LAUSR

Largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) is one of the most popular sport fishes in North America, and it has a long history of being cultured in farm ponds for release into lakes for feefishing, or for stock enhancement of natural populations. It has been widely translocated outside its natural distributional range in North America, and it is an introduced species in Europe, Asia, Africa, Oceania and centraland south-America, where it has formed selfsustaining populations. It is sometimes considered an invasive species, because it either competes with or consumes resident fish, leading to declines in, or local extinctions of, native fish species. In addition to its popularity with anglers, the largemouth bass also has some value as a food-fish and naturalized populations support both recreational and commercial fisheries in a few countries. Commercial-scale farming of largemouth bass has gradually increased as cultivation and rearing methods have been developed and refined, but production volumes of food-fish are very modest in comparison with cyprinids, tilapias and salmonids. The USA has been, and still is, the major player in largemouth bass aquaculture research and development, but both research and commercial farming are becoming increasingly international, with China playing a leading role in the expansion. The editors of Largemouth bass aquaculture have worked on research and development of largemouth bass aquaculture at Kentucky State University (USA) for over two decades, and they have been prominent in the promotion of largemouth bass as a farmed species. With their background, and combined knowledge and experience the editors were well-suited to oversee the production of this book. The editors have authored or co-authored eight of the fifteen chapters in the book, and they have had a team of seventeen collaborators. Most of the authors who have contributed to the book are from North America, and two are from China. As a result, the focus tends to be mainly on the conditions and farming practices prevalent in the USA, although a considerable part of the book content may have application in other regions where development of largemouth bass farming is being considered. There are chapters in Aquaculture International (2019) 27:1579–1581 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10499-019-00405-2