Home

Promote the development of environmentally safe and sustainable aquaculture to meet the growing national and global needs for protein from seafood and to relieve pressure on wild fish stocks.

Expected increases in world population are projected to intensify the global demand for edible seafood. The aquaculture industry, which propagates and rears aquatic plants and animals, can provide consumers with high-quality, safe, and affordable seafood and other important fish products, and thereby reduce pressure on wild stocks and help their recovery.

The global aquaculture industry, whose production is valued at nearly $1 billion in the U.S. and $40 billion worldwide, currently supplies less than 10% of the nation's seafood demands. Improving U.S. aquaculture production can simultaneously provide more seafood to domestic markets and help offset the U.S. trade deficit in edible seafood products, which has increased by 139% since 1992 and now stands at $6 billion annually the largest for any agricultural commodity. Aquaculture can also make major contributions to U.S. local, regional, and national economies by creating business opportunities both here and abroad and by providing employment in a new and diverse industry.

The U.S. has the opportunity to lead the world in developing sustainable aquaculture technologies based on renewable resources and advancing international guidelines for the industry, which provides 25% of the world's fish supplies. However, the continued growth of aquaculture in land-based systems and coastal environments and any expansion of aquaculture into the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone must be conducted in an environmentally sound manner. Although coastal environments are primarily under state control, the federal government can play a significant role in assisting tribal and state aquaculture efforts through research and the regulatory process.

Ongoing Concerns

• U.S. aquaculture development is restricted by a lack of species ready for commercial culture, sophisticated engineering requirements, sparse information on diseases and ways to treat them, and marketing and distribution concerns.
• Concern exists about the potential environmental impacts of some aquaculture operations, especially genetic and disease consequences for wild stocks, introduction of nonindigenous species, coastal habitat alteration, effluent effects on habitat, and interactions with marine mammals and endangered species.
• No comprehensive regulatory framework exists for permitting aquaculture operations.
• Although aquaculture has proven to be a valuable tool to increase salmon populations, its effectiveness remains unknown for other fish and shellfish stocks.

Recommendations

• Support research and develop pilot projects for hatchery and nursery development, closed-system production techniques, processing, and marketing.
• Work with stakeholders to develop guidelines for environmentally sound and sustainable aquaculture by the end of the year 2000, and promote domestic and international compliance with them.
• Work with stakeholders to create an integrated regulatory framework for coastal or inland aquaculture.
• Develop a comprehensive federal permitting and certification process for the open-ocean aquaculture industry in the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone, consistent with the U.S. policy on non-indigenous species.
• Integrate aquaculture development with wild stock management and environmental stewardship.
• Evaluate wild stock enhancement through aquaculture as a method to accelerate recovery of depleted stocks, and implement stock enhancement programs where practicable.
• Through the Joint Subcommittee on Aquaculture, improve coordination of U.S. government aquaculture research and assistance to tribal, state, and local governments, and industry.

For more information

http://swr.ucsd.edu/fmd/bill/aquapol.htm
http://www.susdev.noaa.gov/aqucult.html
http://www.fao.org/waicent/faoinfo/fishery/