Successful growth in Rhode Island aquaculture

Tor-Eddie Fossbakk Barry Costa-Pierce, executive director of the Rhode Island Sea Grant program at the University of Rhode Island (URI), writes about the success in an article in Providence Business News online. Rhode Island recently passed North Dakota in aquaculture production. The state is one of the smallest in the United States, but despite the relatively small production, the state can boast of products being of very high quality and nationally well recognized. Last year all aspects of the industry grew according to an annual report about the industry from the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC). According to the report, Rhode Island fish and seafood farmers were paid almost USD 1.6 million in 2007, an 18-percent increase from 2006. This was the tenth double-digit increase in the past 12 years. Aquaculture-related industries in the state experienced gross revenue of USD 4.3 million last year, an increase from the USD 3.5 million reported in 2006 Last year two new licenses were issued by the CRMC, raising the state’s number of aquaculture farms to 30. The number of acres being farmed is now 123 acres. The per-acre value of aquaculture in Rhode Island was USD 12,862, down slightly from USD 13,621 in 2006, but still a large increase compared with 2005 and 2004, years in which the production per acre value held at USD 8,757 and USD 8,185, respectively. Since the inception six years ago of the Rhode Island Aquaculture Initiative (RIAI), with USD 1.5 million in government funding, the industry has almost doubled. The RIAI is a multi-institutional executive committee comprised of officials from CRMC, the Rhode Island Sea Grant and other university and industry partners. The initiative wrapped up this year. Caption: Professor Barry Costa-Pierce, executive director of the Rhode Island Sea Grant Program, University of Rhode Island. Coast-Pierce was a keynote speaker at the 2004 AquaVision in Stavanger, Norway.