Protecting the ocean has never meant leaving it untouched. It has meant understanding it well enough to make smart decisions.
For decades, science has helped us rebuild fisheries, establish marine sanctuaries, restore habitats, and protect vulnerable species. Today, it must help us answer another pressing question: how do we meet a growing demand for seafood without placing even greater pressure on our oceans?
That is why the conversation about aquaculture should not begin with whether we are for it or against it. It should begin with a simpler question.
Are we willing to do the research needed to understand what responsible development in the U.S. looks like?
Because avoiding the question won’t stop change. It will only determine whether we shape it.
Preparing for a Changing Ocean
The ocean is already changing faster than our governance systems. Warming waters, shifting species ranges, and increasing climate volatility are reshaping fisheries and coastal economies. Communities that depend on the ocean are increasingly exposed to uncertainty they did not create.
In this context, resilience will require more tools, not fewer. Wild fisheries remain essential, but they will not be sufficient alone to meet long-term demand under climate stress. Responsible aquaculture—grounded in strong science and rigorous oversight—may be one of the best tools we have to build a more resilient system, but only if we do the work now to understand its impacts and define its limits.
The Choice in Front of Us Isn’t Binary
Too often, aquaculture is framed as a choice between protecting the ocean or producing food from it. That framing is outdated. The real choice is whether we will develop the science, standards, and safeguards needed to guide responsible production—or allow production to expand without them.
Global seafood demand is rising. Wild fisheries are already over-exploited in many regions, and climate change is intensifying pressure on marine ecosystems. At the same time, consumption continues to grow in the United States and around the world. We do not eliminate demand by declining to study solutions. We simply shift production elsewhere and often to systems with fewer environmental safeguards, less transparency, and weaker accountability. Ocean protection cannot be built on the assumption that demand disappears when we look away.
Every Food System Has Tradeoffs
No food system exists without environmental impact. Land use, water consumption, emissions, and ecosystem pressure are present across animal protein production globally. Seafood is no exception. But within our control is whether we are willing to manage these systems responsibly, transparently, and with enforceable standards that reflect modern science. That requires honesty about tradeoffs across the entire food system coupled with consistency in how we evaluate them.
We Need Research Before Scaling
Some forms of aquaculture have caused real environmental harm, particularly where oversight is weak or absent. Those lessons matter, and they should guide what comes next—but they should not lead us to disengagement. Instead, they point to a clear policy gap: we still lack sufficient, publicly available data on how modern offshore aquaculture performs under rigorous environmental standards in U.S. waters.
Without that data, we are making decisions in the dark—either restricting systems we do not fully understand or allowing them to expand elsewhere without U.S. standards, oversight, or accountability. This is why research must be the foundation for any credible ocean policy going forward.
A Research-First Path Forward
The Marine Aquaculture Research for America (MARA) Act offers a structured alternative to the status quo by avoiding assumptions about outcomes and by generating well-tested evidence.
MARA establishes limited, time-bound demonstration projects designed to evaluate environmental impacts, test best practices, and produce transparent, peer-reviewed data. It includes public input requirements, Tribal consultation, and clear guardrails on siting and oversight. MARA exemplifies smart and responsible evidence-building before scale.
We have used this model successfully in other areas of ocean governance. Science-based fisheries management under Magnuson-Stevens helped rebuild depleted stocks by grounding decisions in data rather than assumptions. Marine sanctuaries were established through a similar combination of research, public process, and adaptive management.
The principle is consistent: you cannot manage what you do not measure.
The Cost of Inaction Is Also a Decision
Choosing not to invest in research cedes control over how aquaculture develops globally. It increases the likelihood that production expands in places with weaker environmental protections, and it reduces our ability to set standards that reflect U.S. science, values, and conservation goals. In ocean policy, absence is not neutrality and quickly becomes a policy choice with consequences.
Building the Framework We Need
Ocean conservation has always required balancing protection with use, science with uncertainty, and urgency with discipline. What is different now is the speed and scale of the pressures we face—and the narrowing window to shape outcomes.
This Ocean Month, the work ahead is not to choose between the ocean and food production. It is to ensure that food production evolves in ways that are measurable, governed, and aligned with ocean health. That means investing in research. It means building enforceable standards. And it means creating the conditions for better decisions before irreversible patterns set in.
That is the purpose of the MARA Act. And it is the direction we are working toward: a future where ocean protection is not defined by avoidance, but by evidence, accountability, and preparedness.
To learn more about the MARA Act and the Coalition for Sustainable Aquaculture, visit https://coalitionforsustainableaquaculture.org/mara/.
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Maddie Voorhees is the U.S. Aquaculture Campaign Director at the Environmental Defense Fund, one of the world’s top nonprofit environmental advocacy organizations.