NOAA Unveils Fresh Guide Highlighting Aquaculture Equipment
NOAA Releases Comprehensive Guide for Sustainable Seafood Farming
A new guide from NOAA Fisheries, titled "The Technical Guide to Marine Aquaculture Gear," equips scientists, resource managers, and aquaculture growers with the latest technologies and strategies to ensure the production of safe and sustainable seafood for American families.
This guide serves as an orientation to aquaculture gear systems for decision-makers conducting environmental reviews for aquaculture permitting and management. It provides a comprehensive overview of the latest advancements in aquaculture gear and their potential impact on the industry.
For resource managers, the guide acts as a centralized repository of aquaculture-specific gear information. It helps them evaluate the appropriateness, safety, and reliability of gear during the review and permitting of aquaculture farms. The guide offers baseline knowledge to support scientifically informed decision-making across diverse contexts, considering factors such as farm scale, species cultivated, environmental conditions, and regional practices.
The guide is also beneficial to aquaculture growers, as it minimizes the risk of farmers needing to reinvest in new infrastructure due to understanding how different systems perform in various environmental settings. Since gear is often the largest and most costly line item in a farm's business plan, informed gear selection—guided by this technical resource—reduces the risk of choosing unsuitable gear and needing to reinvest later.
The guide includes illustrations of gear types, glossaries of key terms, and descriptions of shellfish, seaweed, and finfish species to provide an all-encompassing overview. It identifies gear suited for different types of marine aquaculture, such as shellfish cages, fish netpens, and kelp long lines, and outlines relevant advantages and disadvantages, and considerations for installation, maintenance, and harvest.
Advances in aquaculture gear, such as co-location with existing infrastructure, alternative materials, and new monitoring and feeding technologies, are helping to make the industry more sustainable and profitable. The guide emphasizes the importance of these advancements in promoting sustainable and profitable seafood farming, supporting the long-term viability of marine aquaculture industries.
NOAA's commitment to supporting aquaculture science and research is evident in the release of this guide, which demonstrates their dedication to helping the U.S. aquaculture industry expand. By providing resource managers with the tools they need to make informed decisions, the guide enables a safer, more sustainable, and more profitable future for American seafood farming.
[1] NOAA Technical Guide to Marine Aquaculture Gear. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/resource/technical-guide-marine-aquaculture-gear [2] NOAA Fisheries. (2021, October 1). NOAA releases technical guide for marine aquaculture gear. Retrieved from https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-stories/noaa-releases-technical-guide-marine-aquaculture-gear
Scientists in environmental-science can use the technical guide from NOAA Fisheries, titled "The Technical Guide to Marine Aquaculture Gear," to learn about the latest advancements in aquaculture technology and strategic approaches for sustainable seafood farming.
This guide, beneficial to aquaculture growers, provides insight into various gear selection options for different types of marine aquaculture, such as shellfish cages, fish netpens, and kelp long lines, and outlines their relative advantages, disadvantages, and considerations for installation, maintenance, and harvest.
