A quaculture production in the Great Lakes region is small and not keeping pace with increases in consumer demand for fish and seafood. The Great Lakes Aquaculture Collaborative (GLAC), one of the National Sea Grant supported Aquaculture Hubs, was formed to address potential barriers and develop opportunities for sustainable, land-based aquaculture in the region. GLAC is composed of Sea Grant extension educators and university researchers from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and New York. The project’s primary goal is to provide relevant, science-based initiatives that support an environmentally responsible, competitive, and sustainable aquaculture industry in the region.
The GLAC has formed advisory groups in each of the eight Great Lakes states and an additional regional advisory group with a representative from each state group to help prioritize GLAC activities . Each advisory group is composed of aquaculture producers, distributors, and researchers. The ideas and priorities that arise from advisory group meetings and discussions drive the majority of GLAC activities. For example, we have held four informational webinars and two region-wide virtual events on topics chosen by our advisory groups . GLAC also has a robust research component and projects that are ongoing include 1) understanding consumers’ willingness to pay for aquaculture products, 2) identifying what producers perceive as barriers to expanding and diversifying their businesses, and 3) identifying policy and regulatory hurdles for aquaculture producers in the region. In order to distribute our activities and research as widely as possible, we have developed a GLAC website (https://greatlakesseagrant.com/aquaculture/) that hosts our webinars, events, outreach materials, and research updates .
Through direct interaction with our advisory groups and among Sea Grant programs, a number of collaborations have grown out of the GLAC. Examples of new projects include a website (the Great Lakes Fresh Fish Finder at freshfishfinder.org) with the goal of connecting fish producers directly to consumers, and a funded project to develop consumer education materials with information about aquaculture and seafood for both youth and adult audiences . Finally, our GLAC team is working together to develop the next iteration of GLAC by filling additional gaps in the aquaculture industry in networking, workforce development, and consumer preference and education.