Fish Farms Would Boost Region’s Economy

BRISTOL, R.I. (AP) — The New England region should increase fish farming and develop a system to monitor ocean conditions to ensure a healthy and growing marine economy, scientists, government officials, and businesspeople said April 2.

Speakers at a conference on the future of the region’s marine economy said it was crucial for businesses and government to invest in research to develop those areas because the region’s success is so closely tied to the ocean. The conference was sponsored by Roger Williams University and the regional business group The New England Council.

A potential anchor for New England’s future marine economy is the development of ocean monitoring systems that would allow scientists and others to track the ocean climate, said Hauke Lite-Powell, a research specialist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts.

The National Science Foundation plans to invest in a system of coastal, regional and global networks of observatories, named ORION, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration plans IOOS, or an Integrated and Sustained Ocean Observing System, to provide information on the state of the oceans.

Once the money is awarded, he said, the systems could be up and running in a few years.

Timothy Scott, a professor of environmental science at Roger Williams, said another key piece of the puzzle is aquaculture, such as fish and shellfish farming or the farming of seaweed.

The United States imports 80 percent of its seafood, and at the same time the nation’s appetite for seafood is growing. But 90 percent of the world’s aquaculture is in Asia, and only a small sliver is in the United States.

Connecticut is a major producer of farm-raised shellfish, including oysters and hard clams, valued at greater than $16 million in 2005. There are 50 companies producing shellfish and two hatcheries in Connecticut. The state of Maine farms salmon.

Rhode Island seeds Narragansett Bay with shellfish every year, and most of the states also farm trout, Mr Scott said. The region’s aquaculture sales stand at $60 million per year, he said, half what it was a decade ago because of disease in salmon and shellfish.