December 17, 2024 — The White House National Science and Technology Council has finalized the federal government’s new aquaculture plan, the first in 40 years.
On 16 December, NOAA Fisheries revealed that the council had finalized the Strategic Plan for Aquaculture Economic Development, which outlines the government plans to invest in infrastructure, establish new research and development programs, and provide capitol to the domestic aquaculture sector.
November 13, 2024 — Stronger America Through Seafood (SATS), a coalition of stakeholders in the U.S. aquaculture industry, has launched a month-long campaign to educate federal lawmakers and their staff about aquaculture and raise support for offshore finfish farming.
“As one of the most environmentally friendly methods for producing protein, open ocean aquaculture is a vital food production method being embraced by nations worldwide but it remains an untapped industry here in the U.S.,” SATS Campaign Manager Drue Banta Winters said in a statement.
September 11, 2024 — The U.S. state of Maine’s USD 137 million (EUR 124 million) aquaculture industry is attracting investment and creating new job opportunities, but filling those jobs as fast as they’re opening has become an issue.
The Maine Aquaculture Association estimates that based on current growth trends, aquaculture businesses statewide will be short 1,300 employees 15 years from now, making workforce development a crucial issue for the industry if it wants to expand as planned.
August 5, 2024 –A new bill from U.S. Representative Mary Peltola (D-Alaska) would ban U.S. agencies from permitting or supporting offshore aquaculture in federal waters without authorization from Congress.
The Domestic Seafood Production Act (DSPA) would specifically put a halt to ongoing governmental efforts to foster and encourage finfish farming in federal waters as Congress considers the future of offshore aquaculture in U.S. waters.
August 1, 2024 — Rep. Mary Sattler Peltola (D-AK) this week introduced the Domestic Seafood Production Act (DSPA), legislation to help address food security in communities historically reliant on coastal and marine resources by helping them build seafood processing capacity for local use.
Peltola’s bill would prevent rapid offshore finfish aquaculture permitting and its harmful effects on the environment and local ecosystems by prohibiting permitting or construction of offshore fish farms in U.S. Federal waters in the absence of Congressional authorization.
The bill encourages research on the effects of finfish aquaculture on the ecosystem and potential offshore locations that may be least impactful to the marine environment and commercially important fish stocks.
“In Alaska, so many communities rely on fish and seafood production both for subsistence and good-paying jobs,” Rep. Peltola said. “My bill would support our local fishing and maritime communities while strengthening our domestic seafood supply chain.”
June 18, 2024 — A new report from the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, or FAO, has found that more fish were farmed worldwide in 2022 than harvested from the wild, an apparent first.
Last week, the FAO released its annual report on the state of aquaculture — which refers to the farming of both seafood and aquatic plants — and fisheries around the world. The organization found that global production from both aquaculture and fisheries reached a new high — 223.3 million metric tons of animals and plants — in 2022. Of that, 185.4 million metric tons were aquatic animals, and 37.8 million metric tons were algae. Aquaculture was responsible for 51 percent of aquatic animal production in 2022, or 94.4 metric tons.
The milestone was in many ways an expected one, given the world’s insatiable appetite for seafood. Since 1961, consumption of seafood has grown at twice the annual rate of the global population, according to the FAO. Because production levels from fisheries are not expected to change significantly in the future, meeting the growing global demand for seafood almost certainly necessitates an increase in aquaculture.
Though fishery production levels fluctuate from year to year, “it’s not like there’s new fisheries out there waiting to be discovered,” said Dave Martin, program director for Sustainable Fisheries Partnerships, an international organization that works to reduce the environmental impact of seafood supply chains. “So any growth in consumption of seafood is going to come from aquaculture.”
May 2, 2024 — U.S. regulators decided Wednesday to allow American fishermen to harvest thousands of pounds of valuable baby eels in the coming years, even as authorities have shuttered the industry in Canada while they grapple with poaching.
Baby eels, also called elvers, are harvested from rivers and streams by fishermen every spring. The tiny fish are sometimes worth more than $2,000 per pound because of their high value to Asian aquaculture companies.
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission decided Wednesday that U.S. fishermen will be allowed to harvest a little less than 10,000 pounds (4,536 kilograms) of the eels per year. That quota, which holds current levels, will stand through at least 2027 and could be extended beyond that year, the panel decided.
March 9, 2024 — Aquaculture advocates in the U.S. state of Maine are having a hard time getting through to legislators in the state capitol of Augusta.
The Maine Department of Marine Resources has backed a bill to make its process for reviewing aquaculture leases more efficient, but its call for a reduction in public notices and tighter requirements for a public hearing have raised the ire of numerous fishermen and community groups all along the coast.
Read the full article at SeafoodSource
March 7, 2024 — The Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) is hosting five listening sessions to gather input from stakeholders on the Aquaculture Leasing Program.
The Aquaculture Leasing Program was reorganized and now falls under the Bureau of Public Health and Aquaculture.
According to information from the DMR’s website, “In light of this reorganization, as well as increased interest in the blue economy, aquaculture in general and growing demands on the program, DMR wants to hear directly from stakeholders as it plots a course for the future.”
The sessions are designed to foster an understanding of opportunities and challenges and to encourage discussion of the best ideas for moving forward with aquaculture in Maine.
March 5, 2024 — Kingfish Maine, the company behind a proposed aquaculture facility in Jonesport, received $4 million from the state last month while appeals challenging the project continue to wind their way through the courts.
Though a number of aquaculture projects across the state have stalled in recent years because of pushback from conservation groups, fishermen and coastal landowners, Kingfish Maine remains optimistic it will break ground on a $110 million land-based fish farm next year.
For now, construction on the recirculating aquaculture facility, which the company says will eventually produce 8,000 metric tons of yellowtail kingfish a year and provide between 70 and 100 jobs, is on hold as the Maine Supreme Judicial Court and Maine Business and Consumer Court consider challenges to the group’s permits.