Aquaculture in the United States: An analysis of seven aquaculture sectors from the aquaculture performance indicators perspective
Taryn Garlock, James L. Anderson, Thomas M. Anderson, Ganesh Kumar
Abstract
Aquaculture development in the United States has been slowed by a lack of social license and a complex regulatory framework. This has resulted in sourcing large volumes of aquatic foods from aquaculture-producing countries and a shift of food production externalities to other parts of the world. In this paper, we review aquaculture development in the U.S. and provide a comparative analysis of U.S. and global aquaculture performance in the three pillars of sustainability: environmental, economic, and social dimensions. The results show that on average U.S. aquaculture sectors perform better than global averages in all three pillars and that U.S. aquaculture has a high potential to provide sustainable seafood if the regulatory framework allows it.