Between 1990 and 2021 annual global aquaculture production increased 629% reaching 126 million metric tons (including edible plants) in 2021. Asia, and particularly China, has dominated world aquaculture production, accounting for roughly 91.5% of total global production in 2021 with China alone accounting for 57.8% of global production. Production growth rates for North America and Europe have lagged the rest of the world since the 1950s and led to large decreases in share of global production for these continents. In 1950, Europe and North America were both major participants in global aquaculture production and accounted for 34.9% and 10.1% of production by quantity, respectively, by 2021, those shares had decreased to 2.85% and 0.86% of production by quantity, respectively (FAO, 2023).
Generally, developed countries have not participated in the Blue Revolution with a few exceptions. The United States is a prime example of a developed country that was once at the forefront of aquaculture production and now functions mainly as a consumer with regards to the Blue Revolution. In 1970 the United States (US) was the world’s third largest aquaculture producer by quantity, in 2021 it was only the World’s 19th largest producer (FAO, 2023). Restrictive and costly regulations (Abate et al., 2016; Boldt et al., 2022; Engle et al., 2019; Engle and Stone, 2013; Guillen et al., 2019; Knapp and Rubino, 2016; Nielsen, 2011, Van Senten et al., 2018;), higher labor costs and limited access to labor (Bostock et al., 2016; Engle et al., 2019; Iversen et al., 2020), and negative perceptions of aquaculture (Froehlich et al., 2017; Papacek, 2018; Knapp and Rubino, 2016) have all been identified as potential reasons for the lack of aquaculture growth in the US and other developed countries .
The trend of the Blue Revolution occurring almost exclusively in developing countries combined with stringent regulations and other impediments to aquaculture production growth in developed countries raises the question: Is there a path for the US and other developed nations to grow large-scale domestic aquaculture industries, or will they continue to function mainly as consumers in the Blue Revolution with limited production ? This paper discusses the potential for the US to grow its aquaculture industry through RAS-based production. We examine how RAS-based production has the potential to avoid several impediments to aquaculture growth in the US that have plagued other production strategies and benefits available to growers provided by the high level of production control associated with RAS . Additionally, we will show how RAS-based aquaculture could allow the US to benefit from its competitive advantage in capital and knowledge-intensive industries.