AN ECONOMIC ASSESSMENT OF AQUACULTURE
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

U.S. aquaculture is a highly diverse industry with a wide range of products.
Aquaculture production utilizes a number of different aquatic environments
and several different types of growing systems.  Aquaculture operations are 
located in virtually every State, but in terms of quantity and dollar value, 
production is concentrated in the southern States of Mississippi, Alabama, 
Arkansas, and Louisiana.

Aquaculture production encompasses the output from both warm and cold, 
fresh and salt water operations.  Aquaculture utilizing salt water is 
sometimes referred to as mariculture, but for the purposes of this report, 
aquaculture is used for both fresh and salt water operations.  In terms of 
products, aquaculture encompasses the production of edible and nonedible 
fish, shellfish, mollusks, edible and nonedible aquatic plants, algae, and 
some reptiles.  Species cultured include those indigenous to the United 
States as well as some non-native species.

Declining wild harvests for a number of species and the destruction of 
native habitat have been two of the main factors behind the development 
of many of today's commercial aquaculture operations and the continued 
experimentation with the commercial production of additional fresh water 
and marine species.  Developmental work in aquaculture has been 
concentrated on high value species or on species whose populations have 
been reduced by over fishing or habitat destruction.

Although some elements are common to most aquaculture operations, 
the wide variety of species produced plus the different types of growing 
systems and aquatic environments utilized means that aquaculturists face 
a variety of production hazards many of which will be unique to the 
species they are producing or the growing system they are using.

Since only a few aquaculture species have been grown in the United 
States for any length of time, many aquaculture growers do not have a 
long track record of production.  This combined with the unique 
problems of estimating inventories for most operations presents a 
difficult problems for establishing rates for production insurance.