ABSTRACT
This chapter summarizes the environmental implications of more extensive aquaculture in integrated resources management (IRM). The IRM approach, which can be applied not only at the farm level, but also to whole catchments and other ecosystems, has much in common with agroecological approaches to development. Environmental impacts can be negative or positive. Costa-Pierce, who conducted a comprehensive study of the effluents discharged from primarily stand-alone fish farms using ponds, cages, tanks and raceways, has stressed the need for “ecological aquaculture development”, a perspective similar to IRM. Public health aspects of integrated agriculture-aquaculture and wastewater-fed aquaculture have been widely debated because of the large array of waterborne microbial, protozoal and helminthic diseases that can affect fish farm workers and the handlers and consumers of aquatic produce. A. G. Cagauan summarized the ecological services that fish could perform in rice fields. They included weed control, consumption of some insect pests and molluscs, increased fertility through fish feces, and bioturbation of the soil-water interface.
