State Marine Aquaculture Policy Dashboard

Marine aquaculture in the United States is currently a relatively small seafood sector, but there is tremendous potential for growth and interest in advancing the industry through supportive federal and state policy. However, there is no comprehensive national legislation focused on marine aquaculture, and most production is occurring in state waters guided by diverse state-level policies and regulations. State and federal agencies, researchers, and industry members need increased access to state marine aquaculture regulations and policies across the U.S. to gain a better understanding of how these different policy approaches may be enabling or impeding the development of the industry.

The State Marine Aquaculture Policy Dashboard is a valuable resource supporting the sustainable growth and expansion of the U.S. marine aquaculture industry by increasing the accessibility and usability of state marine aquaculture data. Funded by a grant from the Builder’s Initiative, the dashboard launched in Fall 2023. The information in the dashboard was compiled by researchers at the National Sea Grant Law Center and Florida State University in consultation with aquaculture managers in each state (data last reviewed in September 2023). This work builds upon a previous effort to compile and review marine aquaculture policy attributes published in Reviews in Aquaculture.

The dashboard is an important tool to build our understanding of the volume and status of current state aquaculture policies, helping to move the conversation toward more productive discussion about specific policy gaps and solutions to address them.

There are many different ways to explore the data in the State Marine Aquaculture Policy Dashboard. Users are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the options by reviewing our User Guide before starting to navigate the dashboard.

View the State Marine Aquaculture Policy Dashboard

This project is a partnership between the National Sea Grant Law Center and the Lester Lab at Florida State University. Stephanie Otts, NSGLC Director, and Dr. Sarah Lester, FSU Associate Professor, serve as co-project leads. Research and data management support is provided by Dr. Bess Ruff, a Postdoctoral Researcher at FSU. Additional research support was provided by Lourdes Carreras, NSGLC Ocean and Coastal Law Fellow, and Hayley Lemoine, FSU PhD student.

For general questions about the project, please reach out to Stephanie Otts at sshowalt@olemiss.edu.

For questions about the policy attributes and associated data, please reach out to Sarah Lester at slester@fsu.edu.