In 1966 Congress passed the National Sea Grant College Program Act to promote marine research, education, and extension services in institutions along the nation's ocean and Great Lakes coasts. In Maryland a Sea Grant Program -- a partnership among federal and state governments, universities, and industries -- began in 1977, and in 1982 the University of Maryland was named the nation's seventeenth Sea Grant College. The Maryland Sea Grant College focuses its efforts on the Chesapeake Bay, with emphasis on the marine concerns of fisheries, seafood technology, and environmental quality. The introduction and transferring of organisms from one ecosystem to another has a history that is as old as human migration. Some translocations have had commercial and ecological benefits; many others have been problematical, if not detrimental, to the environment. This book examines a number of case studies of translocating aquatic plants and animal species, in the context of issues that entrepreneurs, resource managers, and scientists must take into account.

A total of 1,354 introductions of 237 species into 140 countries are analyses. The number of introductions carried out rose from the middle of the last century until the 1960s and have lessened since then.