ABSTRACT
Governmental efforts were split between various agencies within the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, and Interior, answering to diverse constituencies in both the freshwater and saltwater “camps.” Success in American aquaculture is largely predictable, but only when the science and industry as a whole are understood. By way of contrast, a persistent malady of the American aquaculture industry, and the government’s support of it, is the limited success both have had in building a similar, synergistic relationship with the commensurate unity and political power. Many studies from a variety of sources have tried to determine why American aquaculture lags behind that in other countries. Through tax benefits in some cases, or the chance of investing in the aquaculture equivalent of Apple Computer, investors have financed several significant scientific advances in aquaculture. Dependency on such short term “fix-it” methods of culture abrogate much of what scientists have learned about the environment and balanced ecological systems.
