YEAR IN REVIEW 1999: SPECIAL-REPORT

Aquaculture: Fulfilling Its Promise Early Aquaculture. The earliest-known documentation of fish farming is a Chinese book entitled Fish Culture Classic, written in 460 BC. The Chinese raised their fish, mainly carp, in small ponds to supplement other farm crops. Through experimentation, farmers discovered they could raise several species of fish together in one pond. This system, known as polyculture, proved highly productive and was taken to Thailand by Chinese immigrants in the early 20th century. Polyculture then evolved into "integrated" aquaculture--raising plants and fish together in the same pond. Up to this time, the fish farms had remained small operations, but in the mid-20th century fish farming became a serious commercial endeavour in Asia, Europe, and elsewhere. Starting in the 1960s and '70s, international development agencies supported aquaculture as the ideal industry to provide food for less-developed countries. Fish has important dietary benefits. It is generally cheaper to raise than beef or mutton, and aquaculture has less impact on the environment than traditional farming. A dichotomy developed, however, between aquaculture's potential and its reality. Aquaculture had become a resource-intensive industry that failed to emphasize resource reuse and recycling. Many fish were raised for quick cash, with little thought given to where the inputs of water, feed, and land came from, where the fish went after leaving the farm, and what environmental costs were incurred in the process. World Status. Aquaculture is one of the fastest-growing sectors in world food production. Industry output more than tripled from 1984 to 1996, when it was valued at $36 billion. Between 1990 and 1995, world aquaculture production expanded at an average annual rate of 11%. China leads the world in aquaculture, providing two-thirds of total farmed fish in 1996. Between 1990 and 1995 alone, China's aquaculture output increased by 120%, and in 1998 it made up over half of total fish supplies in China. In 1995 India, Japan, Indonesia, and Thailand--the other leading aquaculture nations--together accounted for almost 17% of world production. In contrast, all the industrial countries combined produced 14% of the world's farmed fish in 1995. Worldwide, marine catches remained at 80% of global fish production, but fish farmers were quickly altering the balance. For instance, 40% of all salmon consumed have lived longer in captivity than in the wild, compared with 6% a decade ago. It is expected that by the year 2000 one out of every four fish eaten will come from a farm. Aquaculture also affects the market for meat: for every 5 kg (11 lb) of beef produced globally, there are 2 kg (4 lb) of farm-raised fish. In the U.S. sales of farmed catfish exceed those of veal, mutton, and lamb combined. Aquaculture is expected to provide a growing share of dietary animal protein in the future; farmed fish requires fewer grain inputs than other types of animal protein for food, including pork and beef. Sports and Games St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Mark McGwire (see BIOGRAPHIES), who set major league baseball's new single-season record by belting 70 home runs in 1998, pumped life into a sport suffering from waning popularity, but his exploits also fueled the debate over the use of performance-enhancing drugs. McGwire admitted he had been using androstenedione--a testosterone-boosting compound--for more than a year. Chicago Cubs right fielder Sammy Sosa (see BIOGRAPHIES), whose 66 home runs also broke the previous record, admitted to using creatine, a popular amino-acid powder used to build muscle. Although neither substance was prohibited and both were available for over-the-counter purchase since being deregulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1994, questions abounded about their long-term effects on the human body. Androstenedione had been banned by the National Football League, the International Olympic Committee, and the National Collegiate Athletics Association. Additional concerns arose regarding the influence national heroes such as McGwire and Sosa had on young people, who could come to view such risky practices as acceptable or even necessary to succeed. In cycling one Tour de France team, Festina, was expelled from the 1998 race following the discovery of drugs in its possession. Two American track-and-field athletes, Olympic gold medalists shotputter Randy Barnes and sprinter Dennis Mitchell, were suspended by the sport's governing body for suspected drug use. Irish swimmer Michelle Smith-de Bruin, a three-time Olympic gold medalist, and members of the Chinese national swim team were banned from competition on the basis of drug-related matters. The U.S., Canada, and Australia entered into an agreement that allowed for reciprocal drug testing of athletes from any of the three nations, along with cooperative research into banned substances. Australia was the big winner at the Commonwealth Games, held September 11-21 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Led by its swimmers, who won 23 gold medals in their events, Australia won 198 medals, 62 more than the English, their closest competitors. New Zealand took the gold in the games' first-ever rugby competition, and South Africa prevailed in the inaugural cricket competition. At the made-for-television Goodwill Games, held in New York City July 19-August 2, tragedy overshadowed a field of big-name winners as Chinese gymnast Sang Lan was paralyzed when she suffered a neck injury during a practice vault. American balloonist Steve Fossett broke his own distance record during a fourth failed attempt to circumnavigate the globe. Fossett had traveled two-thirds of the way around the world when a storm ripped his balloon and sent him plunging into the Coral Sea off the coast of Australia. He was rescued in good condition by a passing yacht. Fossett's 1996 attempt had failed after just 36 hours; his 1997 attempt set the previous long-distance record before a fuel shortage forced him to land in India; and his third attempt ended after five days and 9,337 km (5,802 mi). ANTHONY G. CRAINE