Marine Aquaculture is relatively new to the U.S. and subject to user conflicts which are only beginning to be understood. The regulatory approval of any marine aquaculture project must consider potential user conflicts through the public review and comment process. NOAA has taken the first steps in understanding potential conflicts through its work on the “Aquaculture Opportunity Area Atlas for the U.S. Gulf of Mexico”. In addition, NOAA is conducting a Programmatic EIS for identifying one or more Aquaculture Opportunity Areas (AOAs) in U.S. federal waters of the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) and has held several scoping meetings to collect public comments. To help facilitate the penetration of marine aquaculture in the GoM, the Sea Grant-National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) GoM Regional Workshop Steering Committee (RWSC) process has been initiated culminating in a workshop in February 2023.
This paper analyzes the ongoing work by NOAA, Sea Grant, environmental non-governmental organizations (eNGOs), and specific aquaculture projects to ascertain the hurdles that an aquaculture venture must address to satisfy potential user conflicts and secure the necessary social license to operate marine aquaculture operation in the GoM. The authors also provide additional stakeholder engagement experience to better anticipate conflicts and hurdles, which may include social acceptance of marine aquaculture, supply chain challenges, government policy, and regulatory obstacles.