Saving Seafood

With Wild Fish Stocks Dwindling, Congress Considers Backing Aquaculture

August 22, 2025 — Advocates for increasing Hawaiʻi’s aquaculture production are buoyed by the introduction of federal legislation that could supercharge the almost $2 billion national fish farming industry, a sector many believe has been neglected by state authorities for too long.

The bipartisan bill, co-sponsored by Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaiʻi, intends to streamline permitting, build the aquaculture workforce, facilitate research and development, and eventually pave the way for offshore, commercial-level demonstration facilities across federal waters.

The draft Marine Aquaculture Research for America Act, or MARA Act, aims to boost production throughout the country to lessen the nation’s reliance on imported products, which account for 75% to 90% of its seafood — and 63% in Hawaiʻi. The legislation is a streamlined revival of a previously failed bill, although aquaculture industry leaders say it may now be primed for success.

Read the full article at Civil Beat

MAINE: The future is now: Salmon aquaculture embraces precision farming

August 21, 2025 — From afar, the series of 100-meter rings that constitute an Atlantic salmon farm site in the Gulf of Maine appear unchanged since the transition from steel cages to high-density polyethylene pens in the late 1990s and early 2000s. But that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Atlantic salmon aquaculture has been practiced in Maine since the late 1970s and early 1980s, with the first commercial lease being issued by the Maine Department of Marine Resources for a farm site in Cobscook Bay near Eastport in 1982. The industry has evolved and modernized tremendously since then, with the adoption of precision farming defining the last 20 years or so.

So what is precision farming? Also known as precision agriculture, precision farming refers to the use of advanced technologies and data analysis to optimize farming practices. Farmers who embrace precision farming, in theory, increase efficiency and productivity and minimize environmental impact.

For aquatic farmers, that translates to more precise and scalable ways to feed fish and to monitor fish health and growth, ocean conditions and water quality.

Cooke USA has been farming Atlantic salmon in Maine since 2004, celebrating 20 years of aquaculture operations in the state last year. Today, Cooke USA’s operations consist of marine farm sites in Downeast Maine, a processing plant in Machiasport, and three land-based freshwater hatcheries in both the eastern and western parts of Maine. Its fresh farmed Atlantic salmon is sold at supermarkets and restaurants throughout New England and the United States.

It was around the early 2000s that the company, and the industry by and large, began embracing precision farming. It’s what a passerby on a boat or an onlooker from the shore can’t see that’s revolutionizing Atlantic salmon aquaculture in Maine and globally — hardware such as underwater cameras and sensors, which have been used for years, and the AI-enable software behind the hardware.

Read the full article at Bangor Daily News

ALASKA: Alaskan research outlines methods to deter Pacific herring from spawning on kelp farms

August 19, 2025 — Kelp aquaculture operations are rapidly expanding in Alaska and coming into increasingly greater contact with wild marine species.

In an attempt to limit some of the interactions between Alaska’s aquaculture operations and wild species, researchers have outlined strategies to prevent Pacific herring from spawning and laying eggs on kelp farmed at aquaculture farms along the state’s coast.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

New York judge sides with Oyster Bay in aquaculture lease renewal decision

August 13, 2025 — A court in the U.S. state of New York has ruled in favor of the Town of Oyster Bay on Long Island, New York, dismissing a long-term aquaculture leaseholder’s complaint that the town didn’t renew its lease for 1,800 acres of shellfish harvesting area.

“A reading of the town code makes it clear that the town was not required to renew the lease,” Nassau County Supreme Court Judge Gregg Roth said in his decision dismissing the former leaseholder’s claims.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

New tariffs could boost Gulf Coast seafood industry, as lawmakers push for sustainable aquaculture

August 8, 2025 — New tariffs ranging from 15% to 20% take effect this week on a wide range of imported goods, including fruits, vegetables, meat, dairy, and fish.

While shoppers may feel the pinch at the checkout, some in the U.S. seafood industry see an opportunity.

Nearly 85% of the seafood consumed in the United States is imported, according to Galveston fisherman, Scott Hickman. Major seafood suppliers including Vietnam and Indonesia both now facing new tariffs of up to 20%. The changes, part of the latest round of President Donald Trump’s trade war, are prompting renewed focus on sourcing food domestically.

For longtime Galveston fisherman Hickman, this is a welcome shift.

“America’s become addicted to cheap seafood that’s raised in ways they wouldn’t approve,” Hickman said. “Most Americans, I think, would rather spend a little bit more for the shrimp po’ boy or the crab fingers if they know it’s American-produced.”

Hickam says tariffs level the playing field for fishermen. He’s also pointing to new legislation in Congress looking to expand seafood production in the United States.

Read the full article at Click 2 Houston

Aquaculture can help produce more US seafood

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.

Read the full article at The Hill

MAINE: As farming innovation collides with fishing tradition, Harpswell brings both sides to the table

August 7, 2025 — Last year, Harpswell oyster farmer Samantha Bohan learned the town was considering a one-year moratorium on new aquaculture leases because of concerns about their impact on traditional fishing.

Bohan had just started her own farm a year earlier and was worried she wouldn’t be able to renew her two small, annual leases. Instead, Harpswell created a working group to study the issue, and Bohan volunteered to serve on it.

“It’s kind of funny. I always told my husband I don’t ever want to get into politics,” she said in an interview. “And he said, ‘The moment you got an oyster farm, you signed up for politics.’”

Created in May 2024, the town’s Aquaculture Working Group set out to examine how Maine’s aquaculture licensing process works, assess its impact on Harpswell and gather public feedback on the growing number of seafood farms in local waters.

The group’s efforts culminated in the creation of a new map of local commercial fishing areas, which it urged state officials to use when evaluating applications for aquaculture leases to help avoid conflicts with fishermen. Its final meeting was on June 11.

Read the full article at the Harpswell Anchor 

US senators propose industry-backed permitting structure to enable offshore fish farming

August 5, 2025 — Legislators have introduced a bill in the U.S. Senate that would establish a new permitting framework for offshore fish farming in U.S. waters – a long-term goal of the domestic aquaculture sector.

“This growing bipartisan consensus in Congress to advance open ocean aquaculture in America comes with strong support from leading environmental groups, seafood industry businesses, chefs, and academics who all agree: We can responsibly grow more of our own seafood here at home,” Stronger America Through Seafood (SATS) Campaign Manager Drue Banta Winters said in a statement. “With today’s advanced technology, the responsible farming of seafood can sustainably complement our nation’s wild-capture harvesting to meet the growing demand for fresh, American-raised seafood, create new job opportunities, and encourage investment in working waterfront communities.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

MAINE: As farming innovation collides with fishing tradition, Harpswell brings both sides to the table

August 4, 2025 — This story is part of “Cultivating the Coast,” a special report that explores Harpswell’s rapidly growing aquaculture industry.

Last year, Harpswell oyster farmer Samantha Bohan learned the town was considering a one-year moratorium on new aquaculture leases because of concerns about their impact on traditional fishing.

Bohan had just started her own farm a year earlier and was worried she wouldn’t be able to renew her two small, annual leases. Instead, Harpswell created a working group to study the issue, and Bohan volunteered to serve on it.

“It’s kind of funny. I always told my husband I don’t ever want to get into politics,” she said in an interview. “And he said, ‘The moment you got an oyster farm, you signed up for politics.’”

Created in May 2024, the town’s Aquaculture Working Group set out to examine how Maine’s aquaculture licensing process works, assess its impact on Harpswell, and gather public feedback on the growing number of seafood farms in local waters.

The group’s efforts culminated in the creation of a new map of local commercial fishing areas, which it urged state officials to use when evaluating applications for aquaculture leases to help avoid conflicts with fishermen. Its final meeting was on June 11.

Read the full article at Harpswell Anchor