Assessing Barriers to California's Coastal Mariculture Economy: A Stakeholder Perspective Analysis

Commercial shellfish and seaweed mariculture has steadily expanded over the past three decades along the U.S. West Coast. Yet, California’s coastal mariculture industry has been impeded by a set of well-documented regulatory barriers including concerns over environmental impact, competing uses of marine spaces, and high costs to regulatory compliance. Based upon in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 20 mariculture stakeholders from California-based mariculture farms, hatcheries, Port Districts and state agencies, the following study assesses the impediments to mariculture industry growth in California and offers insight into common perceived barriers within the mariculture community. Using coupled inductive and deductive analytic approaches, interview transcripts were qualitatively coded to enable pattern recognition across the data. Participants recounted a diverse range of experiences navigating California’s regulatory framework for mariculture, though many pointed to underlying ideological constraints that influence the social, scientific, and political dimensions of mariculture. The use of Port and Harbor Districts for mariculture projects was a widely affirmed solution to navigating regulatory barriers. To this end, there is a need to consciously evaluate biases and misconceptions inherent in mariculture policy, and consider creative alternative solutions to leasing and permitting. The insights advanced by this study can shed light on practical steps needed to achieve mariculture industry development in California.