World Aquaculture Magazine -December 2021

24 DECEMBER 2021 • WORLD AQUACULTURE • WWW.WA S .ORG programs at all age levels. The State of Connecticut has invested heavily in aquaculture education; for example, the oldest and most known, the Bridgeport Aquaculture High School (www.bridgeportedu. net/domain/2958). Many more of these community based aquaculture education centers are needed, and not just in academic institutions, but in NGOs and aquariums worldwide (a leading example is the work of the Aquarium of the Pacific, Long Beach, CA, USA); industry would do well in creating, cooperating and funding them. A radical transformation of institutions and people would embrace aquaculture as a transdisciplinary area of global to local scholarship and practice—a “pracademic” (www.youtube.com/ watch?v=wSGF6VDh2ys) — that combines the social-ecological wisdom of aquafarming and fishing peoples, their experiences and practical knowledge, with applied science advancements to provide additional economic, environmental and social profits to communities. Aquaculture is a “team science” (National Research Council 2015) that develops social-ecological partnerships of scientists working with fishermen, farmers and civil society who are central to the success of aquaculture. Aquaculture incorporates the knowledge and power of ecological design, ecological engineering and ecological approaches to governance— to implement and then evolve more sustainable aquaculture businesses and farms at family, bioregional and industrial scales. Aquaculture can evolve a whole new generation of leaders who can design and implement innovative production systems with stakeholders (Table 1) that have a higher economic and social benefits from agriculture or fisheries alone and can accomplish full utilization of its products—no wastes, all become resources— thus achieving the change in norms needed to increase the social contract for aquaculture due to the multiple benefits they provide to society. There are many institutions to take pride in and emulate as models. None are perfect but all exhibit enough of the values above for me to feature. All have provided training and development of learning TABLE 2. A guide to assist in determinations of the appropriate scaling for aquaculture (modified from Kohl and Foy 2018) . INSTITUTIONAL ROLES Pr i va t e Pub l i c Pub l i c - Dono r Pr i va t e 1. Who has the resources 1 , technical knowledge, and incentives 2 to take on the overall responsibility for driving the scaling up process and coordinating among the various participants? 2. Currently, are target producers for expansion willing and able to pay 3 for expenses for existing farms but also for the additional inputs and investments, and, are there markets for the additional aquaculture products given the business case? 3. Who has the resources, technical knowledge and incentives to simplify, modify or adapt the existing aquaculture farms to expansion, or to bundle with other products and services, or to develop partnerships to improve scalability by examining its costs/benefits? 4. Who has the resources, technical knowledge and incentives to drive the necessary financial expansion; mobilize and make available affordable financing for expansion? Who will provide subsidies or price discounts? 5. Who has the resources, technical knowledge and incentives to import products if necessary to ensure market supply and ensure supply of any complementary services (e.g. logistical, financial, veterinary, etc.) in order to avoid business collapse due to expansion? Who can help be responsive to changes in market demands? 7. Who has the resources, technical knowledge and incentives for assistance with geographic coverage to process, distribute, market/sell 4 the increased aquaculture products and any necessary complementary inputs or services? How does the existing distribution network compare with a goal to achieve 100% of the expanded target locations and populations? 8. Who has the resources, technical knowledge and incentives to create the demand for aquaculture products? At what stage of scaling could these roles shift? 9. Who has the resources, technical knowledge, incentives and geographic coverage to provide the additional education, training, technical assistance and extension services? 10. Who has the resources, technical knowledge, incentives and linkages to educate consumers resulting from increased expansion of aquaculture? 1 Resources include human, financial and infrastructure. 2 Incentives refer to the business case (risk and return), the policy priorities, and the bureaucratic motivation for a public-sector agency, and the vision, mission and policy priorities. 3 “Able to pay” means the price point would be affordable given the resources or financing available. 4 Distributing, marketing, and selling are combined but each could be provided by different actors.