Statement regarding ongoing Canada-United States regulatory cooperation on aquaculture

Canada and the United States share similar goals to foster sustainable aquaculture to support local and regional seafood production, create jobs in coastal and rural communities, complement wild fisheries, meet public health objectives, and avoid and minimize potential negative environmental effects of aquaculture.

We recognise the importance of undertaking measures to cooperate on aquaculture regulation, especially in areas of environmental management. Canada and the USA share similar environmental management objectives, namely to ensure that living marine resources and their habitats are protected using mitigation, monitoring and compliance approaches that are efficient, effective and commensurate with the potential risk to the environment. Building on our existing relationships, Canada and the USA are looking for ways to mutually benefit from information and expertise exchange on a wide range of aquaculture issues such as environmental monitoring, assessment, management tools and aquaculture siting.

We understand that our mutual efforts to better align the regulatory environment can be achieved through tools such as enhanced technical collaboration, as well as the sharing and adoption of effective regulatory practices and standards, which will help address regulatory misalignments and avoid potential trade barriers between our two countries.

Membership

The Director-General of DFO Aquaculture Management Directorate and the Director of NOAA Fisheries Office of Aquaculture shall be co-leads for the ongoing Annual Canada-United States Aquaculture Consultation.

Meetings

The co-leads shall meet annually to share information and discuss opportunities for cooperation on aquaculture management issues.

The co-leads shall be responsible for sharing an update on Canada-U.S. aquaculture cooperation at the Annual Canada-United States Fisheries Consultation.

The location for the annual meetings shall alternate between Canada and the United States.