Offshore Aquaculture in the United States: Economic Considerations, Implications & Opportunities
This report, Offshore Aquaculture in the United States: Economic Considerations, Implications & Opportunities, explores the economic benefits and challenges associated with offshore aquaculture.
Growing interest in establishing a regulatory framework to enable offshore aquaculture in the United States has raised some basic questions regarding economic implications of this type of aquaculture. To begin to address these questions, the NOAA Aquaculture Program coordinated a study group including some of the leading natural resource and fisheries economists and aquaculture business experts in the United States to examine:
- Trends and factors shaping aquaculture today;
- Forces that will drive it in the future;
- Inputs and outputs necessary to sustain its growth;
- Economic consequences of offshore aquaculture development in the United States; and
- Benefits and costs of such a domestic industry to the nation.
The results of this study are published in a new NOAA report, Offshore Aquaculture in the United States: Economic Considerations, Implications & Opportunities. A pre-publication copy of the report can be found below.
To view a NOAA press release about the report, click here.
This 264-page report considers the broad, long-term implications of an established domestic offshore aquaculture industry in the United States and the role such an industry might play in helping to meet global demand for seafood and other sustainable uses of the ocean. It is important to note that much of the analysis in this study, although limited to offshore aquaculture, applies to all U.S. aquaculture.
Specifically, the report considers:
- The effect on U.S. offshore aquaculture of global and national trends in seafood supply and demand and other factors that affect market prices, such as cost of feed and technology, social factors, government regulations, and access to sites.
- Useful models from other food segments of the U.S. economy, such as the catfish and poultry industries.
- Economic viability of offshore finfish and shellfish operations.
- The economic effects of increased domestic aquaculture production on U.S. job creation and the seafood supply chain, including feed production, equipment suppliers, boat owners, processing, and food service.
- Interactions between aquaculture and wild harvest fisheries.
- Advantages and disadvantages of offshore aquaculture relative to domestic inshore and foreign aquaculture.
Findings in the report include:
- Global increases in foreign aquaculture will continue to affect domestic commercial fishermen whether the U.S. participates in aquaculture or not because seafood is traded in a global market.
- Aquaculture products, whether domestic or imported, compete with wild caught fisheries and affect price, often in favor of the consumer. The effect of increased U.S. aquaculture on U.S. wild caught fisheries will depend in part on whether new markets are created for aquaculture production, how fast and at what volumes new production comes to market.
- Domestic aquaculture can supply a year-round consistent supply of seafood grown under U.S. laws that will increase local product for seafood processing, cold storage, transport, marketing food service companies, and consumers. U.S. grain producers, feed manufacturers, equipment suppliers, and hatcheries will also benefit.
- A range of technologies would likely develop to address logistical and environmental challenges.
- Over time, the economic potential for offshore aquaculture is likely to grow because seafood demand and prices will increase, there will be more competition for sites closer to shore, and costs will be lower due to improved technology, experience, and economies of scale.
- The limited supply of fish meal and fish oil is not likely to be a constraint on the expansion of U.S. aquaculture as alternative feed ingredients from soybeans and other plants, algaes, yeasts, fish processing waste, and other products are being developed.
- Offshore aquaculture would create job opportunities for U.S. fishermen, especially jobs that involve vessel maintenance and maintenance of offshore operations.
To view the full report - or specific chapters - choose from the following links:
Full Pre-publication Report (pdf, 2.7 MB)
- Note: This is a 264-page pre-publication copy of the report. Limited hard copies will be available through the NOAA Aquaculture Program. To request a copy, send an email to: NOAA.Aquaculture@NOAA.gov.
Chapter 1 - Introduction
Dr. Michael Rubino, NOAA Aquaculture Program
- (pdf, 62 KB)
Chapter 2 - Economic Potential for U.S. Offshore Aquaculture: An Analytical Approach
Dr. Gunnar Knapp, University of Alaska-Anchorage
- (pdf, 250 KB)
- Synopsis - This chapter presents an analytical approach for thinking about the economic potential for offshore aquaculture in the U.S.
Chapter 3 - Emerging Technologies in Marine Aquaculture
John Forster, Forster Consulting
- (pdf, 780 KB)
- Synopsis- This chapter looks at a spectrum of technologies from which offshore aquaculture will draw as it develops over the next 20 years.
Chapter 4 - Future Aquaculture Feeds and Feed Costs: The Role of Fish Meal and Fish Oil
Gina Shamshack and Dr. James Anderson, University of Rhode Island
- (pdf, 163 KB)
- Synopsis- This chapter explores the important interlinkages between the fish meal and fish oil sectors and the aquaculture industry.
Chapter 5 - Lessons from the Development of the U.S. Broiler and Catfish Industries: Implications for Offshore Aquaculture in the United States
Gina Shamshack and Dr. James Anderson, University of Rhode Island
- (pdf, 84 KB)
- Synopsis- This chapter examines the emergence and development of the U.S. broiler and catfish industries.
Chapter 6 - Economic Models of Potential U.S. Offshore Aquaculture Operations
Dr. Di Jin, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
- (pdf, 277 KB)
- Synopsis- This chapter provides a quantitative assessment of the economic feasibility of offshore aquaculture using a bio-economic model of firm-level investment and production.
Chapter 7 - The Potential Economic Ramifications of Offshore Aquaculture
Dr. James Kirkley, Virginia Institute of Marine Science
- (pdf, 93 KB)
- Synopsis- This chapter provides a broad overview of the economic feasibility and potential contributions to the U.S. economy of offshore aquaculture.
Chapter 8 - Potential Economic Impacts of U.S. Offshore Aquaculture
Dr. Gunnar Knapp, University of Alaska-Anchorage
- (pdf, 184 KB)
- Synopsis- This chapter discusses two types of potential economic impacts of United States offshore aquaculture-employment and income impacts and market-driven impacts.
Chapter 9 - Interactions Between Capture Fisheries and Aquaculture
Diego Valderrama and Dr. James Anderson, University of Rhode Island
- (pdf, 79 KB)
- Synopsis- This chapter explores interactions between aquaculture and capture fisheries and examines their implications for the future of both wild and farmed seafood sectors.
Chapter 10 - Current Status of Aquaculture in the United States
John Forster, Forster Consulting, and Colin Nash, NOAA Fisheries (retired)
- (pdf, 483 KB)
- Synopsis- This chapter outlines the current variety of species, technologies, methods, and places associated with aquaculture in the United States.
Chapter 11 - Future Markets for Aquaculture Products
Dr. James Anderson and Gina Shamshack, University of Rhode Island
- (pdf, 138 KB)
- Synopsis- This chapter compares the global seafood industry to other animal protein industries and examines the general trends shaping the future of the U.S. seafood industry.
Chapter 12 - Broader Issues in the Offshore Fish Farming Debate
John Forster, Forster Consulting
- (pdf, 122 KB)
- Synopsis- This chapter looks at the long term potential of offshore aquaculture.
Background on the Authors (pdf, 21 KB)
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