Growth of U.S. aquaculture shows promise

Source: Food and Drink Digital

Date :6/29/2007 8:49:07 AM

Without infrastructure to attract investments, U.S. will relinquish position in Blue Revolution.

June 27th marked the conclusion of the 2007 National Marine Aquaculture Economic Summit hosted by U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez and the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration (NOAA). The National Fisheries Institute (NFI) applauds the efforts of business leaders, government officials, policymakers and scientific researchers who participated in the Summit for engaging in this ongoing dialogue on sustainable seafood.

“Currently the U.S. is missing the boat for domestic farmed seafood while Asia and South America are leading the aquaculture boom, or the ‘Blue Revolution,’” says NFI President John Connelly. “More Americans are eating seafood for its health benefits, and aquaculture is a key part of a sustainable supply. If Americans want to eat more fish grown here at home, we must support a domestic infrastructure for this promising industry. The NOAA Summit is a positive step toward organizing the system that regulates U.S. marine fish farming.”

NOAA Fisheries Service statistics reveal that more than 80 percent of our nation’s fish stocks are sustainable, but domestic fisheries alone are not meeting the demand for seafood. There is an 80 million-metric-ton gap between the amount of wild fish that can be supplied sustainably and rising consumer demand. Fisheries experts indicate that global aquaculture production will need to nearly double by the year 2050 to meet the demand for healthy seafood, and the U.S. Department of Commerce is calling for a fivefold increase in domestic aquaculture production by 2025. We currently import about 80 percent of seafood sold in the U.S.

“As international demand for farmed seafood grows, the domestic framework for aquaculture should grow accordingly,” says Jeff Davis, NFI chairman and an owner of American Seafoods Group. “But without an organized regulatory system that is attractive to investors, the U.S. will continue to significantly lag behind other nations in supplying healthy farmed seafood to the world.”

Marion Kaiser, CEO, Aquanor Marketing Inc. says, “Part of our goal in promoting aquaculture is to preserve the working waterfront that is essential to economic survival in many coastal areas, including my hometown of Boston. These fishing communities already have the skills of the local fishermen and infrastructure required to harvest and process seafood – including aquaculture in that equation can only benefit local economies. We risk losing these jobs to other nations that are ahead of the U.S. in developing their own regulatory and economic structure for farmed seafood.”

The growth of aquaculture, notably through advancements in feed efficiency and the ability to expand production in marine environments will help provide increasing numbers of American families with healthy seafood. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that in 2005, the value of U.S. aquaculture sales alone exceeded $1 billion, yet that is just 1.5 percent of the $70 billion global value of this industry.