The Aquarium of the Pacific hosted an aquaculture lecture on Sept. 27 that featured experts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and California Sea Grant discussing their research on proposed fish-farming operations in Southern California and its role in the global population.
A joint report from the three affiliates concluded that establishing an aquaculture industry in the United States would help cut more than 90 percent of seafood imported into the country annually and assist in the safe supply of healthy protein in global food systems.
“Aquaculture and farming the sea is playing an increasingly important role in the growing demands of our food supply,” said Jerry Schubel, president and CEO of Aquarium of the Pacific, who added that committing to aquaculture activities would ensure that seafood would be cultivated in environmentally responsible ways and reduce the U.S. seafood trade deficit, according to the report.
The event was streamed live on a telecast for viewers to watch and submit questions to local experts via Twitter. The pundits included James Morris, a marine ecologist with NOAA, and Paul Olin, an aquaculture specialist with the California Sea Grant.
[aesop_image imgwidth=”300px” img=”http://www.signaltribunenewspaper.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Screen-Shot-2016-09-30-at-4.54.02-PM.png” align=”left” lightbox=”on” caption=”Mussels, pictured here at the Aquarium of the Pacific’s Vanishing Animals exhibit, are one of the prime examples of sustainable seafood that experts claim will benefit the human population and address food demand. ” captionposition=”left”] The information presented at the event was a result of workshops in 2015 and 2016, sponsored by the NOAA Sea Grant, that convened government agencies, scientists and industry experts about the expansion of marine aquaculture and the need for more research.
“The main outcome was that we are very confident that the science and technology exists to do sustainable aquaculture,” Morris said. “The key is that we have to be smart about where and how we do it.”
Morris and the NOAA consulted with a team of six scientific modelers in an attempt to observe the ocean currents, the performance of fish within sea cages and the assimilation of nutrients and items that come out of fish farms.
Morris called it the most comprehensive science modeling tools for aquaculture to date. Pleased with the modeling results, he said the research has allowed the team to predict aquaculture performance and environmental interactions before any fish are even in the water.
“It allows us to simulate in a virtual-reality context what is going to happen in the future with aquaculture,” Morris said.
[aesop_image imgwidth=”300px” img=”http://www.signaltribunenewspaper.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Screen-Shot-2016-09-30-at-4.53.37-PM.png” align=”right” lightbox=”on” caption=”Attendees sampled a farmed seafood dish— Hawaiian Kampachi, which included crusted macadamia nut, tropical rum sauce and pineapple pico de gallo— at an Aquarium of the Pacific presentation about aquaculture on Sept. 27. ” captionposition=”right”] Olin claimed that marine fish are now a reliable food source for future generations. He said the key is determining how the seafood should be farmed.
“We know how to do fish farming wrong, and we know how to do it right,” he told the Signal Tribune after the event. “There are good sights and bad sights. We just need to match the knowledge that we have and see what constitutes a good sight and make sure that you’re positioned in a place where you are not going to have the adverse environmental impacts that we know we can create in the marine environment. Just look at civilizations around the world— we know how to pollute the ocean. We also know how not to. It’s just a matter of pairing your knowledge with the desired outcome and marrying those two.”
Research in the last few decades has also allowed the use of fewer antibiotics in marine animals and the use of efficient netting tools to eliminate the escape of farmed fish, Olin added.
The presentation coincided with National Aquaculture Week, the last week of September, which segues into National Seafood Month in October.
Attendees sampled a farmed seafood dish— Hawaiian Kampachi, which included crusted macadamia nut, tropical rum sauce and pineapple pico de gallo.
Aquarium officials also provided access to the Vanishing Animals exhibit— which featured an aquaculture display that contained mussels, aquatic plants and fish— and a screening of Ocean Aquaculture: Farming Seafood for People and the Planet, a documentary on the subject matter.
An interactive map that pinpointed various aquaculture and fish-farming sites was displayed for the public, as well.
Kim Thompson, program manager for the Aquarium of the Pacific’s “Seafood for the Future” program and one of the writers of the film, said that marine aquaculture will play a vital role in the food supply and the growing human population— a number that is projected to reach 9.5 billion by the year 2050, according to the program.
“And, if you think about it, it’s only 35 years [from now],” she told the Signal Tribune. “That’s a relatively short amount of time… we have to figure out how to produce even more food while putting less pressure on our finite resources. Seafood plays a really big role in that.”
The full aquaculture report is available at aquariumofthepacific.org/aquaculturereport.
