Read the text and translate. Be ready to discuss

       Mariculture is the cultivation and harvest of marine flora and fauna in a controlled saltwater environment. Sometimes called marine fish farming, marine aquaculture, or aquatic farming, mariculture involves some degree of human intervention to enhance the quality and/or quantity of a marine harvest. This may be achieved by feeding practices, protection from predators, breeding programs, or other means.

Fish, crustaceans, salt-water plants, and shellfish may be farm raised for bait, fishmeal and fish oil production, scientific research, biotechnology development, and repopulating threatened or endangered species. Ornamental fish are also sometimes raised by fish farms for commercial sales. The most widespread use of aquaculture, however, is the production of marine life for human food consumption. With seafood consumption steadily rising and overfishing of the seas a growing global problem, mariculture has been hailed as a low-cost, high-yield source of animal-derived protein.

According to the Fisheries Department of the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), over 33 million metric tons of fish and shellfish encompassing 220 different species are cultured (or farmed) worldwide, representing an estimated $49 billion in 1999. Pound for pound, China leads the world in aquaculture production with 32.5% of world output. In comparison, the United States is only responsible for 4.4% of global aquaculture output by weight. In the United States, Atlantic salmon and channel catfish represent the largest segments of aquaculture production (34% and 40%, respectively, in 1997). Though most farmed seafood is consumed domestically, the United States imports over half of its total edible seafood annually, representing a $7 billion annual trade deficit in 2001. In the United States, aquaculture is regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of Commerce through the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). State and local authorities may also have some input into the location and practices of mariculture facilities if they are located within an area governed by a Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP).

Tilapia, catfish, striped bass, yellow perch, walleye, salmon, and trout are just a few of the fresh and salt-water finned fish species farmed in the United States. Crawfish, shrimp, and shellfish are also cultured in the U.S. Some shellfish, such as oysters, mussels, and clams, are "planted" as juveniles and farmed to maturity, when they are harvested and sold. Shellfish farmers buy the juvenile shellfish (known as "spat") from shellfish hatcheries and nurseries. Oysters and mussels are attached to lines or nets and put in a controlled ocean environment, while clams are buried in the beach or in sandy substrate below low tide. All three of these shellfish species feed on plankton from salt water. But just as overfarming takes a toll on terrestrial natural resources, aquaculture without appropriate environmental management can damage native ecosystems. Farmed fish are raised in open-flow pens and nets. Because large populations of farmed fish are often raised in confined areas, disease spreads easily and rapidly among them. And farmed fish often transmit sea lice and other parasites and diseases to wild fish, wiping out or crippling native stock. Organic pollution from effluent, the waste products from farmed fish, can build up and suffocate marine life on the sea floor below farming pens. This waste includes fish feces, which contributes to nutrient loading, and chemicals and drugs used to keep the fish disease free and promote growth. It also contains excess fish food, which often contains dyes to make farmed fish flesh more aesthetically analogous to its wild counterparts.

Without careful resource management, aquaculture may eventually take an irreversible toll on other non-farmed marine species. Small pelagic fish, such as herring, anchovy, and chub, are captured and processed into fish food compounds for high-density carnivorous fish farms. According to the FAO, at its current rate, fish farming is consuming twice as many wild fish in feeding their domestic counterparts as aquaculture is producing in fish harvests—an average of 1.9 kg of wild fish required for every kilogram of fish farmed.

Shrimp mariculture places high demands on resources. It requires large supplies of juvenile shrimp, which can seriously deplete natural shrimp stocks, and large quantities of shrimp meal to feed them. There also is considerable waste derived from shrimp production. This can pump organic matter and nutrients into the ponds, causing eutrophication, which causes algae bloom and oxygen depletion in the ponds themselves or even downstream. Many shrimp farmers need to pump pesticides, fungicides, parasiticides, and algicides into the ponds between harvests to sterilize them and mitigate the effects of nutrient loading. Shrimp ponds also have extremely short life spans, usually about 5–10 years, forcing their abandonment and the cutting of more mangrove forests to create new ponds.

Mariculture also limits other marine activities along coastal waters. Some aquaculture facilities can occupy large expanses of ocean along beaches which become commercial and recreational no-fish zones. These nursery areas are also sensitive to disturbances by recreational activities like boating or swimming and the introduction of pathogens by domestic or farm animals.