"Currently the United States imports 70 percent of the seafood eaten here and 40 percent is from overseas fish farms," writes Randolph E. Schmid. In a move to enter this lucrative market, the Bush administration is sending a bill to Congress to establish regulations for aquaculture that would permit fish farming up to 200 miles off the nation's coast. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) sees benefits of having aquaculture farther from shore, including issues of water depth, water currents, and water quality. Schmid reports that environmentalists fear the approach could lead to "the discharge of solid waste, the use of pesticides, antibiotic and other potentially harmful chemicals and the escape of farmed fish into the marine environment."