State by State Summary of Finfish Aquaculture Leasing/Permitting Requirements (2021)

Prepared by Benjamin Hurley with funding from the Ernest F. Hollings Undergraduate Scholarship Program. This information is current as of August 2021. Aquaculture is an emerging industry in the United States with varying permitting structures across the states. In 2018, a report assessed shellfish aquaculture permitting systems and documented permitting and leasing requirements for shellfish operations in the waters of 22 states1. The permitting inventory that resulted from this project was a valuable reference for those seeking to enter the industry and a useful tool for sharing knowledge and practices across state programs. However, aquaculture permitting is subject to frequent changes, and much of this document quickly became outdated. Furthermore, Hawaii and the U.S. territories were not included in the initial report, and no comparable compendium existed for finfish or seaweed permitting despite rising interest in these sectors. Through collaboration and communication with state aquaculture representatives, the spreadsheet associated with O’Connell (2018) was updated and formatted to be compatible with screen readers.