Crops

Aquatic animals have also provided important wild-meat crops for people living in places where there is access to the natural bounties of streams, rivers, lakes, and marine shores. Important food crops harvested from freshwater ecosystems of North America include species of salmon, trout, and other fish, as well as crayfish, freshwater mussels, and other invertebrates. Most of the modern marine fisheries also rely on harvesting the productivity of unmanaged populations of fish, invertebrates (e.g., shellfish), seals, and whales as wild crops.