Conservation Aquaculture: An Evolution-based Approach for the Production of Fish for Aquaculture-assisted Fisheries Programs

Stocking hatchery-produced fish has been a standard component of fisheries management for over 100 years. This book discusses the production of hatchery fish used in aquaculture-assisted fisheries programs to help stabilize and recover endangered species.  For the most part, these programs have been unsuccessful, and a reason why is that the traditional approach to fish culture produces fish that are genetically and behaviorally ill-suited to help recover an imperiled species. The hatchery environment and management used to culture the fish makes them sub-viable in the wild.  Even if most of the augmented fish die, survivors that mate with wild fish lower the fitness of the endangered population, making the conservation program counter-productive. 

Since traditional aquaculture programs have been shown to produce fish that are ill-suited to help recovery, a new way of producing fish is needed.  That new way is conservation aquaculture.  In conservation aquaculture, fish are raised in naturalized mesocosms that mimic the environment in which the endangered species lives.  Management is naturalized, so domestication does not produce genetic changes, and so fish develop a full and effective suite of behaviors that enable them to forage efficiently and detect and avoid predators when stocked.

The conservation aquaculture management techniques described in the book can also be used to improve commercial and recreational fish stocking programs.

Douglas Tave received a Ph.D. in aquaculture from Auburn University and was a professor of aquaculture, professor of aquaculture genetics, aquaculture extension specialist, research scientist, and a fish hatchery manager. Now retired, he was a principal designer of and subsequently manager for 14 years of the world’s first purpose-built large-scale conservation aquaculture hatchery, where he and his colleagues turned the basic ideas about conservation aquaculture into reality.  He is the author of several books about the genetic aspects of fish hatchery management:  Genetics for Fish Hatchery Managers; Inbreeding and Brood Stock Management; Selective Breeding Programs for Medium-sized Fish Farms.  He is co-editor of Strategies and Tactics for Management of Fertilized Hatchery Ponds, founded the peer-reviewed Journal of Applied Aquaculture, and was genetics columnist for Aquaculture Magazine for 9 years.