World Aquaculture Magazine - June 2020

WWW.WA S.ORG • WORLD AQUACULTURE • JUNE 2020 37 6191) and again gives leadership to NOAA. NOAA’s sole leadership roles should serve to expedite the permitting and establish a consistent regulatory framework. The successful passing of the AQUAA Act legislation in conjunction with the presidential Executive Order would represent a revolutionary opportunity for aquaculture expansion via offshore systems. Directive Summary The comprehensive SWOT analysis has revealed a multitude of factors that have promoted or stifled domestic aquaculture production during the 21 st century. A renaissance in US aquaculture production, consisting of renewed approach and respective action, must occur whereby the rate of growth observed in the decades of the 1980s and 1990s can be revitalized and further increases realized. Prospects for expansion of US aquaculture are under multiple influential forces, both positive and negative (Fig. 4) that essentially create an environment of “suspended animation” until insightful leadership takes charge and creates paths to realization. The precarious dependence on imports is obvious despite the advances in technology and sustainable practices. Aquaculture as an animal production sector remains a wicked problem that threatens viability and potential contribution to food security in the US. To accomplish the goal requires the ability to be flexible and adaptable whereby collaborative and cooperative solutions to the “wicked problem” can be achieved (Osmundson et al. 2017). Extrication from the frustrating condition of “suspended animation” requires the establishment of a strong foundation of educational knowledge that is shared and stimulates collaboration and compromise among agencies whereby wise and well-balanced action becomes the product. If domestic aquaculture production is going to reduce reliance on seafood imports, then production levels that currently exist must dramatically increase. If Americans value the safety and security of the seafood supply, then executive orders or legislation must be passed to effectively promote expansion of sustainable and responsible aquaculture production practices while also recognizing that it must be an integral part of multiple uses of coastal and oceanic marine resources . Active commitment to passing legislation that promotes and supports expansion of aquaculture must be demonstrated by the aquaculture caucus in the US Congress. As a goal, they must be responsible for raising the level of aquaculture to a national priority. Federal agencies engaged in achieving the goal need to focus on improving efficiency and ensuring environmental compatibility of US aquaculture production systems in concert with the promotion of nutritional quality, safety, diversity of aquaculture products to positively serve marketing efforts. The path to sustained and increasing seafood production can be realized in the US with continued research-based modification of systems to meet sustainability goals, particularly the sharing of land and water resources. However, these systems offer no tangible benefit unless complemented by proactive progress relative to regulatory policy, consumer education, cooperation among agencies responsible for monitoring growth, and availability of financial assistance, both borrowing and insurance, to farmers. Otherwise, the other and least beneficial option is a complacent dependence on imports to meet future seafood demand in the US. This dependence is highly risky as insufficient amounts could be periodically unavailable due to politically motivated changes in trade policy, recurrent natural catastrophes such as hurricanes, floods, droughts, and the occurrence of pandemics. Reduction in available imports to the US could also result from increases in consumption caused by demand for domestically produced seafood by residents who have moved to a higher socioeconomic level in the exporting country. The previously discussed threat of climate change in specific exporting countries will further add to the risk of meeting US food security needs that have precariously depended on the luxury of sufficient and comparatively inexpensive imports. Currently, species that are principally consumed in the US are grown in countries where warmer temperatures are conducive to higher growth and sometimes to the farming of multiple crops of certain species annually, often with less regulatory oversight and lower labor costs. Strategic marketing information about domestically produced species such as adherence to required production practices, well-studied site selection and product safety should help to reduce imports by convincing some consumers that paying a reasonably higher cost for domestically produced seafood is good sense. Cage/pen culture, if successful in becoming a sustainable production system, offers alternative species like striped bass, cobia, pompano and red drum, that transcend traditional species of consumer preference. Focus on the education of the American consumer about the benefits of domestically produced seafood products is critical and should potentially reduce dependence on imports and support the overall message of domestic production being a national priority. If we accept the results of the SWOT analysis, then expansion of aquaculture production in the US can no longer be viewed as a goal that lingers simply as an enduring hope. It is a necessity, it can be accomplished and must become a reality. Surrendering to the “wicked problem” is no longer an option. The continued lack of a cohesive direction results in disparate progress and futility that are aptly manifest in the annual amounts of aquaculture production during the first two decades of the early 21 st century. Leadership that will effectively guide and scrupulously and safely govern growth in an environment of cooperation is critically needed. Continued delays in truly moving forward and the associated pervasive complacency must be renounced in favor of substantive action. Notes Lou D’Abramo is a Fellow and Past President of the World Aquaculture Society. He is Professor Emeritus and a retiredWilliam L. Giles Distinguished Professor in the Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Aquaculture at Mississippi State University, US; lrd4@ msstate.edu FIGURE 4. Positive and negative factors associated with the expansion of US aquaculture combined with the imposing force of the confounding state of the regulatory environment. ( C O N T I N U E D O N P A G E 3 8 )