This report looks at small-scale aquaculture from the viewpoint of poverty reduction. What are the main factors that enable fish farming to generate livelihoods and reduce poverty? Based on case studies, the first part of the report highlights the importance of access to capital assets--human, social, natural, physical, and financial--and to a range of transforming processes, such as markets, institutions, facilities, infrastructure, and services.

The oceans are the last frontier on Earth, and research and exploration are key to developing and enhancing global economic activity that is necessary to sustain a growing human population. The author pinpoints issues relevant to oceans' natural resources management and protection. He examines the technology used for the exploration of the oceans' living and non living resources (fisheries, bio-products, energy resources, mineral deposits) and identifies the significant emerging patterns that will determine the development of ocean economics in the future.