ABSTRACT
The private funding of aquacultural research and development gathered steam in the early 1970s and became a major source of money by the mid-1980s. While federal and state sponsorship have helped advance first the science and then the industry of aquaculture, events, starting in 1979, precipitated cut-backs for many of these programs. An equally compelling reason for private research and development was a government cutback in support of the aquatic sciences. Corporate America has a long and successful history of backing science, albeit science that was in its own best interests. Discoveries after World War II in the aquatic sciences, and the increasing publicity of oceanography helped along by Cousteau and his aquanauts, brought Wall Street down to the sea. The challenge and the science of the operation is to keep the animals alive and growing in a “life-support” system. Government programs allowed new entrants to come into the industry with a shortened learning curve and up-to-date research.
