U.S. Aquaculture

Abstract

U.S. aquaculture has continued to grow. New technological developments have provided a basis for the emergence of new aquaculture sectors in the U.S. Profitable and feasible aquaculture businesses grow over time. As they do, economic impacts are generated because businesses create demand for other goods and services and provide employment opportunities. Economic impacts include direct effects of the value of the productive output, indirect effects from the value of output from industries that either supply inputs or market the outputs, and induced effects of the additional household spending created. The impacts from well-established industries such as catfish, trout, oysters, and clams can be measured with input-output techniques. However, the potential impacts of emerging sectors of aquaculture must be analyzed with other types of modeling techniques. The overall diversity of aquaculture results in equally diverse types of economic impacts. However, even small-scale aquaculture businesses can result in measurable, positive economic impacts. Good policy development should account for the diversity of types of impacts of aquaculture on local communities and state economies.