Marine Food Fishes

Description

Some 300,000 marine species are known to science estimated to be about 15 percent of all the species identified on the planet. But the sea is so vast that a million or more as yet unknown species may live in its waters. Most of these aquatic species are tied together through the food web.
The marine food chain is made up of animals that feast on the sea’s abundant plant life. On the ocean’s surface waters, microscopic animals zooplankton, which include jellyfish and the larval stages of some fish, barnacles, and molluscs that drift across the sea grazing opportunistically. Larger herbivores include surgeonfish, parrotfish, green turtles, and manatees.
Most tropical food fish have higher growth rates than temperate fish species, reaching commercial size much faster. There is a growing demand for marine food fish in all Pacific Island countries, and the supply usually does not meet this demand. There are a number of suitable sites for marine fin-fish culture in the Pacific and brood stock is locally available in most countries. Some species of food fish have considerable traditional customary values associated with them.
The present work will assist in resolving the difficulties of identification of marine life in the field and the baseline data given in this book will assist one and all in the field of fishery biology.