There is a clear and urgent need to reinvigorate and expand an aquaculture development program for the state of Hawai‘i and Pacific region. Such a program would provide high-level visibility and stature to work across government agencies, non-governmental entities, and community groups on a variety of industry development and support issues.
In 2019, Hawai‘i Sea Grant and partners initiated a NOAA Sea Grant-funded aquaculture project whose aim is to revitalize, solidify, and expand an aquaculture development program via an aquaculture hub consortium that spans Hawai‘i and the US-Affiliated Pacific Islands (USAPI). The consortium is being implemented through a Sea Grant Center of Excellence called the Pacific Region Aquaculture and Coastal Resource Hub that consists of over 17 partners from academia, industry, government, and non-profit organizations that conduct integrated research, extension, and education services in support contemporary and Indigenous aquaculture practices in Hawai‘i and the USAPI.
Selected outcomes associated with this hub to date include the hiring of four Sea Grant extension faculty who have been providing education, outreach, and technology transfer services in Hawai‘i and Guam to address the lack of aquaculture extension capacity in the region. Hawai‘i Sea Grant and consortium members have been collaborating on federal- and state-funded projects and activities that support various aquaculture initiatives that include, but are not limited to, examining reproductive bottlenecks in captive finfish broodstock, utilizing genomic selection for improving reproductive output in shrimp, building workforce capacity through internship opportunities, producing and supplying seed stock for grow out in Hawaiian fishponds, conducting husbandry of new and existing commercial species, aquaculture facilities development, and partnering with the aquaculture industry to identify priority needs and actions to address those needs.