Offshore Aquaculture In The United States PDF Download

Offshore aquaculture, or mariculture, is a new industry that has great economic potential for the United States. With the California being the third largest state in the country and having a coastline that stretches 840 miles, a viable ocean management plan can make use of the California coastal zone by accommodating the many maritime industries and stakeholders that can benefit from such a plan. The solution to this dilemma is for the federal government to begin building a regulatory framework that incorporates Marine Spatial Planning (MSP). Some European countries have already begun creating viable spatial planning of their coastal zones that have provided the state with both political and economic benefits. California has been importing more than half of its seafood from Asian countries for some years now. China is a model for aquaculture in that region that incidentally is also the biggest seafood exporter to California and the United States. The United States has strangely fallen behind the aquaculture industry for a number of reasons. Although there is some valuable research that has studied the effects of aquaculture, further research is necessary to truly estimate the environmental impacts of offshore aquaculture, the development of responsible and sustainable methods, and the absence of a federal framework combining MSP and aquaculture are all explanations for the shortage of coastal legislation. Until NOAA, the United States Coast Guard, and other federal agency stakeholders make their recommendations for MSP, the aquaculture industry in California and the United States will be slow and ineffective.