In 1970, aquaculture accounted for only 6 percent of human fish and seafood consumed; today, people eat more farmed fish — mostly shrimp, shellfish (but not lobster), catfish, tilapia, and salmon — than wild caught varieties.
But in this fast growing protein commodity subsector, the U.S. has been a bit player with about $1 billion in aquaculture products, a veritable drop in the $70 billion global bucket.
With the U.S. trade deficit in seafood having climbed to more than $9 billion, the Obama administration now wants to energize the U.S.' aquaculture output. The Commerce Department, parent agency for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, last week announced a campaign to expand domestic aquaculture output — though Michael Rubino, who heads the aquaculture program within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, was realistic about the chances of any dramatic climb higher in the ranking of nations that grow protein in water.
In a telephone interview with the Times, Rubino cautioned that the new NOAA aquaculture policy was "an aspirational goal" for the administration, a freshening of the 1998 policy, taking into account new science and economic facts of life, and a push to accelerate the program wherever possible.
Read the complete story from The Gloucester Times.