Authors address catfish tales and food woes

Written by former WAS president George Lockwood, Aquaculture: Will it rise to its potential to feed the world? questions whether government will allow the industry to fully develop and become capable of feeding the population boom that threatens the planet.

Lockwood founded Monterey Abalone Farms in 1972 that later became Ocean Farms of Hawaii. It produced abalone, salmon, sea urchins and oysters in a novel system using deep ocean water pumped into onshore tanks and ponds.

He is a founder and former president of the California Aquaculture Association and was a major contributor to the National Aquaculture Act of 1980 and the California Aquaculture Act of 1982. Since 2005, he has served as Chair of the Aquaculture Working Group that is advising the US Department of Agriculture with the development of organic aquaculture standards.

Through this book he seeks to make US aquaculture a robust industry that substantially contributes to the US national economy while producing the most environmentally sustainable and the healthiest forms of meat protein.

Meanwhile, Catfish Days – From Belzoni To The Big Apple by Mike McCall tells the rollercoaster story of the US catfish industry in the second half of the 20th century, when investors poured hundreds of millions of dollars into farms, processing plants, and infrastructure. Likened to the California Gold Rush of a century earlier, more than 180,000 acres of catfish ponds were built and stocked across the southern states – before cheap imported fish from Asia arrived and dominated the market.

A veteran newspaper reporter and editor, McCall has been editor of The Catfish Journal for 25 years.

Both books are available here.