The NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science has ongoing collaborations with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to provide depositional and water quality modeling products and science advice to support agency permitting and associated environmental reviews and consultations for finfish aquaculture projects proposed for U.S. federal waters. We will discuss the lessons learned from our coordination with EPA, NMFS, and project proponents focused on environmental modeling for individual projects proposed to be sited within U.S. federal waters across a range of environmental conditions and background data availability. This work serves as the foundation for the development of a decision framework that can be used to identify the appropriate level and type of modeling needed to inform management decisions for finfish aquaculture projects proposed in U.S. federal waters.