Demand for seafood is increasing globally and domestically. Despite being the largest importer of seafood in the world, U.S. domestic aquaculture and fisheries production has remained relatively constant for several decades. With limited potential for additional sustainable growth in domestic wild fisheries, and increasing concern about climate change impacts on fisheries, there is growing interest in sustainable marine aquaculture in U.S. waters.
Policies and regulations have been suggested as one barrier to aquaculture growth. However most of the research on the topic to date consists of small scale, regional, and/or case studies, and few have connected both aquaculture and fisheries regulations.
In this project, researchers will conduct a large-scale data synthesis and time series analysis of all 24 coastal marine states on the adoption of marine aquaculture under changing policy and fisheries conditions.
The results of this project will provide a more holistic view of the possible patterns of marine aquaculture production in the United States. These data could help inform policy and private investment into the future, including identifying states with less friction and/or greater need for aquaculture and determining the efficacy of current aquaculture policies given the state of aquaculture-fisheries linkages.
