Excerpts from the Foreword: Although fish farming is a relatively new endeavor in the West, it has been a sophisticated practice for almost 3,000 years in China. On a worldwide basis, the domestication of fish and shellfish is rapidly becoming an important method of food production. China, the world's largest aquaculture producer, depends on aquaculture for about 25 percent of its fish supply, while the worldwide average is 10 percent. Defined properly, aquaculture goes far beyond fish farming. It is the controlled cultivation of animals and plants, including finfish, crustaceans, mollusks, and seaweeds. In the United States it consists primarily of production of fish for human consumption; but it also includes bait, ornamental fish, ...