Andrzejczak-led Agriculture Committee Continuing Focus on Aquaculture

TRENTON – Assembly Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Bob Andrzejczak (D-Cape May) issued a multimedia package highlighting an aquaculture tour committee members took last session to better understand the needs of aquaculturists in New Jersey.
Andrzejczak’s panel is considering five pieces of aquaculture-focused legislation in the hopes of easing and clarifying requirements for new and current aquaculture research, farming and tourism.
Aquaculture, as defined by the legislation, is “…also known as fish or shellfish farming, [and] refers to the breeding, rearing, and harvesting of animals and plants in all types of water environments including ponds, rivers, lakes, bays, and the ocean…”
Through the committee’s work today and in the previous session, the chairman reiterated his desire to raise the profile of aquaculture in the New Jersey and to bring the practice more in line with the public’s perception of farming and terrestrial agriculture.
The multimedia package consists of highlights from the previous Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee tour of aquaculture research centers and farm locations throughout Cape May County: Rutgers’ Aquaculture Innovation Center; Rutgers’ Haskin Shellfish Research Laboratory; and the Green Creek Oyster Fishery.
The year-long tour series, conceived by Andrzejczak, was intended to help members of the committee get a first-hand look at the various types of research, farming and food processing that makes up the backbone of the state’s agriculture and agrotourism industries, so that members would gain a better understanding of the specific issues facing New Jersey farmers and the type of legislation that may be necessary to maintain the state’s position as the Garden State.
The aquaculture bills currently before the panel are, in large part, a result of the tour program.
The multimedia package consists of a video of Andrzejczak, Michael P. De Luca, the director of the Aquaculture Innovation Center, and David Bushek, Ph.D., the director of the Haskin Shellfish Research Laboratory discussing their excursion and audio and a transcript of same.
The video can be accessed directly via our website – www.assemblydems.com – or by pasting the following link into a Web browser: https://vimeo.com/110609690