The U.S. aquaculture industry is diverse in its approach to fish production. Farming techniques vary greatly by geographic location, scale, technology, expenditures, and methods of production for freshwater and marine species. Small-scale aquaculture contributes to economic sectors and supports local food security. Small-scale producers are especially dependent on domestic hatcheries. Present and potential producers undergo several challenges when acquiring fish, due to information gaps and exposure to hatchery resources from poorly integrated digital business platforms. These challenges include issues related to purchasing, species availability, genetics, growth performance, and other commercially valuable factors. This review of U.S. tilapia hatcheries aims to enhance the dissemination of available resources for small-scale producers and to provide insight and guidelines for doing this type of work to support the production of any other species in the U.S. aquaculture industry.
Specific objectives were to: (1) identify publicly accessible hatcheries through online business platforms; (2) establish commercially valuable criteria; (3) assess online user interface and data collection; and (4) outline potential improvements to digital business platforms. A survey was developed for U.S. Tilapia hatcheries to obtain data on commercially valuable parameters. Fourteen tilapia hatcheries were identified (Figure 1), and data was obtained on species availability, hatchery technology, and price analysis (Figure 2). Potential areas for improvements to business platforms were identified after navigating online interfaces, and recommendations were developed based on these findings. The tilapia survey from this review is adaptable for development of a survey template for widespread use in obtaining important information for other aquaculture species. The results are expected to be of value to small-scale producers and hatcheries by improving effectiveness of data access and dissemination of online business platforms for organizing and centralizing data.