On September 27 in Long Beach, California, NOAA, Aquarium of the Pacific, and California Sea Grant, issued a report and held a workshop featuring proposed fish farming operations in Southern California's offshore waters and current operations in U.S. marine waters. Participants sampled responsibly farmed U.S. seafood and explored live animal exhibits about aquaculture. The report discussesissues, science, and tools available to inform offshore aquaculture permitting that was originally addressed at a workshop held this pastJuly.

Scientists recommended that expandingtheaquaculture industry in the United States couldreduce importedseafood by 90 percent decrease theseafood trade deficit. This would require continued research, public outreach, and reducing the complexities of the current aquaculture permitting system.

The report is the result of two workshops convened in 2015 and 2016 sponsored by NOAA Sea Grant.

A broadcast of from the workshop can be found here.