October 27, 2026 — Do you know where your seafood comes from? According to NOAA, roughly 80% of the seafood Americans eat is imported.
Researchers at the University of New Hampshire are leading a major new effort aimed at growing more seafood domestically through sustainable aquaculture.
Just a quarter mile off the coast of New Castle, UNH researchers are raising steelhead trout in a floating sea farm known as an Aquafort. It’s become a model for studying ways to make seafood production more sustainable.
“We are growing fish at a very small community scale for the purpose of supplementing the seafood markets within the local area. So, the difference between wild-caught fish and aquaculture fish are hatched from eggs Our fish are actually hatched at a local New Hampshire hatchery up in Ossipee,” said David Fredriksson, director of UNH’s Center for Sustainable Seafood Systems.
About 4,000 steelhead trout are taken to the floating pen, where they’re raised for several months before harvest. The fish share the pen with sugar kelp and mussels. Researchers say those species act as natural biofilters, helping recycle nutrients and maintain balance within the ecosystem. The approach, known as integrated multi-trophic aquaculture, is designed to make seafood farming more environmentally sustainable by raising multiple species together.