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CHAPTER 6

Basic Concept of Fishery

take the challenge!

At the end of this chapter, the students are expected to:
Lesson 1: Recognize Fishery and Its Importance
Lesson 2: Discuss the History of Fishery
Lesson 3: Distinguish the Branches of Fishery
Lesson 4: Identify the Morphology of Fish

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DEFINITION OF TERMS

Fishery (plural: fisheries) - is an organized effort by humans to catch fish or

other aquatic species, an activity known as fishing.

Tianyuan Man – are the remains of one of the earliest modern human to
inhabit East Asia

Fish Culture – the human effort of raising the maximum productivity of fish
and other fishery aquatic products and maintaining the supply of these products
to satisfy human needs

Fish Capture – branch of fishery science deals with the scientific method of
catching fish as well and the type of fishing gear used

Fish Preservation – branch of fishery science that deals with the scientific
method of preserving fish and other fishery aquatic products to prevent
spoilage

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LESSON 1:

DEFINITION OF FISHERY AND ITS IMPORTANCE

What is FISHERY?
As the time goes by, different centuries and generation are past. The
original term of fish were interpret by various early people. The term has a
different version to another set of people. From the Proto-Indo-European(4500
BC to 2500 BC) it is used as peysk/pisk. It was used for numbered centuries,
then, the term was again change because of the passing of generation to
generation and another generation. The term in the language of Proto-Germanic
(500 BC) was fiskaz. The term in West Frisian was fisk, in Dutch was vis, in
Danish and Norwegian was fisk, in German was fisch. Old English adopted it
and later it was coined as fisc. Today, the contemporary English now term it as
fish. In our Philipinelocal term is isda.

Fish is approximately 34,000 species of vertebrate scaly-skinned animal,

which swims and found in the fresh and salt waters of the world. It breathes

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under the water because of their gills, absorbing the oxygen from the water to
suffice the needs of body to live. Fish is a vertebrate being because they have a
skeleton with a spine. Just like mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians, fish
have a skeleton made from bone. But rays and sharks have a skeleton made of a
rubbery, softer substance called cartilage. A fish wiggle its tail to swim through
water. Their fins function as the steer and support their body to stay upright.
Fins are covered in skin without scale. Bony rays supported the fins to maintain
the structure and functionality of fins. A fish has an armored body by scales to
protect from the parasites and other injuries. Scales also gives the fish a
reflectors and coloration to hide and camouflage themselves from the
predators’ sight.
Fishery (plural: fisheries) is an organized effort by humans to catch fish
or other aquatic species, an activity known as fishing including the processing
and marketing as well as protecting and conserving fish and other fishery
product for sustainable use.

VALUE OF fishery

Fishery has a vital role in the life and progress of an economy. It does
provide food which is the basic needs of mankind, yet not only sustain food
and raw material but also employment opportunities to a vast number of the
population in country. It can be a source of livelihood which can lead to

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contribute to micro and macro community; supplying, sustaining food and

fodder that are the basic necessities of human to live, promoting the diplomatic
relationship facilitated by trading system in local, national and international,
marketable surplus products, protect our environment and natural resources,
another source of savings of the entire national budget and basis of the
economic development of a country.
Without fishery, the economy will be at high risk to food security that
may be resulted into serious national problems. The above mentioned
statements may occur obverse and the opposite of those things may happen.

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LESSON 2:

BRIEF HISTORY OF FISHERY

Regular eating of freshwater fish was evident in 42,000 and 39,000

years ago by the Tianyuan man. Hunter-gatherer lifestyle was the mostly work
of the people. So, they move a lot because they seek their food. The only
permanent settlement is the cave and/or shell midden. Discarded fish bone and
carved painting in the caves was supported the evidence that fishing was
occurring in the early ages. Based from the arts was observed, they hunt fish at
the salt and freshwater. One of the examples is from the Southern France, the
cave art is 16,000 years old. It represents the marine animals and spearfishing
with barbed poles also known as harpoons. Main fishing methods appearing in
the Neolithic times between 8,000 and 4,000 years ago. One of the early fishing
hooks was gorge hook used by Native Americans of the California coast
between 7,500 to 3,000 year ago. Some other tribes used plant toxins to numb
fish and fish it out easily. Harappans (people that lived during the Bronze Age
at the place of today’s archaeological site in Punjab, Eastern Pakistan,) used
one of the first bronze harpoons.

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Ancient Egypt was famously known as the sea-side settlers and heavily
dependent to the fishing. Method of fishing used on the Nile River was shown
at their artworks which are at the wall tomb, on drawing and papyrus
documents. Ancient Egyptian fished in small reed ships Nile perch, catfish and
eels, and used woven nets, weir baskets, harpoons, and hook and line to catch
them. The first metal barbed fish hooks appeared during the 12th dynasty.
Ancient Greeks considered fisherman of very low status so that they
depicted them in art. Despite of this, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, has a Greek
wine cup from 500 BC that shows a boy that crouches on a rock and has a
fishing rod in his hand and a fish trap in water below him. Basically – all
civilizations that lived near the water have developed some forms of fishing
and relied on fish as a part of their diet to some extent.
It is not known when commercial fishing started but was characteristic
for it was that is used types of fishing which allowed for a larger catch. To do
that, fishermen used gillnets which existed from ancient times. Thy were used
in Middle East, North America and other places and are still used in pacific
Northwest, Canada and Alaska. Early fishermen used nets close to the coast but
with improvements in navigation and communication devices, mobility of
fishing vessels increased largely and they started conquering the oceans. Beside
fish, catch of commercial fishermen are sea cucumbers (so called “trepanging”)
for markets of Southern China and the rest of Southeast Asia.
Except primarily for food, fishing is used as recreational activity. The
first mention of recreational fishing dates from 15th century and it comes from
essay “Treatyse of Fysshyngewyth an Angle” by dame Juliana Berners, the
prioress of the Benedictine Sopwell Nunnery. This type of fishing became
popular during the 16th and 17th centuries and it was performed on rivers and
lakes. When the first motorboats appeared in 19th century, big-game fishing
started to be popular. Dr.Charles Frederick Holder, a marine biologist and early
conservationist is considered an inventor of this branch of fishing.

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Fishing is still today popular as a sport and as part of economy of some

country. Fishery is the business of catching, handling, taking, marketing, and
preserving of the fish and other fishery products.

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LESSON 3:

BRANCHES OF FISHERY

BRANCHES OF FISHERY

There are 3 branches of fishery and they are follows:

1. Fish Culture – the human effort of raising the maximum productivity of
fish and other fishery aquatic products and maintaining the supply of
these products to satisfy human needs.
2. Fish Capture – branch of fishery science deals with the scientific
method of catching fish as well and the type of fishing gear used.
3. Fish Preservation – branch of fishery science that deals with the
scientific method of preserving fish and other fishery aquatic products to
prevent spoilage.

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BRANCHES OF FISHERY ARTS OVERVIEW

Fish Culture
Fish culture is an art and science of raising, rearing and propagating of
fish and other aquatic products under controlled or semi-controlled
environment. It is primarily practice for the support and sustenance to human
needs for consumption.

Fish culture under controlled condition is one undertaken in an

aquarium, tank, hapa, fish cage, pen or pond.

Fish culture has three major phases: fish propagation, fish cultivation
and fish conservation.

Fish Propagation is defined as the natural or artificial method of

promoting or enhancing reproduction and survival of fish and other aquatic
products. It includes keeping, maintaining and spawning breeders in tanks or
ponds, hatching the eggs in hatchery facilities, and nursing the delicate larvae
up to size suitable for stocking in the grow-our or rearing areas.

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Natural Method

Artificial Method

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Fish Cultivation simply means the rearing of fish and other aquatic
products from very young stage like fry and fingerlings, to marketable size. It
is done in fresh, brackish and marine waters in any of the rearing contraptions
or structures. The other types of sub-classification based on the techniques
applied and financial investments, namely: extensive, semi-intensive and
intensive.

 Extensive Fish Farming

The fish feed entirely from the food web within the pond, which
may be enhanced by the addition of the fertilizer or manure.

 Semi-Intensive Fish Farming

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The fish still obtain significant nutrition from the food web
within their pond, but they are also given supplementary feed.

 Intensive Fish Farming

The fish are kept at too high a stocking density to obtain
significant amount of feed from their environment.

Fish Conservation is the public control and various maintenances of the

various fisheries where fish and other fishery products are deprived. It work
should be designed to insure maximum sustainable yield of fish. For instance,
the continuous use of fishpond without proper maintenance, like applying
fertilizer, lowers the productivity of the soil. It lessens the capacity of fish to
reproduce.

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Fish Capture
Fish Capture is a rule or principle of capturing or operating methods of
fish and carried out distinct means with some regularity. It includes the fishing
gears, technologies and equipments for systematic capturing.

Fish Preservation
It is any operation that can prevent or inhibit the natural process of
breakdown or decomposition taking place in the fish. It is known as fish
processing.
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LESSON 4:

MORPHOLOGY OF COMMON FISH – ITS PARTS AND

FUNCTIONS

External Parts of the Fish and Their Functions

1. Operculum/gill cover - part of the fish that covers the gills

2. Scales - part of the fish that cover the body

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3. Lateral lines - lines along the body of the fish used

to help the fish adapt itself to its new
environment

4. Fins - part of the fish that used for

swimming, balancing and propelling
in water

5. Eyes - part of the fish that used for seeing

6. Mouth - part of the fish that used for

swallowing objects, particularly food

7. Anus - part of the fish that serves as an

excretory organ of the fish where the
waste matter coming from the body of
fish passes out

8. Caudal Peduncle - part of the fish that connect the body

and the tail

9. Nostril - part of the fish that used for smelling

10. Vent - the opening between the anus and the

anal fin where the fish will excrete
either eggs or sperm. Also known as
genital papilla

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Internal Parts of Fish and their Functions

1. Spine - the primary structural framework

upon which the fish’s body is built.
It connects to the skull at the front of
the fish and the tail at the rear. The
spine is made up of numerous
vertebrae, which are hollow and
which protect the delicate spinal
cord

2. Spinal cord - the part that connects the brain to the

rest of the body and relays sensory
information from the body to the
brain, as well as instruction from the
brain to the rest of the body

3. Brain - the control center of the fish where

both automatic functions and higher
behaviours occur. All sensory
information is processed here

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4. Lateral line - one of the fish’s primary sense

organs. It detects underwater
vibration and is capable of
determining the direction of their
source

5. Swim or Air Bladder - a hollow, gas-filled balance

organ that allows a fish to conserve
energy by maintaining neutral
buoyancy in water

6. Kidney - filters liquid waste materials from

the blood. These waste are then
passed out the body

7. Stomach and intestines - break down food and absorb

nutrients

8. Pyloric caeca - finger like projection located near

the functions of the stomach and the
Intestine. It known to secrete enzymes
that aid digestion. It may also
function to absorb digested food or do
both

9. Liver - it assists digestion by secreting

enzymes that break down fats, and
also serves as storage area for fats and
carbohydrates.

10. Heart - circulates blood throughout the body

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11. Muscle - provide movement and locomotion.

These are parts of the fish that are
usually eaten. They compose the fillet
of the fish

12. Gonad - hormone-secreting sexual gland of a

fish.

Fish Scales Tell the Age of a Fish

Look at the image of the fish scale. Like a tree, scales show rings that
indicate periods of growth. Rings that are farther apart occur when the fish
grows well and there is a lot of food in the summer season. Rings that are close
together occur when the fish does not get much food and grows slowly. On the
scale you can identify the summer growth and the winter growth. (There will
be several rings in each).
The core represents the fish when it was first born, as a fry. The rings
near the edge are the most recent periods of growth.

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Types of Fish Scales

Placoid - It resembles a miniature tooth called denticles. Ex. shark scales

Cycloid - It is oval or circular in outline and has a smooth and exposed

rear edge.

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Ctenoid – It is scales that have a rear edges made of small brush-like

spines or comb liked teeth. Ex. Scales of perch, pongies and bass

Ganoid – It is a four- sided plate that fits closely against adjacent plates
without overlapping.

Parts of Gills
Diagrammic Representation of Two Forms of Fish Gills

1. Gills Filaments - used for exchange of gases such as

oxygen and carbon dioxide
2. Gills Arch - used for support and passing for
blood to and the gill filaments
3. Gill Rakers - used for straining food from the water

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