Home-Grown Seafood: NOAA’s Aquaculture Highlights from 2025

NOAA's Aquaculture Highlights 2025 showcases how NOAA is creating opportunities for sustainable aquaculture to grow and thrive across the United States.

When produced responsibly, as it is here in the United States, farmed seafood is good for people, the environment, and the economy. All seafood, wild and farmed, is incredibly nutritious. Aquaculture is a resource-efficient way to grow protein, improve nutrition, and support coastal economies.

Aligned with the Executive Order Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness , NOAA advanced efforts to strengthen domestic seafood production in 2025. Here are just a few of the ways we worked to do this:

Identifying Aquaculture Opportunity Areas

Aquaculture Opportunity Areas are places NOAA has identified-through extensive scientific review and public comment- as environmentally, socially, and economically suitable for multiple commercial aquaculture operations.

In 2025, we identified 13 Aquaculture Opportunity Areas totaling more than 21,000 acres in U.S. federal waters in the Gulf of America (formerly Mexico) and off Southern California. Through this identification process, NOAA provided valuable data that will help inform siting, permitting, and environmental review for potential aquaculture developers

In the Gulf of America, NOAA invested in baseline environmental surveys using new autonomous underwater vehicles and ship-based methods. These surveys will help inform siting and lower permitting costs for applicants.

We also published preliminary marine spatial planning results working to identify Aquaculture Opportunity Areas in Alaska, helping to advance seaweed and shellfish aquaculture in Alaska state waters.

Providing Scientific Solutions

Our aquaculture scientists published more than 20 peer-reviewed articles, reports, and technical memos in 2025. Topics ranged from genomics, engineering, and protected resources, to the impacts of changing ocean conditions.

We also initiated the process of establishing a new Congressionally directed Cooperative Institute to accelerate aquaculture research and marketing projects nationwide.

Finally, in fiscal year 2025, NOAA's Sea Grant Program invested $11.9 million to fund 37 aquaculture research and extension projects . The innovative programs covered more than 17 farmed seafood species, furthering applied science and industry innovation across the nation.

Learn more about NOAA's Aquaculture Program in the Aquaculture Highlights 2025