Browsing by Subject "Aquaculture"

This dissertation focuses on the relationship of industrial shrimp aquaculture and shrimp diseases, with an emphasis on the agency of disease in shaping the history of shrimp production. Shrimp aquaculture is concentrated in developing tropical economies, with the significant majority of shrimp exported to consumers in the Global North. The rise of shrimp aquaculture has been accompanied by the development of new technologies and practices, designed to facilitate and govern the growth of the industry. While successful in making aquaculture the single largest production method for shrimp, these innovations also created ideal environments for the emergence and spread of shrimp diseases, which have caused significant and persistent production losses. Disease has brought volatility and risk to producer livelihoods, while also necessitating further technological modernization and development interventions to curb disease outbreaks.

This research draws on qualitative interviews and contextual economic analyses to explore the role of disease at multiple scales. Chapter 2 examines how disease has shaped industry discourses and he practice of shrimp aquaculture across contexts. The role of the concept of biosecurity is examined to highlight the territorial nature of disease prevention. Chapter 3 explores the context of shrimp aquaculture development in Aceh, Indonesia. This chapter applies the general ideas explored in Chapter 2, to a real-world case, highlighting how the pairing of shrimp and disease is managed as a single commodity. Chapter 4 explores the reach of disease globally, and across methods of production. The economic effects of disease on U.S. wild shrimping are explored, along with the role of disease as a narrative element in resisting global aquaculture.

It is argued that shrimp disease shapes commodity relationships, influencing production decisions, and development priorities at multiple scales. The unsympathetic quality of disease makes disease prevention an ideal project for enrolling broad coalitions of human and non-human actors, and negating the politics embedded in the relationship of disease prevention with commodification more broadly.

In the United States, marine aquaculture is increasingly viewed as way to offset stagnating wild fisheries production, help faltering coastal community economies, and address a growing national seafood trade deficit. The national government has outwardly supported the development of the sector through policies, plans, and other statements. However, many social and environmental questions surround prospective expansion, and actual policy development and implementation has been slow. This dissertation builds on recent work in human geography and policy studies to explore US national marine aquaculture policy processes, conceptualizing policy as a dynamic assemblage of actors, spaces, practices, and relations. It contributes to our understanding of oceans geography and policy processes by addressing three questions: (1) How do actors interact within the assemblage negotiate, construct, and develop national policies? (2) What practices are actors employing to shape aquaculture policymaking, and what views underlie them? (3) What are the practical, and often local, implications of these processes, and how do actors interact with and within policy development (or not)?

These questions are approached empirically by tracing the US national marine aquaculture policy assemblage across time, space, and scale. The dissertation draws on research conducted within and outside the US government, focusing on the internal practices of the state and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), as well as a case of local and regional policy implementation and development in New England. It also focuses on offshore aquaculture policy, as well as marine aquaculture more generally. The dissertation uses discourse analysis, ethnography, and other approaches to conduct a geographic policy analysis that explores the processes and relationships producing national marine aquaculture policy in the United States.

Overall, this research shows that broad or monolithic conceptualization of the state, its motivations, its practices, and their implications are oversimplified. The federal government features a diversity of actors, discourses, and ideas about marine aquaculture and its policy development, which manifest in different paths to reform and conflicting efforts within the state itself. Further, national policy processes are not contained within the national government, but are co-produced by mobile and dynamic actors and policies across contexts. Actors deploy particular discourses about marine aquaculture’s risks and opportunities, government agencies and offices claim and reclaim authority over the sector, bureaucrats engage in diverse everyday policy practices and interactions, and policy ideas and policies themselves change as they are translated and deployed in new spaces and by different actors. Together, these processes suggest that rather than expecting a totalizing form of marine aquaculture development in the United State, it is important to consider the ruptures and opportunities within the assemblage that might allow for alternative forms of policy, coordination, and implementation at all scales.