Article and photo’s by Henk Stander
Aquaculture Division, Department of Animal Sciences
University of Stellenbosch
I
ntroduction:
About 70% of our planet is
covered in water, the overwhelming majority forming the
seas and oceans; it is often
referred to as the “Blue Planet”.
Perhaps a little surprisingly, freshwater – including that contained in
all the major rivers and lakes of the
world – accounts for just a tiny frac-
Disabled persons fishing pier
tion of the total: no more than 1%.
Many of our seas (and certainly all
of our oceans) extent to great
depths (Mariana Trench, Western
Pacific Ocean: 10 994 meters). They
therefore contain vast volumes of
water, large tracts of which are as
alien to us as the surface of other
planets. Many of the life forms they
contain are also mysterious and, to
Fish ready for stocking
a large extent, little known. Yet,
fishlike creatures have been living,
breeding, and dying in the world’s
waters for around 480 million
years.
Admittedly, these early aquatic organisms were quite different than
the fish we know today. They were
nevertheless the basal stock from
which all backboned animals, in-
Feeding information