Barry Costa-Pierce interviewed by Global Aquaculture Alliance
Barry Costa-Pierce, Ph.D., Henry L. & Grace Doherty Professor and chair in the Department of Marine Sciences and the director of the Marine Science Center, was interviewed by the Global Aquaculture Alliance’s magazine The Advocate for an article in its November issue.
In the article, titled “U.S. professor takes on aquaculture science, government regulations and inaction in Alaska,” Costa-Pierce expressed his disagreement with the conclusions made by several U.S. charitable foundations and universities in their “Ocean Prosperity Roadmap: Fisheries and Beyond,” a collection of research papers published in June. He asserted in the interview that the studies were not complete, as they neglected to consider aquaculture’s importance to global food security.
“Aquaculture is nearly always forgotten… when we talk about the future of fisheries and protein foods, more generally,” he stated.
According to Costa-Pierce, the development of aquaculture has positive impacts on health, the ecosystem and the economy and should be viewed as a complement, not a threat, to fisheries.