ABSTRACT
Dr. George Pigott coined the phrase “aquatic food products” because it was difficult to find one word to adequately define edible animals and plants from the aquatic environment. “Seafood” denotes only food from the sea or marine environment, omitting freshwater plants and animals. Similarly “fish” is not an all encompassing term for all of the different animals (both vertebrate and invertebrate) and plant products humans take from the water and eat. The FDA recently defined fish to mean:
Over 350 species of mollusca (e.g. clams, oysters, snail, octopus), arthropoda (e.g. lobsters, crabs, shrimp and crayfish), reptilia (e.g. turtles, alligators), amphibia (frogs), gastrapoda (whelks), holothurians (sea cucumbers), and chordata (finfish) are used as food (1,2). Furthermore, aquatic plants and marine mammals are important components in the diets of people from many cultures.
