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Courtesy of Fish Farming News:

The regulatory burden has increased costs of production for many farms.  Measuring the costs due to regulations will help aquaculture industry associations to address these regulatory issues by: 1) publishing quantitative measures of how much it costs U.S. aquaculture to comply with all regulations; 2) identifying which specific regulations are most costly for different segments of U.S. aquaculture; and 3) identifying which specific aspects of the regulatory burden are most onerous on U.S. aquaculture farms.

Dr. Carole Engle and Dr. Jonathan van Senten (Virginia Tech University) have led successful efforts (along with many collaborators and cooperators) to measure the regulatory cost burdens on the U.S. trout and salmon industry, the U.S. baitfish/sportfish industry, and the Pacific Coast shellfish industry. The cost information from these studies has opened many eyes in terms of the magnitude of the economic effects from regulations on U.S. aquaculture. For example, for the shellfish industry along the Pacific Coast of the U.S., the total annual regulatory cost was found to be $15.6 million a year, with annual lost sales revenue of $110 million and additional lost business opportunities of $170 million a year. For U.S. trout and salmon, increased on-farm costs due to regulations were found to be $16.1 million a year with $52.5 million a year in lost markets, lost production, and thwarted expansion attempts, while the regulatory cost burden on U.S. baitfish/sportfish farms was $5.2 million per year in addition to lost revenues of $6.9 million a year. Trout, baitfish/sportfish, and Pacific Coast shellfish growers are using this information within their own states and in Washington, D.C. to seek to streamline the permit approval process, reduce redundancies and duplication in reporting, and to otherwise make it easier for fish and shellfish farms to comply with laws and regulations but without stifling growth.

A new project is underway, funded by USDA-NIFA, to conduct similar surveys of five additional segments of U.S. aquaculture to measure their regulatory cost burden: catfish, Florida ornamental/tropical fish, Atlantic Coast shellfish, hybrid striped bass, and tilapia. These surveys are being phased in one at a time, but by this fall/winter, all five will be underway.

A good response rate is important in terms of the overall credibility of the data and the results. To date, the previous surveys have resulted in high response/coverage rates that make the results difficult to ignore. The project team working on these new surveys is committed to stringent confidentiality procedures that will ensure that no one else will see individual farm data. The questionnaire will be coded with original copies held under lock and key and destroyed after the study is completed. Computer files will be encrypted. A confidentiality agreement signed by the researchers is provided to all participants. All farm data are averaged across farms in a manner such that no data from any one farm can be identified in any report.

If you raise catfish, ornamental/tropical fish in Florida, shellfish on the Atlantic Coast, hybrid striped bass, or tilapia, you will likely be contacted by a researcher on this project in the coming months to request an appointment to visit with you on this important topic. Your assistance is critical to compiling the information needed to gain traction to reduce the regulatory cost burden on U.S. aquaculture businesses.

For any questions, comments, or suggestions, please feel free to speak directly with Jonathan (jvansenten@vt.edu; 954-297-7940) or Carole (cengle8523@gmail.com; 870-489-4259).