2 September 2009 Editor’s column In the June issue of World Aquaculture I made some remarks about the second edition of a general aquaculture book that I spent much of last year and early 2009 rewriting. I’m pleased to say it has been published and now available from CABI (orders@cabi.org). My reason for telling readers this is not to solicit orders for the book but to indicate that this book is going to be my last one on the subject that has been the basis of my professional activities for something like 40 years. It takes a lot of time and effort to produce a textbook, and it’s done not to put money in the pocket of the author, but to provide current information, to the extent possible, to the target audience. I like to think that I’ve kept up on what’s going on in the field through activities such as reading with interest and editing the articles in this magazine and attending meetings such as those convened by WAS. But, I’ve been away from active research and teaching for a number of years since I became the Director of the Texas Sea Grant College Program. I think it’s time for more active researchers to write the general aquaculture texts in the future, but I’d like to warn them that with the pace of research, it’s a daunting job. I’ve probably made this known to readers in the past (I didn’t go back to check previous editor’s columns), but whether or not that’s the case, I will state here that my interest in aquaculture developed because I was interested in finding ways to enhance aquatic animal production to feed people high quality seafood. I’ve always considered myself to be an environmentalist. While I’ve never been involved in commercial aquaculture, I have worked and been involved with many commercial culturists, and am convinced that the majority of them are dedicated to producing their products in an environmentally responsible way. Who suffers first if the culturist creates environmental damage? Any rational person would respond, “the culturist!” That’s been my mantra for many years, though I’m afraid it falls on deaf ears when it comes to those who, for whatever reason, are opposed to aquaculture. Opposition to aquaculture is not a debilitating issue to aquaculture development in many nations, but it’s a nagging problem in the United States and some other countries. I am a strong proponent of developing nations moving increasingly to domestic consumption of their aquaculture production. That means that more and more people in those nations have elevated their economic status to the point that they can afford to purchase commodities that were formerly exported. Once imports of aquaculture products from such counties are no longer available to nations where aquaculture is seen as a blight on the environment (without substantiation in many cases), perhaps countries such as mine will come to their senses. One of my messages has been, let’s focus on responsible aquaculture. You’ve seen that before in this column and I am convinced that responsible aquaculture (many refer to it as sustainable aquaculture) not only has potential but is readily achievable given today’s technology and the innovativeness of those who are committed to make it happen. For those of us in nations that will need to continuously expand aquaculture production to meet demand as imports are reduced and demand grows with the increasing population, it will be necessary to get out the truth about how aquaculture can be conducted responsibly to the public. With that in mind, I urge you to read USAS President Doug Drennan’s column in this issue. His ideas about developing committees to get the truth about aquaculture to the public and promote teaching about aquaculture in courses in our K-12 and university systems is laudable and worthy of consideration by other WAS affiliates. We need to quit talking among ourselves and become proactive with respect to getting the science associated with aquaculture out there in a way that can be readily understood by the public, and let us not forget, the regulatory agencies. — Robert R. Stickney Editor-in-Chief 65 Development of aquatic feeds by extrusion cooking Joseph P. Kearns Departments 4 USAS President’s Message 5 The passing of Prof. Yan Yi 6 Promotion and Membership Committee 7 Indaqua 2009 24 New Literature 71 Advertisers’ Index 72 Calendar 72 Membership Application Contents (continued)
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