The expansion of aquaculture in the US represents an opportunity to strengthen domestic seafood markets, enhance food security, and create jobs, along with other possible benefits. Its potential, however, is hampered by concerns of social acceptability. Social acceptability for aquaculture represents the willingness of a community, however that community is defined, to support the growing industry and their overall approval of its growth. Social acceptability for aquaculture is commonly gauged through public comments on pending farm permits, as well as evaluation of messages in publicly available media. Though intended to be participatory by enabling public involvement, these outlets often do not represent all resource users or community members, including those likely to be affected by industry expansion.
This project uses a systematic participatory approach to understand social acceptability. Focusing on communities in three regions of interest for aquaculture expansion (the Gulf of America, Southern California Bight, and Alaska), a combination of focus groups (N=20) and semi-structured interviews (N=210) with community members took place between 2022 and 2024. Interview participants included individuals from the commercial and recreational fishing sectors, environmental non-governmental organizations, the food service sector (e.g., restaurateurs, wholesalers, etc.), tribal and Indigenous community members, local government leaders, and other groups relevant to each region. Focus groups were comprised of members of the general public and provided a glimpse into general knowledge of and level of support for aquaculture.
Findings illustrate the nuances of social acceptability, with varying opinions based on location and product grown, as well as community-specific characteristics that influenced overall support. Results will be presented in more detail, with attention to implications for prospective farmers, policy makers and resource managers, as well as community leaders and planners. A greater understanding of the attributes that influence community support of aquaculture can contribute to blue economic development that is more in line with community values and potentially more likely to yield long term benefits.