February 9, 2015 — An annual summit on sustainable seafood kicked off Monday (Feb. 9) in New Orleans, focusing on reasons to promote national aquaculture efforts and better regulate imported farmed seafood.
In her keynote address, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Administrator Kathryn Sullivan said that while federal catch limits are helping to "end overfishing and rebuild our nation's fish stocks … the simple fact is that the global abundance of human beings are rising but the global abundance of human fish stocks are not.
"Half of the seafood we eat (in the United States) comes from aquaculture," Sullivan said. But, by far the majority of that is imported from abroad, mainly from Asia fishery aquaculture markets.
She pointed to Louisiana's strong commercial fishing industry but said the Gulf of Mexico and the country as a whole must embrace aquaculture that can create more jobs and profits for local fisheries industries, as well as help meet future global seafood needs as human populations grow.
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