Food from the water: People eat a huge range of living things from rivers, lakes and the sea: animals (fauna) and plants and seaweeds (flora). They are caught in the wild or farmed.
The points to remember
- Fauna: fish (tuna, cod, tilapia), molluscs (mussels, clams, squid) and crustaceans (shrimp, crabs).
- Other fauna: sea cucumbers, sea urchins, frogs, and in some places seals and whales.
- Flora: seaweeds (nori, kelp) and freshwater plants (watercress, lotus root, wild rice).
- They are caught wild (capture fisheries) or farmed (aquaculture).
- Most is eaten by people; some becomes fishmeal to feed farmed fish, pigs and chickens.
Example (SL): a sushi meal in Tokyo. Tuna, salmon, shrimp, squid and sea urchin on rice, wrapped in nori seaweed: six aquatic organisms on one plate, from fish, molluscs, crustaceans, sea urchins and algae.
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A global example is an aquatic food that is caught or farmed in a few places but traded and eaten all over the world.
The points to remember
- It is produced in large amounts (millions of tonnes a year).
- It is traded across the world: frozen, canned or dried, so it keeps.
- It is eaten far from where it is caught or grown.
- Learn one animal and one plant or seaweed: the guide asks for flora and fauna.
Example (SL): skipjack tuna and nori. Purse-seine boats catch skipjack across the Pacific, and the fish are canned in Thailand and sold worldwide. Nori is grown on nets in Korean and Japanese bays and dried into the sheets used for sushi everywhere.
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A local example is an aquatic food caught or gathered and eaten in one area, often with a long tradition behind it. Use one from where you live if you know it well; otherwise learn this one.
The points to remember
- It is harvested near where it is eaten, often by small-scale methods.
- It is part of the local culture: traditional dishes, festivals, skills passed down.
- Give the organism, where it comes from and how it is harvested.
Remember it as: What, where, how: one animal and one plant.
Fauna: Penclawdd cockles
- Cockles (small shellfish with two ridged shells) raked by hand from the sand of the Burry Inlet, South Wales, at low tide.
- Only licensed gatherers may rake them, with a daily limit.
- Sold at Swansea Market, often eaten with laverbread.
Flora: laverbread
- A thin seaweed (laver) picked from rocks on the Welsh coast.
- Boiled for hours into a dark green purée.
- Eaten with cockles and bacon in a traditional Welsh breakfast.
For many coastal and lakeside communities, food from the water is the main source of animal protein. Harvesting it themselves has clear advantages over farming the land.
The points to remember
- It needs no farmland, so no forest is cleared.
- It needs few inputs: a net, a trap, a canoe; it can be free for those who harvest it.
- It is natural income: renewed every year if it is harvested sustainably.
- It is rich in protein and minerals such as iodine, and there is a wide variety.
- It is less hit by droughts, floods and storms than crops, and fits local culture.
Example (SL): Pacific islands such as Kiribati. The low coral islands have thin, salty soils and little room to farm, so families fish the reefs and lagoons from canoes and gather clams and seaweed. Fish is most of their protein, and a cyclone that destroys gardens leaves the reef fish.
Be specific: 'It is a source of food', 'it is healthier', 'it is easy to get' or 'there is no transport cost' are too vague. Give the real advantage: no land needed, few inputs, natural income, protein and iodine, not destroyed by drought.
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Fish, shellfish and seaweeds are natural capital. Food is one of the goods aquatic systems provide; they give much more.
The points to remember
- Provisioning: fish, shellfish, seaweed, fresh water.
- Regulating: climate regulation, carbon storage, water purification, coastal protection.
- Supporting: nutrient cycling, habitats and nursery areas for biodiversity.
- Cultural: recreation, tourism, spiritual and traditional value.
- Fish stocks are renewable natural capital; the yearly natural increase is the natural income.
Example (SL): sockeye salmon in Bristol Bay, Alaska. Tens of millions of salmon return from the sea each summer to breed. Fishing opens only once enough fish have passed upstream to spawn, so the catch is the natural income and the stock stays.
Renewable is not the same as unlimited: Fish are renewable only if people take no more than the natural increase. Overfishing can push a stock so low that it cannot recover, so it behaves like a non-renewable resource.
How this comes up: Paper 1 asks for an advantage for local people of harvesting food from the sea [1]; Paper 2 can ask you to outline examples of aquatic foods [4].
People eat plants, seaweeds and animals from fresh water and the sea.
Outline one local and one global example of aquatic flora and fauna consumed by humans.
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