The structure and function of a coastal state aquaculture plan

Abstract

Aquaculture contributes approximately half of all global aquatic food production and will be critical in addressing future seafood demand, including the United States (U.S.). Many states, territories, and countries are developing and updating aquaculture specific policy in an effort to plan for, and better manage the expansion of aquaculture in their territorial waters. The U.S. has considerable potential to sustainably expand aquaculture production, which has been a focus in both federal and state policy. State aquaculture plans have been used for over 40 years to help plan and coordinate aquaculture development, with a growing emphasis on sustainability. Here, we located and evaluated a set of coastal state aquaculture plans released in the last 25 years (N = 7) in an effort to provide resources to states and territories interested in this activity. We synthesized information from each plan to understand the support, motivation, writing process and entities involved, taxa and environments under consideration, key structural elements, and the types of recommendations provided. We found that coastal state aquaculture plans are often government or industry initiatives developed in partnership with other groups, including academia, government agencies, and tribal actors, as well as supported formally by executive or legislative branches. Plans were diverse but tended to described the vision for the future, provide recommendations, identify and incorporate cross-cutting concepts into the plans (e.g., best management practices and marine spatial plans), and highlight the need for the plan to be updated regularly. As states aim to expand aquaculture, understanding the structure and function of the tools used by states to inform policy formation will be important to help make future development plans more effective and efficient.