Aquaculture tanks at LocalCoho, Auburn, New York. LocalCoho’s current recirculating aquaculture system recycles 80-85% of its waters, with plans to increase the recycle rate to 95% and to use the discharge as a nutrient-rich fertilizer for local crop farmers. Credit: LocalCoho

Contacts:

Michael Ciaramella, Ph.D., New York Sea Grant Seafood Safety and Technology Specialist, E: c2544@cornell.edu, P: (631) 824-4746

John McKain, Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability, E: jam343@cornell.edu

Kara Lynn Dunn, NYSG's Freelance Great Lakes Publicist, E: karalynn@gisco.net, P: (315) 465-7578


Program Highlights Opportunities to Enhance New York Aquaculture and Seafood Production

Ithaca, NY, February 1, 2024 - New York Sea Grant and the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability are partnering to bring a Seafood Summit to New York’s upstate region on March 5, 2024. Seafood professionals and those vested in enhancing access and opportunities to and for New York’s aquaculture and seafood industries are welcome at the event to be held at Cornell AgriTech’s Jordan Hall at 630 W. North Street in Geneva, New York. Attendance at the Seafood Summit is free; however, registration is requested at www.nyseagrant.org/seafoodsummit. 

The 1 to 4 p.m. program will include industry spotlights, agency updates on food safety and processing, opportunities for networking across the diverse sectors associated with farm-raised and wild-harvested seafood, a tour of the Cornell Food Venture Center, and local seafood tasting. Presentations will include information on value-added food production and resources to help start-ups with safety protocols, process development, regulatory compliance, and incubator/accelerator opportunities.

Those attending the 2024 Seafood Summit will meet Ciaramella and New York Sea Grant Aquaculture Specialist Barry Udelson, and learn about the extension resources that New York Sea Grant and Cornell Cooperative Extension provide to the marine and freshwater seafood industries, including seafood and aquaculture science and technology curricula and lesson plans; seafood handling and HACCP (hazard analysis critical control point) training; marketing and processing resources; and links to seafood and aquaculture-focused professional networks, academic organizations, and state and federal regulatory agencies.

“These annual Seafood Summits provide those with a vested interest in the success of New York’s aquaculture and seafood industries an opportunity to share the latest research, safety standards, best practices for marine and freshwater seafood production, and value-added marketing innovations to promote New York seafood to consumers, restaurants, and other buyers; as well as to share the challenges facing these unique industries,” said Ciaramella.

“The wide-ranging network of experts and entrepreneurs at this year’s Seafood Summits will be an opportunity to celebrate ingenuity and innovation,” said David Lodge, the Francis J. DiSalvo director of the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability. “Cornell Atkinson is honored to be a partner for the 2024 Seafood Summit series.”

New York Sea Grant will earlier hold Seafood Summits on February 16 in Riverhead and on February 27 at The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park along with the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County, the Center for Aquatic Animal Research & Management, and Choose Local F.I.S.H. 

The outcome of these annual Seafood Summits helps guide the development of relevant research and extension programming to benefit New York’s seafood and aquaculture industries. Learn more at www.nyseagrant.org/seafoodsummit.


A Cornell Food Venture Center tour and presentation on how it assists food entrepreneurs and start-ups is part of the 2024 Seafood Summit to be held at Cornell AgriTech in Geneva, New York, on March 5, 2024. Credit: Cornell Food Venture Center


More Info: New York Sea Grant

New York Sea Grant (NYSG), a cooperative program of Cornell University and the State University of New York (SUNY), is one of 34 university-based programs under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Sea Grant College Program.

Since 1971, NYSG has represented a statewide network of integrated research, education and extension services promoting coastal community economic vitality, environmental sustainability and citizen awareness and understanding about the State’s marine and Great Lakes resources.

Through NYSG’s efforts, the combined talents of university scientists and extension specialists help develop and transfer science-based information to many coastal user groups—businesses and industries, federal, state and local government decision-makers and agency managers, educators, the media and the interested public.

The program maintains Great Lakes offices at Cornell University, SUNY Buffalo, SUNY Oswego and the Wayne County Cooperative Extension office in Newark. In the State's marine waters, NYSG has offices at Stony Brook University and with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Nassau County on Long Island, Brooklyn College and Cornell Cooperative Extension in NYC and Kingston in the Hudson Valley.

For updates on Sea Grant activities: www.nyseagrant.org has RSS, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube links. NYSG offers a free e-list sign up via www.nyseagrant.org/nycoastlines for its flagship publication, NY Coastlines/Currents, which is published quarterly.