Competitiveness of U.S. Aquaculture Within the Current U.S. Regulatory Framework

Increased attention has been paid in recent years to both positive and negative effects of increasing numbers of regulations on businesses in the United States. The decline in U.S. aquaculture has been attributed in part to increasing volumes of imports and high feed prices. However, there is increasing concern that the U.S. regulatory environment, as compared to that of international competitors, may also have contributed to this decline. More than 1,300 laws apply to U.S. aquaculture and even though the majority has been issued by individual states and apply only to specific types of aquaculture businesses in that state, the cumulative regulatory burden has increased over time. Major compliance categories include: 1) environmental management; 2) food safety; 3) legal and labor standards; 4) interstate transport of aquatic products; 5) fish health; and 6) culture of commercially harvested species. A substantial portion of the regulatory burden is the managerial and labor time spent on compliance in addit...