Project abstract purpose: across the globe, the use of aquaculture for stock enhancement is a common strategy to mitigate natural variability in wild/capture fisheries and provide stability in fishery…

The Virginia Institute of Marine Science received a $381,739 Cooperative Agreement from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) under the Sea Grant Support program (CFDA 11.417), effective September 1, 2025, through August 31, 2027. The award funds legal and policy analysis focused on facilitating aquaculture-based stock enhancement for two commercially significant bivalve species in U.S. federal waters: the Atlantic surfclam and Atlantic sea scallop. The institute will deliver comprehensive legal, policy, and regulatory research to identify pathways for implementing stock enhancement efforts that could enhance fishery stability while addressing technical, economic, and regulatory constraints in federal waters.

The primary deliverables include convening an advisory committee of representatives from the fishing, aquaculture, and offshore wind industries alongside state and federal regulators and academic researchers to guide the legal analysis. The institute will disseminate research findings through workshops, conferences, written documents, and presentations to broad audiences including industry stakeholders and fishery policymakers. The results are intended to inform policy development for stock enhancement efforts applicable to other commercially significant federal fisheries, benefiting both the fishing and aquaculture industries as well as regulatory bodies such as NOAA Fisheries.

Activities

The core activities of the project will be to form an advisory committee comprised of individuals representing the fishing, aquaculture and offshore wind industries, state regulators, federal regulators and academic researchers. This group will guide a team of legal researchers in the analysis of the legal, policy and regulatory issues surrounding the potential implementation of aquaculture and stock enhancement efforts for benthic molluscs in U.S. Federal waters.

Expected outcomes

The findings from the legal, policy and regulatory research would be disseminated broadly to interested audiences via workshops, conferences, written documents and presentations.

Intended beneficiaries

The beneficiaries of the project would primarily be the fishing and aquaculture industries. In addition, the findings from the legal analysis will form a basis for the development of policy to guide future development of stock enhancement efforts. This guidance would also benefit both fishery policy makers (e.g. nmfs) and regional fishery management councils (e.g. new england fishery management council).

Subrecipient activities

The proposed effort will be a varied project both regionally and from an expertise perspective. The subrecipients will be responsible for all a wide range of elements of the project including project administration, participation in scoping.