California Aquaculture Association

California aquaculture serves customers statewide and nationally with products including shellfish: oysters, abalone, and mussels; finfish for food: catfish, trout, hybrid striped bass, tilapia, carp, and sturgeon; ornamental fish: koi, goldfish, and other pet industry fishes. California aquaculture also supplements recreational fisheries by stocking catfish, trout, and striped bass in natural waters fulfilling fish stocking contracts with state and other agencies. Other producers complement recreational fisheries by supplying bait fishes to sport fishermen. Aquaculturalists are also on the forefront of fisheries enhancement and restoration by rearing and stocking threatened marine species such as white seabass and white abalone in Pacific Ocean waters. We serve California consumers in many ways today and are constantly looking for new products in the future to fulfill their demand.

In many cases, California aquaculture products are delivered live and fresh to the ethnic markets in the state that are an important part of the cultural diversity that characterize California. The California Aquaculture Association represents the growers that operate this statewide production and distribution system. The aim of the association is to keep this system operating smoothly in coordination with wildlife management regulation conducted by the California Fish and Game Department.

The CAA is sensitive and receptive to all forms of information that impact the public perception of aquaculture products. The association is committed to action that ensures, to the greatest extent possible, California aquaculture products are wholesome food for the consumer and that its products comply with strictest standards of purity and other regulation.

While we are most concerned with California products, we must also be concerned with how media publicize aquaculture issues of national and global origin. The constant stream of media attention on seafood quality and sustainability reflects directly on all aquaculture products. We are seriously concerned by unbalanced reporting of aquaculture issues and by agenda-driven publications that are often misleading, opinionated, and selective in their presentation of information to consumers. Although perhaps well intentioned, ‘advocacy’ science produces questionable results and is subject to conflicts of means and ends.