or as animal feeds (both fish and livestock). They may be used directly in both aquaculture to feed other fish or processed into fish meal/oil for incorporation into formulated diets. In human food, the fish may be consumed directly, or further processed often using traditional methods of processing small fish.

Unfortunately there are very few records of the amount of low value/trash fish currently being taken in the APFIC region. This is partly due to the fact that the term "trash fish" is used to mean different things in different States making reporting difficult - in some States it only refers to fish that is used for livestock/fish food, while in others it covers both livestock/fish food and human food. This broad range of use of the term means that it is difficult to agree on a common generic term and definition.

Recent reviews of low value/trash fish have been carried out in Bangladesh, China PR, India, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand.⁴ Use was also made of a similar study carried out by the Australian Centre for Agriculture Research (ACIAR) in Viet Nam.⁵ A summary of the estimates of the amount of low value/trash fish being caught in these countries (no estimate was available for Indonesia) is presented in Table 4.

The percentage of low value/trash fish recorded in these countries ranged from 4 percent to 38 percent of the total marine capture landings. In some regions of Viet Nam, Thailand and China PR the percentage was in excess of 50 percent, especially in areas where low value/trash fish are being targeted. The weighted average percentage across the region was 25 percent.

A very approximate "back of the envelope" was used to trace the flow of fish products through to (i) direct human use and (ii) indirect human use through aquaculture. For 2003, the recorded Asian capture fishery landings was about 39.3 million tonnes (for all carnivorous and omnivorous fish and excluding molluscs and seaweeds) and the latest estimate for discarding is 1.8 percent (i.e. 720 000 tonnes), giving a total capture figure of 40.0 million tonnes.

Figure 2
Trends in global capture production

Figure 3
Trends in capture production by sub-region outside China

Table 4
Estimates of low value/trash fish production in Asia-Pacific (tonnes)

Applying a 25 percent low value/trash fish factor to the landed catch gives a figure of 9.8 million tonnes being used for livestock/fish, and 29.5 million tonnes being used directly for human consumption. The total aquaculture from Asia for all fish excluding molluscs and seaweeds is estimated as 28.0 million tonnes. From these figures, it is clear that the diversion of marine fish via aquaculture is providing a very significant proportion (approximately 50 percent) of the total fish provided to humans (both within Asia and exported to other more developed countries). An increasing proportion of this is high-valued carnivorous species and increasingly dependent on imported fish meal/oil.

Just looking at total capture fishery production, however, masks considerable differences in the trends of the main species groups (Figure 4). Demersal marine fish peaked at 6.4 million tonnes as early as 1974 and then declined to the lowest level at 4.4 million tonnes in 1991. Production then levelled off and was up to 4.5 million tonnes in 2004.

Pelagic marine fish peaked at 11.8 million tonnes in 1988 and subsequently decreased to the production levels seen in the early 1980s. In 2004 it was 9.9 million tonnes. Other species groups such as freshwater/diadromous fish, crustaceans and cephalopods have grown steadily while mollusc production has levelled off at around 800 thousand tonnes.

It is important to realise that the region's catch is dominated by pelagic marine species and in many sub-regions by small pelagic species (e.g. Japanese jack mackerel, Japanese anchovy, chub mackerel, Pacific saury, Indian oil sardine, Indian mackerels and scads).

The top twenty species in the region (Table 5), however, show considerable changes in the rankings over time. It is significant that the reduction in catch of single dominant species such as Alaska pollock⁶ in the early 1970s and chub mackerel⁷ in the late 1970s resulted in changes in relative ranking of large pelagic marine species (i.e. skipjack tuna and yellowfin tuna) in 2000 that has carried through to 2004. When the Chinese figures are included, the large catches of largehead hairtail (1.6 million tonnes), akiami paste shrimp Acetes spp.) (681 thousand tonnes) and Japanese Spanish mackerel (428 thousand tonnes) increases their importance in the overall rankings.

Unfortunately, there is still a considerable capture production that is not identified to the species level but recorded as marine/freshwater fishes nei,⁸ marine/freshwater molluscs nei and marine/ freshwater crustaceans nei. The quantity reported under these categories has for some sub-regions been increasing significantly in recent years, which indicates a worrying trend in available statistical quality. In 2004, 14.3 million tonnes or 31 percent of capture production was not identified to species, order, or family level. It is notable that China PR has improved its reporting on individual species. The reporting on nei species has been reduced by almost 3 million tonnes or from 47 percent on reported capture production in 2002 to 31 percent in 2004.

2.2 Aquaculture production in the Asia-Pacific region

The Asia-Pacific region produced 40.4 million tonnes of aquaculture - 89 percent of global aquaculture production (total aquaculture production less aquatic plants). In terms of value, the region's share is slightly less, but is still 78 percent of total value of global aquaculture. When aquatic plant production is included (the vast majority of which originates in the Asia-Pacific area), the region becomes even more dominant, representing 91 percent of global aquaculture production by quantity and 80 percent by value.

The growth of aquaculture production in the region has continued to be very strong, reflecting the trend for the last ten years. This results mainly from continuously increasing production from China PR.⁹ Between 2002 and 2004, production in China PR increased by 4.7 million tonnes (12.8 percent). In terms of tonnage other countries that showed large increases included Viet Nam (68 percent), Philippines (28 percent), Indonesia (28 percent), India (13 percent), Thailand (22.9 percent), Myanmar (110 percent) and Korea RO (2 0 percent). Both inland culture and mariculture showed steady growth but the growth rate of the inland culture sector was more rapid (Figure 5).

Figure 4
Trends in capture production by species group outside China

Table 5
Top twenty capture production species in the Asia-Pacific region

Unit: 1 000 tonnes

Table 6
Top ten aquaculture producer States in (2004) (excluding aquatic plant production)

Figure 5
Trends in global aquaculture production

Figure 6
Trends in aquaculture production of the Asia-Pacific region by environment

China¹⁰ alone reported to have produced 41.7 million tonnes or 71 percent of the world aquaculture production in 2004 (including aquatic plants). This enormous scale of aquaculture production in China can be compared with the total fisheries production of Peru, the world's second largest fisheries producer after China PR, which was 9.6 million tonnes in 2004 (including both capture and aquaculture). This was still less than one quarter of China PR aquaculture production alone (including aquatic plants). Since China PR is such a predominant producer, the scale of reported production can mask other regional trends and China¹¹ is treated separately in this report.

If we exclude China, the Asia-Pacific region still remains an important production area for aquaculture, exhibiting steady growth regardless of the culture environment. In particular, inland culture more than doubled its production from 1 885 thousand tonnes in 1990 to 5 629 thousand tonnes in 2004. Such advances far exceed the growth of aquaculture in the rest of the world ( Figure 6 ).

There has been little change in the top twenty cultured species¹² in the region between 1990 and 2004 (excluding aquatic plants and molluscs). The top species are all inland waters species, which are dominated by Chinese and Indian carps.

It is worth noting that the number of carnivorous species has increased during the past ten years. In marine waters, major cultured species are generally dominated by high-valued carnivorous species such as penaeid shrimp, jacks and sea breams. Production of crabs as well as the White leg shrimps have made significant advances in recent years. White leg shrimp are now the top production species (Table 7).

2.3 Status and trends by sub-regions

FAO (2004)¹³ estimated that Asia accounted for 87 percent of the total global number of persons engaged in fisheries and aquaculture production (total 38 million). These figures typically represent full time fisheries and those for whom fishing is a highly significant activity and full time aquaculture farmers. The figures for people involved in fisheries seasonally or as a supplemental part of a more diverse livelihood are difficult to estimate and are often not.

South Asia - capture fisheries

The South Asian sub-region showed continuous growth from 1980-2002 but has tended to level off in recent years. It nearly doubled its capture production from 3.1 million tonnes in 1980 to 5.8 million tonnes in 2004 (Figure 7). Most of the overall growth resulted from production in marine waters, but South Asia has the largest share of inland capture production (30 percent of total capture fisheries production) among sub-regions in the Asia-Pacific area. After remaining relatively stable during late 1970s and 1980s, inland production grew rapidly from the early 1990s. It reached the highest level of production at 1.9 million tonnes in 2001 but showed a sharp decrease in 2002 for the first time in the past ten years, but has started to increase again.

In comparison with top production species of other sub-regions, the combination of South Asian species is unique in the sense that freshwater species (Cyprinids nei: 5^th), diadromous species (Hilsa shad: 2^nd), demersal species (Croakers/ drums: 3^rd), crustaceans (Natantian decapods: 4^th) and pelagic species (Indian oil sardine: 1^st) are all ranked high in the list (Table 8).

Table 7
Top twenty cultured species in Asia-Pacific region by quantity

Unit: 1 000 tonnes

* Coloured cells indicate carnivorous species ** Excluding aquatic plants and molluscs

Table 8
South Asia capture fisheries production, top ten species

Among marine species, both pelagic fishes and demersal fishes showed almost parallel increasing trends with similar levels of production in 2004 (1 195 thousand tonnes and 1 043 thousand tonnes, respectively). Freshwater fish and diadromous fish have been the number one production group for the last four decades (except in 1992) and achieved very rapid growth in the 1990s. Crustacean production has been relatively stable and production levels of molluscs including cephalopods in this area have been very low (Figure 8).

South Asia - aquaculture

South Asia's production almost tripled from 1 230 thousand tonnes in 1990 to 3 423 thousand tonnes in 2004. The majority of production comes from inland waters and hence the growth of the sector has been mostly due to increasing freshwater culture (Figure 9).

Although Indian carps (Rohu, Catla and Mrigal carp) have been the main group cultured in the region, there have been notable increases in the production of introduced Chinese carps in recent years. Silver carp production has also increased almost five-fold in two years (1999-2001) and became the top cultured species in 2001 for the first time. Since then, the production has declined by half. On the other hand, common carp production recorded very rapid increases since 2000 but shows a continuous increasing trend (Figure 10).

Marine crustacean production, mostly comprised of Penaeid shrimp, has increased steadily and reached 178 thousand tonnes in 2004. In general, the level of diversification of cultured species is relatively low in this area and there has been very limited or no reported marine finfish production.

Southeast Asia - capture fisheries

Production growth in Southeast Asia has also been very strong for the past four decades with marine capture production increasing linearly through this period to a level of 15 million tonnes in 2004 (total capture production).

Inland production appears to have levelled out and reached 1.5 million tonnes in 2004. Considering the rich freshwater resources in the area, it is thought that a figure of only 11 percent of total production¹⁴ coming from inland waters is probably an underestimate for this sub-region (Figure 11).

The main species groups are the pelagic marine fish group and marine fish nei group. Both keep growing strongly and are a major driving force of the overall production growth (Figure 12). Freshwater/diadromous fish, demersal fish, crustaceans and cephalopods showed similar increasing trends, maintaining nearly the same share of production. The proportion of unidentified marine fish (marine fish nei) is still notably high (31 percent of total production) in this sub-region.

Eight of the top ten production species are marine pelagic fishes and the top three ranks are dominated by the small pelagic fish group (scads, Indian mackerels, and sardinellas) (Table 9). The large pelagic fish group (skipjack tuna, carangids, tuna-like fishes, frigate and bullet tunas) also feature relatively high in the rankings.

Figure 13
Aquaculture production of Southeast Asia: proportion of major species groups

Figure 14
Trends in aquaculture production of Southeast Asia by major species groups

Southeast Asia - aquaculture

Aquaculture production in Southeast Asia is very diversified. In terms of value, highly priced crustaceans have an increased share of 47 percent of the total production, followed by freshwater fish at 41 percent (Figure 13).

Freshwater finfish culture has increased from 564 thousand tonnes in 1990 to 2 305 thousand tonnes in 2004, with an average annual increment of 124 thousand tonnes. In the mariculture sub-sector, aquatic plants have shown a surprisingly strong production growth. Crustaceans have been a major cultured species throughout the sub-region, but growth is slowing (Figure 14).

Zanzibar weed (Eucheuma cottonii) is still the most widely cultured aquatic plant in the region with a production of 1 070 thousand tonnes in 2004. Apart from aquatic plants, Giant tiger shrimp (Penaeus monodon) is maintaining the position of top produced species, although very recently the massive increase in production of White leg shrimp (P. vannamei) is starting to challenge this position.

China - capture fisheries

Three periods that show distinct trends (Figure 15) can be seen in the Chinese statistics. The first period, 1950 to 1985, has relatively low rates of growth, and all species groups exhibited very similar patterns, albeit with some annual fluctuations. In the second period, 1986 to 1998, China reported very rapid and substantial growth in production in almost all types of capture fisheries. Between 1993 and 1997, annual increments of total production always exceeded one million tonnes (the highest annual increment was 1.7 million tonnes in 1995). Subsequent to this amazing period, the third period started with the introduction of the zero growth policy in 1998; total production started to decline for the first time in almost twenty years with the degree of decline higher in marine production than in inland production.

Most species groups showed similar rapid growth trends during the second period. However, trends in the third period varied widely. The proportion of marine fish nei group declined sharply, whilst the crustacean group continued to grow. During this period, molluscs maintained the same production level (Figure 16).

Largehead hairtail and Japanese anchovy catches were extremely high in 2004 with both species exceeding one million tonnes (Table 10). A second group includes a variety of species group such as small pelagic fish (scads and chub mackerel), large pelagic fish (Japanese Spanish mackerel), bentho-pelagic fish (silver pomfrets), demersal fish (golden threadf in bream), crustaceans (akiami paste shrimp and gazami crab) and cephalopods.

Notable differences in the Chinese production figures compared with other sub-regions include:

• Remarkably high proportion of crustaceans in (15.3 percent in 2004) compared to those of other sub-regions. Proportions of crustaceans in Southeast Asia, South Asia and other Asia were 5.8 percent, 9.4 percent and 3.8 percent respectively.
• Although diminishing, a large quantity of production is reported as unidentified large groupings that far exceed that of the other sub-regions. Total quantity reported under these groups was 5.5 million tonnes in 2004 representing 30.0 percent of the Chinese total capture production (Table 11).
• A much smaller amount of small pelagic fish in the catch compared with other sub-regions, especially South Asia.

Figure 17
Trends in aquaculture production of China by environment

• Consistently high catch of some major species such as the largehead hairtail that hasn't shown any signs of decreasing.

Detailed statistics for the Xianshan County in the Zhejiang Province of China PR have been made available through sample surveys carried out in 2002/03. The total catch, based on the survey data, was 324 thousand tonnes from June 2002 to May 2003, of which 78 percent came from pair trawling, 8 percent from shrimp beam trawling, 7 percent from drift gill nets, 6 percent from otter trawling, 1 percent from crab-cage fishing and 0.35 percent from purse seining.

A comparison with official statistics for the county showed that for some gears, such as pair trawls and otter trawls, the official statistics were over­ estimated by about 20 percent but for other gears including beam trawls, crab-cage fishing and purse seine, the official statistics were under-reported. The total sample survey estimate for 6 gears was 92 percent of the total official figures for all gears the county.

Break down by gear and species showed the extremely large catch taken by pair trawlers in this area of China PR (250 thousand tonnes from June 2002 to May 2003). Otter trawls, shrimp beam trawls and drift gillnets also all recorded catches in excess of 20 thousand tonnes for the same sample period. The dominance of some species such as largehead hairtail and butterfish from pair trawls is also very marked, (96 thousand tonnes and 27.5 thousand tonnes, respectively). Pair trawlers also caught large quantities of juvenile Spanish mackerel, and chub mackerel, with a very large number of other species making up the rest of the catch.

Large yellow croaker fetched the highest market price, but because largehead hairtail was caught in such large quantities and fetched a reasonable price, this was the most valuable species (33 percent of the total value of the fishery).

The study also identified that about 27 percent of the catch was reported as unsorted fish by the skipper of the vessel (low value/trash species). About 16 percent of this was for human consumption and 11 percent for aquaculture feed. Both categories contained, on average, about twenty species, but the species composition differed between different vessels and different trips. Otter trawls were found to be targeting unsorted species during the spring period.

China - aquaculture

As reported above, China's aquaculture production has now reached 41.7 million tonnes or 70 percent of the world aquaculture production in 2004 (including aquatic plants). Growth in inland culture has continued, mainly from increased production of finfish culture, which is being achieved through the intensification of existing systems rather than any significant increase in production area. Growth in production from marine waters has been driven by molluscs and aquatic plants (Figure 17).

The production of most cultured species continued to increase. However, there are a number of species worth highlighting, as follows:

Japanese kelp (Laminaria japonica) : its production growth is remarkable; increasing from 1 222 thousand tonnes in 1990 to 4 208 thousand tonnes in 2002 with a minor decline to 4 006 thousand tonnes in 2004.

Miscellaneous aquatic plants_: this massive volume of aquatic plants is not reported at the species level. However, production jumped from 196 thousand tonnes in 1990 to 3 931 thousand tonnes in 2002. China PR has improved the reporting at species level since 2003 and the figure has decreased to 2 538 thousand tonnes in 2004. As a result of the improved reporting by China PR, Wakame (Undaria pinnatifida) has become the second largest cultured plant with a total of 2 196 thousand tonnes in 2004.

Pacific cupped oyster_: this is another cultured species that has made outstanding growth; increasing from 503 thousand tonnes in 1990 up to 3 751 thousand tonnes in 2004. Mollusc production is also difficult to intensify and increased production suggests developments of new production areas as in the case of aquatic plants (Figure 18).

Carnivorous species: Rapid growth in production of high value carnivorous species such as mandarin fish, Chinese river crab and marine finfish started to occur since 1995. Many of the carnivorous species show very similar patterns of growth in production (Figure 19).

Other Asia - capture fisheries

Total production increased towards its peak production of 14.9 million tonnes in 1986, and thereafter decreased steadily (Figure 20).

During the late 1960s to early 1970s, demersal fish became the most important production group with a very rapid growth rate, achieving a three-fold increase in fifteen years (Figure 21). It started to decline, however, after the peak production of five million tonnes in 1974, gradually at first, but with a sharp decline after 1976. The current level of demersal fish production is now as low as in the early 1950s. This reduction was compensated for by increased production of marine pelagic fish until 1988, but then a similar decline to that of demersal fish production occurred. Current production levels have dropped to 3 million tonnes, similar to those of the early 1970s.

In terms of major production species, pelagic species predominate in this area. It is also notable that there is high production of cephalopods (Japanese flying squid) and molluscs (Yesso scallop) (Table 12).

Aquatic plants continue to be a predominant part of aquaculture in other Asia, particularly in East Asian States. They account for 52 percent of total production. This is followed by molluscs (29 percent) and marine finfish (11 percent). However, the high economic value of marine finfish makes this species group the largest contributor in terms of value, constituting 42 percent of total production value (Figure 22).

Aquaculture production in this region has been very stable; most of the major species groups have been maintained at the current level of production for the last ten years. The only exception to this is aquatic plant production, which peaked in 1993 at 2.3 million tonnes and then decreased by almost 35 percent to 1.5 million tonnes in 2004 (Figure 23).

It is notable that the percentage of carnivorous fish to total fish production is very high in this sub-region (82 percent in 2004) compared with South Asia, Southeast Asia and China, which all have levels below 10 percent.

Oceania - capture fisheries

Oceania's capture production also consists mainly of fish taken from marine waters, but unlike other Asia it has continued to increase (Figure 24). Capture fisheries are often subsistence fisheries in many small island States and production may not be well represented in the official statistics. General trends in production are basically determined by a few larger States such as Australia and New Zealand with well established commercial fisheries sectors, with the exception of offshore pelagic fisheries. Rapid growth of pelagic marine fish production from the late 1990's has mainly come from Skipjack tuna in Papua New Guinea (Figure 25). Commercial offshore production has also increased in many small island States and contributed to the increase in total production.

Many of the top ten species produced from capture fisheries in Oceania (Table 13) are mainly from the temperate waters of New Zealand and Australia.

Oceania - aquaculture

Aquaculture production from the small island States is relatively limited. The aggregated production of all island States was 19 585 tonnes in 2002 (less than one percent of aquaculture production in the Asia-Pacific region) and seems to have declined even further to 7 723 tonnes in 2004.

Figure 22
Aquaculture production in other Asia: proportion of major species groups

Figure 23
Trends in aquaculture production of other Asia by major species groups

Figure 24
Trends in capture production of Oceania by environment

Figure 25
Capture production of Oceania by major species groups

Table 13
Oceania capture fisheries production, top ten species

Seaweed, clams, penaeid shrimp, tilapia and milkfish are the main cultured groups. In terms of value, two commodities from three States dominate the value of commercial aquaculture production in region. They are cultured black pearl from French Polynesia and the Cook Islands and shrimp from New Caledonia.

Live reef fish, aquarium fish and pearls bring significant income to some Pacific Islands, although relatively low in quantity. Although the target species are mostly caught from the wild, there is an increasing desire for culture-based sources. Giant clam culture for the ornamental trade is widespread throughout the region and the total export is probably in the range of 30 000-50 000 pieces/annum. The Pacific is also a major supplier of "live rock" (rock encrusted with coralline algae) with approximately 50 000 pieces of live rock currently being cultured in the Fiji.

Eucheuma cottonii seaweed (Zanzibar weed) culture is well established in the Kiribati atolls and is being rejuvenated in the Solomon Islands and EtjL

Interest in inland freshwater aquaculture is growing, particularly amongst the larger Melanesian States such as Fiji and Papua New Guinea. At present the most commonly farmed species are tilapia, common carp and Macrobrachium prawns.

New Zealand and Australia have shown a steady growth in aquaculture production through increased production of finfish species. Major cultured species of these States were marine molluscs, salmonids and tunas.

¹ In this document, "China" refers to the sub-region that includes China PR, Hong Kong SAR, Macao SAR and Taiwan POC.

² It is common knowledge that fisheries information systems in the region have been particularly weak in inland areas. The relatively low level of inland capture production could be simply a reflection of poor quality of information.

³ Coates, D. (2003). An overview of inland capture fishery statistics of Southeast Asia. In: New approaches for the improvement of inland capture fishery statistics in the Mekong Basin. FAO & MRC, RAP Publication 2003/01. 45 pp.

⁴ Funge-Smith, S., Lindebo, E. & Staples, D. (2005). Asian fisheries today: The production and use of low value/trash fish from marine fisheries in the Asia-Pacific region, RAP publication 2005/16.

⁵ Edwards, P., Tuan, L.A. & Allen, G.L. (2004). A survey of marine trash fish and fish meal as aquaculture feed ingredients in Vietnam. ACIAR Working paper 57.

⁶ Its highest production was 2.7 million tonnes in 1973.

⁷ Its highest production was 1.7 million tonnes in 1978.

⁸ Nei = not elsewhere included.

⁹ Growth rate for the period of 1991-2004 was 11.6 percent excluding aquatic plants production.

¹⁰ This figure is for all China, but the massive scale of China PR's aquaculture production challenges statistical collection and there are uncertainties regarding the quantities reported.

¹¹ See footnote 1.

¹² There is significant volume of aquaculture production reported by large group of species, e.g. 3 394 thousand tonnes of fin fish production in 2002 were not identified at family, order or species level. Consequently, the species item totals could have underestimated the real production of the individual species.

¹³ FAO SOFIA, (Rome 2004) .

¹⁴ see footnote 8.