August 8, 2025 — Demand for sustainable protein is on the rise, but the U.S. already harvests the sustainable limit of wild-caught seafood. Our solution is to import up to 85 percent of our seafood — half of that sourced from fish farms in other countries.
So why aren’t we instead eating seafood from sustainable American fish farms in our own deep ocean waters?
Members of Congress have proposed a solution to tackle the chief obstacle to American open ocean aquaculture. The bipartisan Marine Aquaculture Research for America Act of 2025, introduced by Sens. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), would help create a pathway for open ocean aquaculture in America by establishing an assessment program to evaluate commercial-scale demonstration projects in federal waters.
Open ocean aquaculture is supported by the nation’s most influential environmental groups, but to date, not a single commercial-scale finfish farm operates in U.S. federal waters. Recently, a small, single-pen demonstration farm proposed off the coast of Florida was the first offshore project to receive a permit after being mired in the permitting process for more than seven years.
The project, which has federal grant funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and a permit from the Environmental Protection Agency, still faces more regulatory hurdles ahead before it is fully approved to enter the water.