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universal throughout coastal areas wherever suitable deposits and 

 a market exist. 



Oyster shell 1s an extremely useful construction material in the 

 Gulf of Mexico biophysical region. Twenty of the twenty-two million 

 tons of annual U.S. production are 1n the Gulf States with Texas 

 and Louisiana producing the vast majority of it. 



Phosphate rock 1s an Important estuarine mineral resource; about 

 75 percent of the total U.S. production 1s 1n the estuarine zone 

 of Florida and North Carolina, particularly around Tampa Bay and 

 Pamlico Sound. 



Aquaculture 



The great fish and shellfish resources of United States coastal waters 

 have adequately supplied the seafood demands of the increasing popu- 

 lation for over three hundred years. Now, however, the demands for 

 some products 1s so great that the normal fishing grounds and fisher- 

 ies are In great danger of being exhausted, both from overfishing 

 and from the Indirect effects of man's encroachment Into the estua- 

 rine environment. To supply future needs of some fish products new 

 approaches toward commercial fishing are needed, both in harvesting 

 the natural growth and in controlling the entire fishery. Aquacul- 

 ture 1s defined as the rearing of aquatic organisms, both plants and 

 animals, under controlled conditions using the techniques of plant 

 and animal husbandry. It Involves a variety of operations, some 



