Implementation barriers to establishing a sustainable coastal aquaculture sector

For much of the last century, the prerequisites for establishing a new primary industry were property rights to secure access to the required natural resources, the appropriate technology, brood stock and labour, and a willing investor. In contrast, in many western nations although all these prerequisites have been in place for the establishment of new coastal marine farming sectors, fledgling aquaculture operations have failed to establish. A prime reason for this is that under increasingly consultative integrated coastal zone management regimes, local stakeholders are expressing a desire for prospective aquaculture operations to demonstrate that they will be sustainable. Many potential marine farmers and regulatory authorities have stumbled on this demand and the work presented here aims to elucidate the nature of sustainability in a coastal aquaculture context and provide a framework for investigating these critical ‘non-traditional’ factors limiting the establishment and development of coastal aquaculture activities.