September/October 1985 RAIN Page 23 Grader for sorting small fish by size. (FROM: The Freshwater Aquaculture Bookl The Freshwater Aquaculture Book: A Handbook for Small Scale Fish Culture in North America,hy William McLamey, 1984, 583 pages, $40 from: Cloudburst Press, c/o Hartley & Marks, Inc. PO Box 147 Point Roberts, WA 98281 As far as 1 am concerned, aquaculture represents the apotheosis of integrated ecological systems (for example. New Alchemy's pioneering work employing solar aquaculture in greenhouses to store heat, raise fish, and grow hydroponic vegetables). So it has been very disappointing to witness dwindling support for research, in recent months, at two of the places 1 have historically counted upon for aquaculture leadership. Rodale has withdrawn its support of Steve Van Gorder's efforts to develop an aquaculture program, and now the New Alchemists, for whom aquaculture has been the very heart and soul of their work, are apparently scaling down their aquaculture program. It is against this receding shoreline of support that one hopes it is not too late for Bill McLarney to turn the tide. McLar- ney and others at New Alchemy, in particular Ron Zweig and John Todd, have been doing the good work in aquaculture for over a decade now. McLarney knows what he's talking about. He's not only got a doctorate and worked everywhere (U.S. Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, National Fisheries Center, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, and the New Alchemy Institute), he's also the author of numerous publications and in particular co-author ofAquaculture: The Farming and Husbandry of Freshwater and Marine Organisms (with Bardach and Ryther, 1972, John Wiley and Sons), which was nominated as the Best Science Book in the 1973 National Book Awards. National Book Award nominations notwithstanding. Aquaculture is enough to discourage all but the most enthusiastic amateur, all 868 technopages of it. The Freshwater Aquaculture Book is altogether—if you'll excuse the phrase— a different kettle of fish. It's written for readers like, well... me, and is intended as a "how-to" book. "Small-scale aquaculture is a young and experimental field," McLarney notes, and as a lay researcher I can testify to the difficulty in bridging the information gap between the fish biologists in their laboratories and those of us with our boots in the mud. This book goes a long way toward building that bridge. It covers everything from the fundamentals of pond biology to feeding, breeding, harvesting, and marketing. It also covers design and construction of ponds, tanks, and raceways; miscellany such as legal requirements and aquaculture for non-food purposes; and a whole chapter is devoted to physical and chemical aspects of the water. McLarney includes comprehensive appendices, too, discussing fish cookery, technical terms, resources of all kinds, and so on. The price tag is pretty steep, but if you're serious about small scale fish farming I think you'll discover that you really have no choice but to get this book. McLarney writes that the book is intended to help you "put food on the table or provide a satisfactory profit." But he has another goal in mind for this volume as well. Since "the majority of current aquacultural practice and research in North America is nutritionally, ecologically, economically, and socially ineffectual —when it is not downright destructive," he hopes that the book will effect "a change in the role of aquaculture in society and the biosphere." If New Alchemy and Rodale aren't at the forefront of that change, who will be? I hope they're listening. —Mark Roseland Mark Roseland, a former RAIN editor, is now codirector of the Matrix Institute in Applegate, Oregon, where, among other things, he coordinates the aquaculture program. Inside of catch screen edged with plastic to trap escaping larvae Stanley Tinkle's "Zero Labor Fish Feeder” for producing soldierfly larvae on a diet of household garbage (FROM: The Freshwater Aquaculture Book)
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