Soybean Association supports NOAA's final Gulf Aquaculture Rule

The final Gulf Aquaculture Rule was released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on Monday, which the American Soybean Association (ASA) sees as a key step in building a domestic offshore, aquaculture industry.

The ASA has a vested interest in the industry because soybean meal would be a sustainable and affordable fish food.

“ASA supports this plan as the first step to realizing offshore aquaculture development and growth in federal waters,” ASA President Richard Wilkins said. “The final rule today sets us on a course to development of the promising marine aquaculture industry in the United States, which has so much room to grow.”

A domestic aquaculture industry would create jobs for the United States in both the aquaculture industry and the soybean industry to make fish food. This would help the U.S. reduce its $11.2 billion trade deficit and cut the amount of seafood imported to the country, which is currently at 91 percent.

“As the domestic offshore aquaculture industry grows, it creates multiple positives for American consumers, workers and farmers alike,” Wilkins said. “It creates and supports jobs in coastal communities and all along the inland supply chain to retail and food service; it generates an American-grown source of nutritious and in-demand protein; and it further expands a growing market for the meal that we as farmers produce on our farms.”

The ASA plans to work with the Soy Aquaculture Alliance to continue pushing for development of a domestic aquaculture industry.