Fundamentals of acoustical oceanography

Mariculture has a long and diverse history in the tropics.It is extensively practiced in Asia, Latin America, Indonesia, and the Pacific Islands and contributes significantly both as a producer of food for the local populace and export for capital in those places.Tropical Mariculture is the first text that, by its title at least, accepts the challenging task of treating the enormous breadth of this field.The book is a collection of articles written by different authors on a variety of topics germane to tropical mariculture.It begins with a brief overview of the current status and prospects in tropical mariculture.Five chapters deal with tropical finfish topics: culture through early life history, aquaculture technologies for numerous finfish species, culture techniques of the groupers (Epinephelus spp.) and seabass (Lates spp.) specifically, and a summary of milkfish (Chanos sp.) farming in the Philippines.The next two chapters address environmental issues related to historical aquaculture practices in the region.A chapter follows these on mussel (Mytilus spp.) and oyster (Ostrea spp.and Crassostrea spp.) culture in the tropics, and another that deals with the biology and culture of the sea cucumber (Holothuria sp. and Stichopus sp.) from the Japanese experience.The final four chapters are of very broad scope, dealing with perspectives for artificial diets for larval fish, genetic opportunities for finfish, challenges to formulated feed development for marine species, and pathogens of marine organisms.Absent are comprehensive treatments of shrimp and seaweed aquaculture, which are the largest two segments in the region.The editor states that these omissions were intentional because these topics are dealt with extensively elsewhere but then fails to direct the reader to those sources, and several chapters in this book address these subjects in whole or in part.I felt that a more stringent editorial focus around a prevailing theme or two, both in the selection of topics and the content of individual chapters, would have strengthened the value of the text.Several chapters seemed to have been prepared for other applications and audiences, and were included in this volume without diligent modification to conform to the tropical focus espoused by the title.By-country summaries of production, practices, problems, and perspectives for all the species groups would also have augmented the text's reference value.Tropical aquaculture is a very broad topic, the treatment of which is made difficult by the linguistic and cultural diversity of the region, and the prevalence of aquaculture information in the ''gray'' as well as hard literature.Tropical Mariculture contains several chapters that provide good overviews of their subject matter.Everything considered, this heterogeneous collection of papers is a serviceable introduction to aquaculture practices in the tropics.