Aquaculture literacy impacts
NOAA Fisheries, the National Sea Grant Office, and NOAA Office of Education have worked together since 2017 to coordinate NOAA’s efforts supporting aquaculture literacy.

2020-2022 Community of Practice for Aquaculture Literacy impacts
NOAA's Community of Practice for Aquaculture Literacy (CoPAL) was formed in 2020 as a landing space for all interested in leveraging existing resources to expand aquaculture literacy efforts across the country. To date, CoPAL has hosted:
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Two workshops led in 2020 with 86 participants from:
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23 states and tribes,
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9 aquariums,
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7 aquaculture industry groups,
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the National Ocean Service, and
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the Office of Education.
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12 public webinars hosted on a variety of seafood topics, with a total of 1,040 people registered.
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450 people subscribed to our CoPAL listserv offsite link that delivers aquaculture literacy resources to subscribers every week.
2021-2023 aquaculture literacy program impacts
NOAA partnered with the North American Association for Environmental Education offsite link to implement the eeBLUE aquaculture literacy mini-grants program offsite link. To date, eeBLUE offsite link has awarded $148,618 to support 10 projects. This mini-grants program reached:
- 47 partner institutions, spanning aquaculture industry members, science learning centers, and aquaculture researchers, all enhancing awareness and understanding of aquaculture topics through formal (K-12 and undergraduate) and informal education initiatives.
- 6 states: California, Florida, Georgia, Maine, Massachusetts, and Ohio
- 475 K-12 students
- 350 post-secondary students
- More than 700 educators
- 1,600 youth and adults reached, including the public, seafood farmers, and chefs
- More than 500,000 visitors to aquariums and informal education institutions hosting eeBLUE aquaculture literacy exhibits
To learn more about the opportunities and impacts from these projects, you can visit our YouTube playlist of recordings from the February 2023 eeBLUE aquaculture literacy mini-grant symposium, or download the final report summary.