Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen:
It gives me very great pleasure to be here to attend the inauguration of the first World Symposium on Warm-water Pond Fish Culture, which happens to be also the first world meeting that FAO has organized in the field of inland fisheries.
The Director-General, in his address, has referred to the recommendations of the FAO Conference to strengthen the inland fisheries activities of the Organization. As many of you are aware, the former Fisheries Division of FAO has been elevated to the status of a Department, containing at present, within its Fishery Resources and Exploitation Division, a new Inland Fishery Branch. This Branch has two Sections: Inland Biology and Fish Culture. During the coming biennia we hope to be able to strengthen the present skeleton staff of the Branch and provide additional funds to expand its various activities, many of which are closely related to the topics you will be discussing.
We in FAO fully recognize the role of inland fisheries in general, and of fish culture in particular, in the overall development and utilization of natural resources. We have long endeavoured to assist and promote fish culture through provision of experts for a large number of technical assistance projects in developing countries, the supervision of both training and research fellowships, and the organization of several training centres in the Far East, Latin America and Africa. At least in part through our efforts a number of countries have adopted major programs of fish culture extension and we feel that we have a good deal of experience in the field. The Organization has in fact carried on field programs in fish culture for over fifteen years, and I have noted with pleasure that a number of our former experts who have played leading parts in these programs have returned to Rome to participate in this Symposium.
As fish culture scientists with many years of experience, you are certainly aware of the wide difference existing at present in the approach to fish culture development. It is fairly well known that fish culture as carried out even now is based largely on empirical knowledge, even though some commendable work has been done in some research centres to develop better techniques and gain scientific understanding of traditional practices. In some countries (as the Director-General has mentioned) fish culture is developed on a large scale as a private or commercial enterprise. In others, there is no real fish culture industry; only the government appears to be active, and sometimes its work is confined to building a few ponds, conducting some small - often poorly designed experiments - and transporting a few fry to villagers.
In many countries fish culture is considered only as a subsidiary or part-time occupation for the under-employed and under-nourished section of the population, and in some countries it is considered primarily as a means of developing sport fisheries and its importance in the production of food is minimized. Lastly, a number of people have held the view that in order to be successful, pond fish culture requires the traditional skill, patience and attention to details that is only possessed by certain peoples or races. And there is certainly some evidence - judging from the papers prepared for this Symposium - to show that fish culture has “caught on” only in certain areas of the world.
Differences in the approach to or views on the role of fish culture exist also among scientific workers. For example, there have been in recent years marked shifts in the opinion of fishery biologists on the contribution that fish culture can make to the development and management of natural fishery resources.
At one time it was thought that artificial propagation could be the major means of resuscitating over-exploited fish stocks, and you are all aware of the astronomical numbers of fry or fingerlings which were stocked or planted in both the fresh and marine waters of the world. Probably as a result of the many unsuccessful attempts in this direction the view came to be more or less abandoned. However, in recent years it has come to be realized that artificial propagation can be an efficient management measure for the development or maintenance of stocks in inland waters affected by industrial or other developmental projects. Better selection of the stocking material, better techniques in rearing and planting, better methods of measuring the outcome and a stricter economic costing (comparing the inputs with the outputs) have changed opinions in this field.
Irrespective of the views held as to the role of fish culture in general, it does appear clear that its future development should rest on something more than the mere application of empirical knowledge - more than upon attempts to merely transfer methods developed in, say, the Far East to Central America or the techniques of northern Europe to the warm waters of Africa. It appears to me that it might be useful, for instance, to examine a little more carefully some of the rather starting statements concerning the yield of food that may be secured from a hectare of water by fish culture as against the amount to be secured from its equivalent of land. Or, might we not again examine statements concerning tropical fish culture such as those emanating from the United Nations Scientific Conference on the Conservation and Utilization of Resources held at Lake Success, New York, in 1949. At this Conference, the first at which the United Nations called directly upon the world of science to come together, and one in which FAO was responsible for a large part of the agenda, “It was the manifest opinion of the meeting” as the Report says, “that the possibilities for human betterment by the increase of tropical fish culture could hardly be exaggerated”.
This was a bold and optimistic statement. But almost seventeen years have passed. Much knowledge which we once considered gospel is no longer valid. The rise in world populations has exceeded earlier estimates, and neither fish culture nor any other method of land-based food production has increased commensurately. A re-examination of the problems and possibilities may be most appropriate at this time.
This Symposium can be the first major step towards re-orientation of fish culture progress throughout the world. The valuable contributions that we have received for the Symposium will result in the collection under one cover of most of the significant information that is available on the selected topics. And from these papers you will no doubt observe major gaps in our knowledge and the need for further research, re-orientation of research and development programs and perhaps the need for international action in certain fields.
The next step is then up to you, and I hope that you will be able to make purposeful and realistic recommendations for the furtherance of fish culture on scientific and economic bases.
A principal reason for the re-organization of the FAO Department of Fisheries as desired by its member countries is to maintain the Organization as the leading inter-governmental body in the field of fisheries. We are undertaking to carry out this mandate in relation to fish culture also in so far as our resources permit. In accomplishing this task we have to depend very heavily on the cooperation and assistance of specialists in the field. I would welcome your views on the suggestion that an advisory panel to FAO should be formed for this purpose to give such assistance on a continuing basis and so carry on your own work at this Symposium.
Eight days may be a very short time to discuss adequately even the few topics selected for consideration at this Symposium. There still remain other aspects such as brackish-water fish culture or mechanization of fish culture operations that also seem to require re-examination and your suggestions in this regard will be valuable.
Finally, I should like to make two points with respect to the conduct of this meeting. First, we have deliberately reduced the time for actual presentation of papers - most technical papers being better read than heard, as you know - in order to provide the maximum time for full discussion. Secondly, I would like to emphasize that this is a technical and scientific meeting, and participants contributing to the discussions do so in their individual capacities. They are not required to commit their governments or the organizations that may have nominated them to any actions or recommendations. Recommendations that you may adopt will be taken as representing a consensus of opinion of the experts.
With the agenda before you, the eight days will melt away quickly. I expect that during and between meetings you will have ample time to establish contacts, exchange ideas, and learn from each other's experience, which are major objectives of these meetings.
Even though there is now not very much of fish culture to see in and around Rome, I am sure that you will have plenty of other interesting things to see and do here during your leisure time. I hope that Rome will live up to its reputation as regards its salubrious weather and that you will take back with you very pleasant memories of an enjoyable stay and stimulating pioneer work.
Finally, let me repeat one of the statements made at another pioneer meeting - the U.N. Lake Success Conference on Resources of seventeen years ago. In speaking of the way in which pond fish culture should be developed, one of the summarizing speakers said: “We would build on ancient skill but spread by scientific understanding.”
I think we could take no better maxim for our Symposium of today.
