Nimbleness of Federal Fisheries Decision-making
In 2021, the National Sea Grant Law Center received funding from The Nature Conservancy to conduct a comprehensive legal analysis of the nimbleness of federal fisheries management decision-making. The results of the Law Center’s research, published in 2022, revealed that the National Marine Fisheries Service and the regional Fishery Management Councils have multiple tools available to integrate more nimbleness in their decision-making. However, the Councils face scientific and cultural challenges in integrating emerging knowledge about the impacts of climate change on fisheries into existing stock assessment models and management frameworks.
Nimbleness of Federal Fisheries Management Decision-making: A Legal Analysis
Impact of Water Quality Stressors on Oyster Reef Restoration
In 2020, a team of researchers at the University of Mississippi received funding from the Mississippi Based RESTORE
Center of Excellence (MBRACE) to study the effects of stressors on early life stages of oysters. As a part of this team, the National Sea Grant Law Center worked collaboratively with the researchers to translate their research findings for use by policy-makers to inform oyster reef restoration and management in Mississippi. A policy brief was published in 2022.
Accounting for the Entire Oyster Life Cycle in Restoration Efforts: A Brief for Policy Makers
Alabama Aquaculture Marketing
The National Sea Grant Law Center and the National Agricultural Law Center, funded by the Southern Risk Management Education Center and the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, partnered to assist Alabama aquaculture producers seeking to diversify their businesses through direct marketing. The project resulted in a guide, workshop, webinars, and a webpage that provided aquaculture producers with basic information about the federal, state, and local legal requirements of select direct marketing strategies.
Legal Guide for Direct Marketing Aquaculture Products in Alabama
Exploring Options to Authorize Offshore Aquaculture
In 2019, the National Sea Grant Law Center (NSGLC) received funding to plan and convene a collaborative learning workshop with legal scholars, federal Executive agency staff, Congressional staff, and industry representatives to tackle the uncertainty surrounding security of tenure for offshore aquaculture operations. As a legal concept, “security of tenure” can mean different things in different contexts. The NSGLC uses “security of tenure” to refer to the rights that aquaculture operators receive from the federal government to use and occupy federal waters for offshore aquaculture.
Exploring Options to Authorize Offshore Aquaculture: Initial Workshop Summary Report
Overcoming Impediments to Shellfish Aquaculture through Legal Research and Outreach
Legal and permitting issues are consistently ranked as a critical impediment to domestic aquaculture development. In 2017, the National Sea Grant College Program funded a multi-institutional, national collaboration to examine impediments to shellfish aquaculture across the United States. Project partners include attorneys from the:
- • National Sea Grant Law Center
- • Rhode Island Sea Grant Legal Program, Roger Williams University School of Law
- • Virginia Coastal Policy Center, William & Mary Law School
- • Carl Vinson Institute of Government, University of Georgia
- • California Sea Grant Program
Overcoming Impediments to Shellfish Aquaculture through Legal Research and Outreach
Story Map: Overcoming Impediments to Shellfish Aquaculture
Agricultural and Food Law Consortium
The Agricultural & Food Law Consortium was a national, multi-institutional collaboration that operated from 2014 to 2019. It was designed to enhance and expand the development and delivery of authoritative, timely, and objective agricultural and food law research and information. The National Sea Grant Law Center was one of four founding members of the Consortium and contributed expertise on a range of topics including, aquaculture, fisheries, invasive species, and water quality and quantity.
Invasive Species
Invasive Species Councils: The Pervasiveness of Model Language in State Law
Regulating Invasive Species in Aquaculture
Water Resources
Aquifer Comparison Report
—Nutrient Management Fact Sheets:
Local Governments and Nutrient Pollution
Harmful Algal Blooms and Drinking Water
Harmful Algal Blooms and Water Quality
The Management of Nonpoint Source Pollution under the Clean Water Act
Land Use and Aquaculture
Zoning 101
Right to Farm Laws
General Environmental Law
—Pesticides:
State and Local Regulation of Pesticides: What Does FIFRA Allow?
Legal Barriers to Pesticide and Herbicide Use in Commercial Aquaculture
—Endangered Species Act:
General Overview Fact Sheet
Listing Fact Sheet
General Aquaculture
Legal Issues and Challenges Confronting Recirculating Aquaculture Systems in the U.S.
The State of Organic Aquaculture in the United States
Genetically Modified Organisms in Aquaculture: From Present to Future
Animal Welfare and Aquaculture "Quick Takes"
