State of the Science Briefing on Aquaculture

The Aquarium of the Pacific's Seafood for the Future program created a State of the Science Briefing on U.S. Marine Aquaculture for members of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation ahead of the October 16, 2019 hearing on offshore aquaculture. The briefing provides information based on the best available science for a number of topics to help policymakers weigh the trade-offs with accurate information. Topics were chosen based on issues and concerns that tend to be more prevalent in public dialogue about marine aquaculture. Some of the featured topics include escapes, entanglements, and marine aquaculture’s role in climate resilience.

The document also includes a brief list of scientific resources. More importantly, it highlights the sources that include researchers from U.S. institutions who are involved in this body of work domestically and internationally. This is important because, in addition to the growing body of science showing that the U.S. has the space and the oceanographic and ecological conditions to farm seafood in U.S. ocean waters, it demonstrates that the U.S. has the scientific bench-strength to do it responsibly with adequate scientific input and science-based management.  

The Aquarium of the Pacific has been engaged in discussions around marine aquaculture as a potential conservation tool for over a decade. Meeting the fundamental food, water, and energy needs of our growing human population in a rapidly changing climate is putting immense pressure on the ocean and land systems. The only way to meet these challenges is to innovate, leveraging the best available science and technology to ensure that every person has access to these fundamental resources, while also ensuring the planet we all rely on is in good health. The U.S. has the scientific, technological, economic, and regulatory capacity to farm the ocean responsibly as part of a domestic strategy to diversify our domestic food portfolio to produce more nutritious food in the changing climate, while reducing our impacts on the planet. The risks are not zero, but most of the concerns can be managed with science-based management and technology.

The Briefing and other science-based resources can be found at marineaquacomms.org.

By Kim Thompson, Director of Seafood for the Future at the Aquarium of the Pacific