Lab gets NOAA aquaculture grant

OCEAN SPRINGS, Miss. - Gulf Coast Research Laboratory’s Cedar Point Marine Aquaculture Center has received $6.7 million that will go toward increasing seafood production in South Mississippi. U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran announced the funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to enable the center to further develop its University of Southern Mississippi campus into a state-of-the-art marine aquaculture research and demonstration facility. Cochran said it will lead to improved aquaculture technologies that help alleviate harmful impacts on natural fish stocks while providing consumers with high-demand fish products. Programs like the one at Ocean Springs are searching for ways to mass-produce marine seafood onshore in confined offshore farms. (Source: The Sun Herald, 06/14/08)