Saving Seafood

ALASKA: Dunleavy’s bill to legalize fish farms seen as flaky by many lawmakers, interest groups

February 25, 2025 — A bill by Gov. Mike Dunleavy allowing fish farms in Alaska, which has banned them for the past 35 years, is getting a little bit of misunderstanding and a whole lot of opposition from legislators and interest groups, including some of his closest political allies.

House Bill 111 would allow inland farms for species such as tilapia, catfish and carp — but not for salmon, although some opponents of the bill are focusing on that species in their comments. In response, Dunleavy released a six-minute video on his YouTube channel Monday night defending his proposal.

“This bill does not allow the farming of salmon,” he said at the start of the video. “That is an iconic Alaskan species of fish, the five species of salmon. It also won’t allow Atlantic salmon to be grown in Alaska.”

“It allows mom-and-pop operations, families — whether you’re you’re in a city, you’re in a you’re in on the Kenai Fairbanks Matsu, or remotely — it allows you to legally be able to grow, for example, rainbow trout or Dolly Varden which, right now, there is no commercial fishery on that. There is no competition in terms of competing with our wild-caught salmon. But it will allow people to grow these, these, these fish in livestock tanks in their garage or livestock tanks out back.”

Read the full article at Juneau Empire

Rabobank predicts 2025 to bring aquaculture growth on improved demand, lower input costs

January 3, 2024 — Rabobank’s RaboResearch unit is forecasting an increase in global aquaculture production in 2025, with increases seen in both farmed fish and shrimp volumes.

While increasing tariffs and trade restrictions may bring uncertainty or impede the industry, lower feed prices and rising demand should benefit producers, according to “Global Aquaculture Outlook 2025,” published by Rabobank’s Global Animal Protein Sector team. The publication projects that finfish production will see the most growth, while shrimp – which continues to be affected by low prices – will experience a more modest upturn.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

US government finalizes its first aquaculture development plan in 40 years

December 17, 2024 — The White House National Science and Technology Council has finalized the federal government’s new aquaculture plan, the first in 40 years.

On 16 December, NOAA Fisheries revealed that the council had finalized the Strategic Plan for Aquaculture Economic Development, which outlines the government plans to invest in infrastructure, establish new research and development programs, and provide capitol to the domestic aquaculture sector.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

US offshore aquaculture industry launches campaign to increase Congressional support

November 13, 2024 — Stronger America Through Seafood (SATS), a coalition of stakeholders in the U.S. aquaculture industry, has launched a month-long campaign to educate federal lawmakers and their staff about aquaculture and raise support for offshore finfish farming.

“As one of the most environmentally friendly methods for producing protein, open ocean aquaculture is a vital food production method being embraced by nations worldwide but it remains an untapped industry here in the U.S.,” SATS Campaign Manager Drue Banta Winters said in a statement.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

MAINE: Maine instituting workforce development programs to tackle aquaculture labor shortages

September 11, 2024 — The U.S. state of Maine’s USD 137 million (EUR 124 million) aquaculture industry is attracting investment and creating new job opportunities, but filling those jobs as fast as they’re opening has become an issue.

The Maine Aquaculture Association estimates that based on current growth trends, aquaculture businesses statewide will be short 1,300 employees 15 years from now, making workforce development a crucial issue for the industry if it wants to expand as planned.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Peltola moves to ban US support of offshore aquaculture in federal waters

August 5, 2024 –A new bill from U.S. Representative Mary Peltola (D-Alaska) would ban U.S. agencies from permitting or supporting offshore aquaculture in federal waters without authorization from Congress.

The Domestic Seafood Production Act (DSPA) would specifically put a halt to ongoing governmental efforts to foster and encourage finfish farming in federal waters as Congress considers the future of offshore aquaculture in U.S. waters.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Peltola Introduces Domestic Seafood Production Act

August 1, 2024 — Rep. Mary Sattler Peltola (D-AK) this week introduced the Domestic Seafood Production Act (DSPA), legislation to help address food security in communities historically reliant on coastal and marine resources by helping them build seafood processing capacity for local use.

Peltola’s bill would prevent rapid offshore finfish aquaculture permitting and its harmful effects on the environment and local ecosystems by prohibiting permitting or construction of offshore fish farms in U.S. Federal waters in the absence of Congressional authorization.

The bill encourages research on the effects of finfish aquaculture on the ecosystem and potential offshore locations that may be least impactful to the marine environment and commercially important fish stocks.

“In Alaska, so many communities rely on fish and seafood production both for subsistence and good-paying jobs,” Rep. Peltola said. “My bill would support our local fishing and maritime communities while strengthening our domestic seafood supply chain.”

Read the full story at Yahoo! News

More fish were farmed than caught for the first time ever

June 18, 2024 — A new report from the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, or FAO, has found that more fish were farmed worldwide in 2022 than harvested from the wild, an apparent first.

Last week, the FAO released its annual report on the state of aquaculture — which refers to the farming of both seafood and aquatic plants — and fisheries around the world. The organization found that global production from both aquaculture and fisheries reached a new high — 223.3 million metric tons of animals and plants — in 2022. Of that, 185.4 million metric tons were aquatic animals, and 37.8 million metric tons were algae. Aquaculture was responsible for 51 percent of aquatic animal production in 2022, or 94.4 metric tons.

The milestone was in many ways an expected one, given the world’s insatiable appetite for seafood. Since 1961, consumption of seafood has grown at twice the annual rate of the global population, according to the FAO. Because production levels from fisheries are not expected to change significantly in the future, meeting the growing global demand for seafood almost certainly necessitates an increase in aquaculture.

Though fishery production levels fluctuate from year to year, “it’s not like there’s new fisheries out there waiting to be discovered,” said Dave Martin, program director for Sustainable Fisheries Partnerships, an international organization that works to reduce the environmental impact of seafood supply chains. “So any growth in consumption of seafood is going to come from aquaculture.”

Read the full article at Grist

US regulators maintain fishing quota for valuable baby eels, even as Canada struggles with poaching

May 2, 2024 — U.S. regulators decided Wednesday to allow American fishermen to harvest thousands of pounds of valuable baby eels in the coming years, even as authorities have shuttered the industry in Canada while they grapple with poaching.

Baby eels, also called elvers, are harvested from rivers and streams by fishermen every spring. The tiny fish are sometimes worth more than $2,000 per pound because of their high value to Asian aquaculture companies.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission decided Wednesday that U.S. fishermen will be allowed to harvest a little less than 10,000 pounds (4,536 kilograms) of the eels per year. That quota, which holds current levels, will stand through at least 2027 and could be extended beyond that year, the panel decided.

Read the full story at the AP

MAINE: In Maine, aquaculture-friendly legislation meets opposition

March 9, 2024 — Aquaculture advocates in the U.S. state of Maine are having a hard time getting through to legislators in the state capitol of Augusta.

The Maine Department of Marine Resources has backed a bill to make its process for reviewing aquaculture leases more efficient, but its call for a reduction in public notices and tighter requirements for a public hearing have raised the ire of numerous fishermen and community groups all along the coast.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource