There is a tremendous economic benefit throughout the United 

 States as a result of our investment and our experience in aqua- 

 culture. And nowhere is this better illustrated than in my State of 

 Mississippi. Mississippi accounts for about 75 percent of the total 

 domestic catfish production. I mentioned to one of my friends the 

 other day here in the Washington area that if you are in a super- 

 market here in the Washington area and you buy processed catfish, 

 the chances are that 80 percent or a little more of the processed 

 catfish that you will buy or see displayed in the supermarkets in 

 the mfetropolitan area of Washington came from the State of Mis- 

 sissippi. 



And one interesting aspect of this aquaculture industry in our 

 State is that it is fully integrated in terms of the production, proc- 

 essing, the production of the feed that is used in the industry. All 

 of the businesses that are related to catfish production, marketing, 

 and transportation derive great benefits from the growth of this in- 

 dustry in our State. 



We have thousands of people employed in the industries, directly 

 and indirectly. I am told that right now, the count is about 7,000 

 people who are involved in direct employment in this industry in 

 our State. So we are very interested in any legislation that deals 

 with aquaculture. We do want to be sure that the government con- 

 tinues to provide important assistance in the research area. This 

 has been a great benefit and will continue to be important as more 

 and more people become involved in aquaculture industries. 



I think it is a very important hearing for us to be having today, 

 Mr. Chairman, and I congratulate you on your convening the hear- 

 ing, and congratulate my friend from Hawaii for the introduction 

 of the legislation that will reauthorize this aquaculture activity at 

 the Federal level, which is very important, as I say. And we look 

 forward to working with the committee to be sure that it is legisla- 

 tion that will be complementary and that will be supportive of our 

 efforts to continue to derive the important economic benefits that 

 we see in our country in this area. 



Thank you very much. 



Senator Daschle. Thank you very much, Senator Cochran. We 

 have made reference to Senator Akaka. Let me invite him to make 

 his opening remarks at this time. 



STATEMENT OF HON. DANIEL K. AKAKA, A U.S. SENATOR 



FROM HAWAH 



Senator Akaka. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, Senator 

 Daschle. I want to tell you that I really appreciate the time you 

 have given to this bill and your willingness to chair this hearing 

 today. Over the years, since we served in the House together, we 

 have been very close friends. And I am glad to see another friend 

 here from Mississippi, Senator Cochran. I know his State is deeply 

 involved in aquaculture. So this bill is very, very important, not 

 only to our States, but to the people of our country as well as the 

 industry. I look forward to this bill being a catalyst that will draw 

 the industry together. 



I also want to thank my colleagues on the Agriculture Commit- 

 tee, Chairman Leahv, who supports and is a cosponsor of this bill, 

 and wanted us to oegin as soon as we could to have hearings. 



