AFS and Aquaculture—Addressing the High Stakes of a Sustainable Seafood Supply

The relationship between fisheries and aquaculture is acomplex one: cooperative, adversarial, integrated, or isolateddepending on the situation. The roles of the American Fisher-ies Society (AFS) and other stakeholder groups in supportingaquaculture are similarly complex. Although AFS has its histor-ical roots in aquaculture, starting in 1870 as the American FishCulturists’ Association (AFCA), there are those who questionthe role of AFS in supporting the development of commercialaquaculture. From the early days to the present, the primaryaquaculture constituency of the AFCA and now the AFS FishCulture Section (FCS) has been in the public sector, supporting recreational and commercial fisheries or, increasingly, restor-ing threatened or endangered species. If we primarily representfisheries professionals working with state and federal agencies,what is our responsibility and interest toward the developmentof the commercial aquaculture industry? In this article, we ex-plore the following:

• Why should AFS members be engaged in scientificresearch, policy development, management, and devel-opment of commercial aquaculture?
• The evolving roles of federal agencies, industry organi-zations, and professional societies who are involved inaddressing aquaculture’s potential and challenges.
• The role that AFS and its members play in fostering thesustainable development of commercial aquaculture.

AFS currently represents many who culture fish in both thepublic and the private sectors and a great number of fisheriesprofessionals who are involved in fish physiology, genetics, nu-trition, conservation, economics, ecology, and many other alliedfields critical for advancing common fisheries and aquacultureinterests. Even those fisheries professionals with no direct in-volvement in aquaculture per se undoubtedly have an interest inthe biological and economic interactions between fisheries andaquaculture and ensuring that the use of wild and farmed fishesis governed with an eye to sustainability, ecosystem manage-ment, and minimizing adverse impacts from either sector.