A flamingo in Suffolk County, brown Pelicans in Long Island, lobsters in New England and northern shrimp nearly depleted in the Gulf of Maine … these are just a few of the shifts that warming ocean temperatures are causing, creating inhospitable environments for reproduction and survivability for many aquatic-dependent species. Throughout the globe, some fish species are declining with limited prospects for recovery. Other species have shifted their distributions and expanded into cooler, deeper, and/or more northern waters to stay within their preferred temperature ranges.
Climate change is a multifaceted issue with far-reaching implications for terrestrial and land-based fair use and coastal and marine systems. Just as climate change is forcing profound migrations, we see shifts in other organisms; this global phenomenon motivates many small-scale ocean product businesses and fisheries to follow innovative and regenerative practices.
When the idea for the theme of aquaculture was suggested to me, I expected to produce a newspaper covering the superiority of wild-caught fish and the extensive negative implications of farmed seafood. It turns out that I was utterly ignorant about the topic. Just like in terrestrial farming, the nuances and complexities within the industry make it far from straightforward or easy to categorize it as good or bad. To continue the comparison, if we thought “farm to fork” was a difficult path of connection for consumers, connecting the food on their fork to the farms it came from, ‘Dock to Dish’ is even harder (See the interview with Dock to Dish founder KC Boyle). A consumer might drive by neatly tended farms, acres of CAFOs (confined animal factory try operations), or miles of corn, but for most people, it’s extremely difficult to see where our land-based food comes from. For seafood, it’s almost impossible, and so the disconnect is even easier.
To provide some context for this topic, I’ve found it helpful to think of aquaculture as comprising several main categories: wild-caught, finfish, shellfish, and seaweed sectors.
Wild-caught, while not technically aquaculture because it’s not farmed, must be included here. This is when a fish is caught in its natural habitat - river, lake, or ocean - with lines or nets. Wild-caught seafood is said to be more nutritious and flavorful and has long been touted to be far superior environmentally than farmed fish. There are about 200 species of fish in our food system, and in the US, we eat about 7 billion pounds of wild-caught fish each year, of which upwards of 90% is imported. Here in the Northeast, dogfish, skatefish, and monkfish are the typical wild-caught species and most of this is being exported because US consumers do not commonly consume them.
While it was true that wild-caught fish were better at one point, it’s nearly impossible to know in today’s market. Global and local fishing policies tend to be a mess, complicated by the fact that the oceans are a public commons - unlike land, which is mostly privately owned - and overfishing and unregulated fishing methods that destroy natural habitats and bycatch are commonplace. There are state and corporate water grabs (similar to the term land grab, which is the large-scale acquisition of land through buying or leasing of large pieces of land by domestic and transnational companies, governments, and individuals) and Indigenous groups globally are fighting for water rights. In many cases, “wild-caught” as a tagline is just as greenwashed as “free-range” for terrestrial-raised chicken and meats. Fish labeled as wild-caught have been overharvested for decades and not given time to replenish, and wild-caught fish may travel vast distances to reach a consumer.
Finfish farming or ocean farming is offshore and is the mass cultivation of fish with fins in marine waters in underwater or floating net pens, pods, and cages. This method is used for commonly eaten fish like carp, catfish, salmon, and tilapia and is most commonly depicted if searching “aquaculture”, as shown below. This type of fish farming is similar to industrial agriculture on land, with big corporations like Cargill at the center and facilities packed with fish, requiring various antibiotics, pesticides, and other chemicals that pollute the ocean. There are massive escapes of farmed fish, which can threaten the health of wild fish and habitats. 90% of the fish consumed in the US is from ocean finfish farms worldwide, which is extremely unregulated.
Shellfish aquaculture is farming clams, mussels, oysters, and similar bivalves. These can be grown in various ways, including bottom setting (putting old shells down directly on sand), dumping shells, cage farming, or intertidal farming when shells are placed in protective netting or grow bags on the water's bottom or suspended above the sediment on longlines or from rafts. Many methods have been demonstrated to be restorative and highly beneficial to the ocean environment. In New England and the Mid-Atlantic, shellfish aquaculture is a growing multimillion-dollar industry. Maine and Massachusetts have the largest industries, with New York and New Jersey also being quite vibrant and featuring many small, family-owned businesses across the eastern seaboard. In New Jersey, a recent bill in 2023 signed S-428 into law, amending the Right to Farm Act to specify that shellfish aquaculture activities are eligible for Right to Farm Act protections. (Read about Lisa Calvo’s Sweet Amalia Oyster Farm in NJ on B-13.)
Seaweed farming, including dulse, bull kelp, ribbon kelp, and sugar kelp, is the fastest-growing sector. It can be done vertically or using the far less common 3D method. Vertical is, as the name suggests, growing straight up and down; the kelp is usually on a rope, and in a 3D farm, it’s grown in more of a box shape, with kelp growing along the top of the box and shellfish in the middle and bottom. Both use the entire water column to grow and provide large harvests from a small area. Seaweeds are incredibly efficient at sucking up carbon dioxide and, by using it to grow, they pull greenhouse gas from the water, meaning that seaweed farms can help combat the impacts of ocean acidification and even help in sequestering carbon if buried. (Read about the Shinnecock Indigenous Women Kelp Farms on B-1). Seaweed has many uses. As food for animals and humans, it’s nutritious and healthy, and once harvested, it can be converted into a dry kelp meal that can be used as a soil fertilizer in gardens and farms. Like the finfish and wild-caught fish markets, the global market for seaweed faces regulatory messes, with most imported products being next to impossible to trace, possibly hazardous for human consumption and negatively impacting the environment. While there are some incredible small-scale models of kelp farming, there’s also pressure from kelp farms getting bought out by companies like Exxon Mobil looking at the potential of biodiesel and ethanol energy.
“We’re at an intersection [in this industry] where we can either create a truly small-scale horizontally structured industry, or we can make the same mistakes big ag did 60 years ago and vertically integrate,” says Sean Barrett of Montauk Seaweed Supply and Atlantic Seafarms (see my interview with Sean on page B2).
As I spoke to people and researched this topic, I heard similar sentiments from five others. “We’re on the brink of being able to do things differently,” says Brett Tolley, National Program Coordinator for Don’t Cage our Oceans and a Massachusetts fisherman. He continues, “Right now, the way US policies are structured, there aren’t factory fish farms in the oceans here. Maine is trying to position itself to attract big companies, and Washington already has, but we still have a chance to stop this. There’s a tremendous opportunity because the ocean is owned by the people. This is a big difference between land and ocean.” Don’t Cage Our Oceans is one of the leading coalitions trying to combat the development of offshore finfish farming in the US through policies and coalition building while uplifting seafood systems led by local communities.
The small-scale fishery movement is organized and working to block corporate aquaculture and genetic engineering of fish (which has targeted salmon), to support Black and Indigenous-led aquaculture efforts in Cleveland, Hawaii, Alaska, Louisiana, and many others around the country, and to “support the good,” says Brett. The movement stems from focusing on the ocean's health as the basic premise and working from there.
Don’t Cage Our Oceans, The Nature Conservancy, and NOAA, among others, have all developed somewhat similar principles of restorative aquaculture (More on Restorative Aquaculture on B-2). These values are from the Don’t Cage Our Oceans website:
FOOD Aquaculture is essential to the overall seafood supply and is vital for healthy and culturally appropriate food systems.
STEWARDSHIP Aquaculture production should protect and honor every watershed and ecosystem’s intrinsic ecological value and environmental rhythms on land and at sea.
COMMUNITY-BASED Community-based aquaculture enhances the social, ecological, economic, and cultural fabric of our communities and integrates with existing fisheries.
ACCESS Aquaculture should provide equitable opportunities for new and diverse participants of all ages, genders, races, cultures, and incomes.
EQUITABLE SUPPLY CHAINS All workers along the seafood supply chain deserve fair living wages, safe working conditions, and work with dignity.
PLACE-BASED KNOWLEDGE Local and place-based knowledge is necessary to steward aquaculture operations in harmony with the surrounding ecosystems on both land and sea.
PUBLIC RESOURCE We affirm the public trust doctrine and the unique rights of tribal nations in their traditional homelands.
ACCOUNTABILITY Fair, transparent, clear, and adequate regulatory planning and enforcement are critical to values-based aquaculture
I know what is published here only scratches the surface of this extensive and impactful topic. There’s much more to be said about policy, urban aquaculture, aquaponics, rice production (read one example about Black Farmers Growing Rice on page B-8), Black catfish farmers in the South, freshwater fish farms, and more. However, I do hope this provides you with some insight into the industry, both from the perspective of the farmer and a consumer.
I must thank Cali Alexander at NOFA NJ and Sean Barrett for their help with this issue, for connecting me to people to speak with, for providing resources to read, and for trying to understand the breadth of this topic. My consumer habits of seafood products for eating or as fertilizer have forever changed.
Liz Gabriel
TNF Editor
Resources & Links:
Local Catch Network offers technical assistance, hosts online events, maintains a Seafood Finder directory of where to buy quality, safe and sustainably harvested seafood, localcatch.org.
Slow Fish Network is a global network that serves as a platform for knowledge exchange between various traditional fishing communities. It advocates for the protection of aquatic ecosystems and the people who depend on them: slowfood.com/thematic-network/slow-fish-network.
Don’t Cage our Oceans, dontcageouroceans.org
NY Million Oyster Project, billionoysterproject.org
Atlantic Sea Farms provides a database of where to buy sea products from small and sustainable farmers, atlanticseafarms.com/wheretobuy/
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