California Aquaculture Association

Environmental compatibility is the central feature of aquaculture industry policy in California. It is also crucial to a sustainable industry so intimately related to land, water, and wildlife resources. Our very existence is directly related to environmental quality; commercially viable aquaculture production requires a stable long-term interaction with the environment on a local, national, and global level. Our membership is dedicated to environmental stewardship as a public obligation and as an economic necessity for sustaining the considerable investment in our industry.

More than maintaining existing resources, California aquaculturalists submit that aquaculture offers numerous positive effects on the environment. Locally aquaculturalists have an intense interest in preserving water resources and quality and often play a key advocacy role in protecting water resources. On a national scale, aquaculture provides one means of protecting and even extending shrinking wetlands in the United States. In California, commercially sustainable aquaculture often provides a natural buffer between urban development and natural wetlands. On a global scale, responsibly managed California aquaculture relieves market demand for overexploited fishery resources and mitigates the indirect but significant environmental impacts of distant production systems serving the California market.

The California Aquaculture Association is dedicated to maintaining and improving environmental standards in aquatic and marine environments and to contributing to environmental quality here in California while understanding the national and global implications of our activities.