Saving Seafood

Aquaculture supporters send letter to Congress

February 7, 2019 — More than 120 seafood industry leaders and other aquaculture proponents have signed on to a letter that was sent to members of Congress on Wednesday, 6 February, urging federal lawmakers to open up opportunities for offshore fish farming.

The letter, sent to legislators by Stronger America Through Seafood, said House and Senate members plan to reintroduce updated versions of the Advancing the Quality and Understanding of American Aquaculture (AQUAA) Act. The bills would streamline the permitting process for aquaculture initiatives based in the U.S. exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

“It is time for the U.S. to get into the aquaculture game and provide new local sources of sustainable seafood for consumers,” the letter said. “We can do it here, we can do it right and we can do it [now].”

The letter also said the country risks missing out on getting a piece of the growing aquaculture industry, which researchers believe will continue to grow. According to Beyhan de Jong, a Rabobank researcher, the industry produced USD 232 billion (EUR 204.8 billion) in goods in 2016. It stands to grow by another USD 100 billion (EUR 88.3 billion) in less than a decade.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Industry group pushing for more aquaculture in the United States

September 17, 2018 — When it comes to aquaculture in the United States, there’s a sea of opportunity.

Seas of opportunity, really.

Since the United States boasts the second-largest exclusive enterprise zone in the world – meaning it has proprietary marine resource rights over an area totaling roughly 4.4 million square miles in three oceans, the Caribbean Sea, and the Gulf of Mexico – aquaculture would seem like an ideal industry for the country. That’s especially true since America’s coastlines are home to a variety of seafood species.

However, as aquaculture has witnessed exponential growth worldwide in recent years, the United States really has not been a significant player in the industry. According to the World Bank, aquaculture produced more than 106 million metric tons (MT) of seafood in 2015. That’s more than double the seafood farms created in 2003 and more than 50 times the yield reported in 1960.

In 1960, the United States ranked fourth in the world, harvesting 104,421 metric tons of the more than two million MT produced worldwide.

In 2015, America was responsible for just 426,000 MT – or just 0.4 percent of the worldwide harvest. That put the it 18th in the world in aquaculture production, trailing such countries as Ecuador, Malaysia, and North Korea.

By contrast, the United States ranks No. 1 in the world in poultry and beef production.

Aquaculture supporters say there’s a major reason for that discrepancy. Don Kent, the president and CEO of Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute, told SeafoodSource his organization has tried for more than a decade to develop a small fish farm off the Southern California coast, but so far to no avail.

“In a lot of ways, what we’re trying to do in aquaculture is just growing another kind of food. We already know how to grow chickens and pigs. We know how to grow vegetables, and we even know how to grow catfish and trout. We have regulations for handling that,” he said. “What we don’t have is permission to go out into ocean and use the ocean in a sustainable way.”

That’s why a new trade group has emerged to promote aquaculture in the United States. Stronger America Through Seafood – represented by officials from such companies as Cargill, Pacific Seafood, Red Lobster, and High Liner Foods – sees aquaculture as a way to provide Americans increased access to seafood products that are both sustainable and affordable.

Margaret Henderson, the group’s campaign director, told SeafoodSource that the organization came together after industry leaders were encouraged by some of the positions expressed by federal officials regarding increased domestic seafood production. At the same time, Henderson said those same industry leaders looked around and saw no private-sector organization championing those efforts.

Read the full story at Seafood Source