The Humboldt Aquaculture Innovation Center (HAIC) is a project to provide permits and resources for small aquaculture business entrepreneurs, featuring "food-web" approaches to aquaculture farming.
The mission of the HAIC is to foster and support small business innovation and diversification of sustainable aquaculture farming in Humboldt County.
Humboldt Bay has the resources to support sustainable development and diversification of regional aquaculture. Led by the Humboldt Bay Harbor Conservation and Recreation District, the Humboldt Aquaculture Innovation Center is a project to pre-permit an aquaculture business park on the Samoa peninsula to stimulate innovation in the regional aquaculture industry. The project has been awarded an economic development grant to begin the permit pathway for the aquaculture business park and this summer of 2013 will launch a pilot aquaponics facility.
As for the market opportunity, did you know that the USA imports 92% of our seafood? We spent over $10 Billion dollars in 2012 on seafood imports, the source and quality of which is often questionable or unknown. California's complicated coastal regulatory system is a constraint which has kept the aquaculture industry from growing and diversifying. The HAIC seeks to stimulate small business development by featuring master permits and infrastructure for sustainable aquaculture farming systems.