So why exactly, does California aquaculture matter?
- Done well, aquaculture is an efficient and environmentally sustainable way of meeting our growing demand for seafood.
US Aquaculture 101 – Webinar
The National Aquaculture Association, in partnership with the North Central Regional Aquaculture Center and the United States Aquaculture Society, present U.S. Farm-Raised Finfish and Shellfish 101. This webinar gives a great overview of the diversity of aquaculture in the United States and answers many common questions.
There are plenty more great aquaculture webinars available free to the public. Check them out:
- The National Aquaculture Association thenaa.net/webinars
- The North Central Regional Aquaculture Center ncrac.org/video
- United States Aquaculture Society http://usaquaculture.org/webinars
Podcast – Oysters and Ocean Acidification
Dr. Tessa Hill, associate professor at Bodega Marine Labs, joined NPR’s Science Friday program to discuss the challenges facing shellfish aquaculture in the face of rising Ocean Acidification.
Listen in to learn more about challenges facing the oyster industry and what scientists, the industry, and policy makers can do to combat these challenging new ocean conditions.
Webcast & Report – Offshore Aquaculture in Southern California
Just in time for National Aquaculture Week, the Aquarium of the Pacific, Sea Grant, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released the second report of their Offshore Aquaculture Workshop series. This workshop continues the conversation with Federal and State agencies about how to improve regulatory confidence in aquaculture operations. The workshop introduced a model as a possible tool for decision making, and includes information on animal health management, protected species concerns, and a summary of the permitting process.
Webcast speakers include Dr. Jerry Schubel, president and CEO, Aquarium of the Pacific; Dr. James Morris, marine ecologist, NOAA’s National Ocean Service and National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science; and Dr. Paul Olin, aquaculture specialist, California Sea Grant and the University of California, San Diego, Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
Upcoming Webinar – Regulatory Costs of U.S. Aquaculture Businesses
The United States Aquaculture Society, National Aquaculture Association and North Central Regional Aquaculture Center are offering a free webinar focused on the regulatory costs incurred by bait and sportfish farmers. Many aquaculture producers and scientists have long pointed to an excessively burdensome regulatory environment in the United States as a constraint to growth and development of aquaculture. However, there has been little research done to determine the magnitude of the specific costs incurred by aquaculture producers as they comply with regulations.
This 1-hour webinar will present results of the first-ever study to measure the specific costs of regulations and how these costs affect U.S. baitfish and sportfish farms. While this study focused on baitfish and sportfish farms, results are likely to be of interest to the broader aquaculture community and to state regulatory agencies. New studies under development to similarly measure regulatory costs on U.S. West Coast shellfish growers and trout and salmon farmers will also be discussed.
Date and Time: Tuesday, September 27, 2016, 3:00 PM Eastern.
Duration: 60 minutes.
To Register: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/1b9f24b2117490ab7c24e00bf0acd2b8
Presenter: Dr. Carole Engle is an Aquaculture Economist with more than 35 years of experience in the analysis of economics and marketing issues related to aquaculture businesses. She has worked in 19 different countries, has published over 112 scientific articles, serves as Executive Editor of the Journal of the World Aquaculture Society and Editor-in-Chief of Aquaculture Economics and Management.
Upcoming Funding Opportunity -Macroalgae Cultivation
The Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA–E) intends to issue a new Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) in November, 2016, for the development of cultivation technologies benefiting the production of macroalgal-biomass (seaweeds) in the ocean. These technologies are expected to be deployed and support cultivation of macroalgal-biomass for the production of commodity fuels and chemicals. The primary challenge is to dramatically reduce capital and operating cost of macroalgae cultivation, while significantly increasing the range of deployment by expanding into off-shore environments.
The Teaming Partner List is being compiled to facilitate the formation of new project teams. ARPA-E intends to make the Teaming Partner List available on ARPA–E eXCHANGE (http://ARPA–E-foa.energy.gov), ARPA–E’s online application portal, in September 2016. Once posted, the Teaming Partner List will be updated periodically, until the close of the Full Application period, to reflect new Teaming Partners who have provided their information.
Read more below from the ARPA announcement.
Public Comment open for Seafood Watch Standards until Sept 18.
Courtesy of Seafood Watch And Monterey Bay Aquarium:
Seafood Watch assesses the sustainability of fisheries and fish farms by compiling relevant science-based information and evaluating that information against our standards. We periodically revise our standards to ensure we take into account developments in the scientific understanding of the impacts of fisheries and aquaculture operations, as well as in our understanding of what producers and managers can do to mitigate those impacts.
We are now collecting public comments on proposed modifications to the Standard for Wild Fisheries and Standard for Aquaculture. All comments on other areas of the standards will be considered during the next Seafood Watch Standards Revision process in 2019. This fourth public comment period will end September 18, 2016. We greatly value your input into how we can better meet our objectives in assessing fisheries and fish farms. We encourage you to view background information on the revision process and submit comments by visiting our website. The solicitation for this public comment period is under the heading Public Consultation 4.
Our intent with these changes is to improve clarity and ease of use of the standard, but there are two areas which could potentially be more substantive. These are 1) when to use the Unknown Bycatch Matrices in Criterion 2 in the Standard for Wild Fisheries and 2) the appropriate assumed percentage of harvested farmed fish byproduct used for further protein production in Criterion 5 in the Standard for Aquaculture. Comments on these aspects in particular would be useful.
The Aquaculture Standards and Comment Form can be found on the website with further instructions.
2017 Saltonstall-Kennedy Grant Town Hall Webinar – August 30th
NOAA is hosting a new webinar to share more information about this year’s Saltonstall-Kennedy Grant process. This webinar will discuss the grant application process, including the mandatory pre-proposal process in advance of a full proposal submission.
Date and Time: Tuesday, August 30, 2016 3:00 pm EDT
Call-in and webinar details, along with more information about the SK Grant, can be found at NOAA’s Website.
