U.S. Accelerates Aquaculture Growth as Seafood Farming Stalls in Canada

A newly released report shows the United States fast-tracking domestic aquaculture production through science, permitting reform, and federal investment, even as Canada remains mired in political disputes over seafood farming.

By Fabian Dawson
SeaWestNews

As Canada weighs whether aquaculture belongs at the heart of its emerging National Food Security Strategy, the United States has already made its choice.

A newly released 2025 Aquaculture Highlights report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shows Washington moving decisively to scale domestic seafood farming through coordinated federal policy, targeted science investment, and streamlined permitting, all aimed at reducing reliance on imports and strengthening food security.

The report lands as Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government begins shaping a long-promised National Food Security Strategy, following new affordability measures to ease grocery costs, support food producers, and bolster food banks. Ottawa says the strategy will focus on strengthening domestic food production and improving access to nutritious food. Seafood farmers argue aquaculture must be explicitly embedded in that plan, not left on the margins of political debate.

The contrast with the U.S. approach is stark.

NOAA’s report frames aquaculture as a strategic necessity. Americans import roughly US$15 billion worth of farmed seafood each year, a dependence the agency says leaves the country vulnerable while offshore and coastal waters remain underused.

To address that gap, NOAA has designated 13 Aquaculture Opportunity Areas covering more than 21,000 acres in federal waters off Southern California and in the Gulf of America. These zones have undergone extensive spatial modeling and environmental review, allowing future projects to move more quickly through permitting. Parallel work is underway in Alaska, focused on shellfish and seaweed farming in state waters.

The effort is backed by science and money. In 2025 alone, NOAA aquaculture experts published more than 20 peer-reviewed studies addressing disease, genetics, wildlife interactions, and environmental performance. Sea Grant programs invested US$11.9 million across 37 research and extension projects involving more than 17 species, from oysters and finfish to kelp and sea cucumbers.

Permitting guides, interagency coordination, and federal baseline environmental surveys are all designed to lower costs and reduce uncertainty for producers. The consistent message throughout the NOAA report is that aquaculture is essential to food security, economic resilience, and coastal jobs.

In Canada, that clarity is missing.

Seafood farmers say Carney’s food-security messaging at the World Economic Forum in Davos, has struck the right tone but has yet to translate into clear direction, particularly for British Columbia’s salmon farming sector.

B.C. remains under an activist-induced Trudeau-era plan to phase out open-net pen salmon farming licences by 2029, a policy industry groups say is driven by politics rather than science and threatens roughly 4,500 full-time jobs, including hundreds in Indigenous communities.

“Salmon farmers want to be part of the solution to providing healthy and affordable protein to Canadians,” said Brian Kingzett, executive director of the BC Salmon Farmers Association. He noted that Canada now imports more than $700 million worth of salmon annually to meet domestic demand, exposing consumers to price volatility and supply risk.

The Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance (CAIA) says the sector already supports more than 18,000 full-time jobs nationwide and generates $6 billion in economic activity, largely in rural, coastal, and First Nations communities. Yet total farmed seafood production was valued at $1.36 billion in 2024, down 21 per cent in real terms from its 2018 peak.

“Aquaculture is the solution and the only way we can grow more seafood,” said CAIA president and CEO Timothy Kennedy, arguing that Canada is using only about one per cent of its estimated aquaculture potential. “But Canada is stuck with a regressive policy for B.C. salmon farming that is inhibiting confidence and growth in the sector.”

Industry leaders say the debate over aquaculture’s place in Canada’s food system is increasingly out of step with global reality.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, aquaculture now provides more than half of all aquatic food consumed worldwide. Per capita consumption of farmed fish has reached 12.7 kilograms, compared with 8.7 kilograms from wild capture, and global trade in aquatic products continues to rise.

Many countries across Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa, and South America explicitly link aquaculture to national food-security and “blue growth” strategies. Canada still lacks a legislated national food strategy that clearly positions seafood farming as a core pillar, instead folding it into broader agri-food discussions without firm policy direction.

That gap has drawn concern from innovation leaders as well. Kendra MacDonald, CEO of Canada’s Ocean Supercluster, has warned that   Ottawa risks missing a major economic and food-security opportunity by treating aquaculture as a controversy rather than a growth sector.

“We have the natural assets to lead in aquaculture, but if we don’t act with urgency, we will simply miss the opportunity,” she said in a recent interview.

NOAA’s report does not mention Canada, but its implications are hard to miss. One country is aligning science, policy, and permitting to expand domestic seafood production. The other is still deciding whether aquaculture belongs at the centre of its food-security planning.

(Main image courtesy of the FAO)