Enabling the Expansion of Sustainable Aquaculture

 Georgia Busch is a student in the Masters of Coastal & Ocean Policy Program. She graduated from Randolph-Macon College with a B.S in Environmental Studies in 2012, after which she worked as an environmental education professional for several organizations in Richmond, Virginia. The sustainable aquaculture sector highlights the intersection of her interests in agriculture, food security and climate change resiliency. Using her skills in science communications, advocacy and policy influencing are part of her career goals upon expected graduation in December 2021. 

Photo from Lester et al (2018)

Aquaculture has exploded as the fastest growing facet of agriculture to supply the growing demand for readily available sources of protein. Because of this rapid growth, it is critical that expansion and development address opportunities for environmental impact and sustainability. Both the public perception of aquaculture-sourced seafood and legislative influence have the potential to cure the lack of progress toward standardizing and performing sustainable practices. 

A Bad Reputation

Staying true to its overarching agriculture sector, aquaculture has a troubled history of negatively impacting the environment and overusing resources. Since the production booms of the 1970’s convenience has been questioned as farming and production practices have been villainized worldwide. 

Consumers' concerns are for good reasons as most of the impacts from aquaculture are long-lasting and require intensive and expensive restoration. Farms require space, and that space usually comes at the cost of the natural environment. Coastal mangroves are a fairly rare but critical marine habitat that provide a number of ecological services. To farm shrimp and fish, it is a common practice to convert mangroves into ponds, inevitably destroying the habitat with nutrient pollution and plant and animal displacement. 

Farming opportunities can also take advantage of open space on land in the form of large pond designs. Opponents of aquaculture are probably most familiar with images of these systems as acres of muddy ponds nearly unrecognizable as a healthy aquatic habitat, let alone a source of healthy food. Notorious for high concentrations of nutrient waste, pond farms are the poster child for aquaculture’s bad reputation. 

As cultivation technologies develop and improve, the industry has expanded to utilize the open-ocean arena for necessary space and skip the fabrication of aquatic habitats. Offshore aquaculture uses large, submerged cages to contain fish while water cycling is influenced by natural hydrologic processes. Added nutrient waste, fish escape and risk of spreading diseases to wild fish populations are on the list of impact consequences from this method of production.

In 2020, President Trump signed Executive Order 13921 “Promoting American Seafood Competitiveness for Economic Growth” outlined provisions for expansion of United States aquaculture and seafood production, specifically opening federal waters for offshore commercial operations. Before celebrating good news, skeptics of the move identified major red flags including the reduction of constrictive regulations that protect the integrity and health of offshore marine environments. While the order decreased regulatory burdens for the aquaculture industry, it increased the risk of intrusive and impactful operations.

Clean Eating
Despite the industry’s blunders through the journey to provide dependable sources of seafood to the globe, new innovations reflect a prioritization of sustainability standards for aquaculture operations. System designs are embracing an ecological-based approach that mitigates waste and potentially increases profitability.

Integrated Multi-Tropic Aquaculture (IMTA) systems bring together multiple species that mimic an ecological system. For example, finfish, seaweed and bivalves are a common 3-species combination: finfish are given feed, bivalves filter feed, and seaweed absorbs inorganic nutrients. Depending on the combination and the growth region, each species is available for market consumption which is an added benefit to offset the technological complexities of production. 

Photo Source: Jeff Milisen, Ocean Era

Systems like IMTA demonstrate that aquaculture can successfully meet goals of producing seafood and mitigating impacts to the environment. However, lack of standardization and regulation has stymied progress toward full-scale adoption of sustainability requirements throughout the industry. To address this lack of progress, effective policy intervention could reinforce the enabling conditions for thoughtful development of sustainable aquaculture. 

The Policy Influence
Congress is familiar with the problem of economic growth compromising environmental health; however, stimulating aquaculture growth is not mutually exclusive with sustainable standards.

The issue stands that no existing implemented policy reflects the needs for these standards. The Advancing Quality and Understanding of American Aquaculture (AQUAA) Act proposes to establish national sustainability standards for offshore aquaculture. It also creates an Office of Offshore Aquaculture within NOAA to oversee research, monitoring, regulation and permitting necessary to support and enforce sustainable standards. 

In addition to this specific legislation, targeted investments can encourage economic development for the sustainable aquaculture sector. However, investments are likely to be justified when profitability and market stability looks promising. Considering the ideals of the Blue Economy model, sustainable development across multiple ocean-based sectors could provide evidence and support for adhering to marine restoration as the prioritized standard for seafood production in the United States. 

Trending developments and political focus shows promise to fortify the conditions that could enable expansion of sustainable aquaculture. Although uncertainties persist, innovative practices have the potential to turn to the new standard for growing consistent sources of seafood.