WASHINGTON – While aquaculture is still in its infancy in the United States, much of the seafood consumed in the United States is imported from countries where it is farm-raised.

"American consumers are enjoying more seafood every year, but to a large degree the increase in consumption is not coming from the wild," said Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H., chairman of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee's National Ocean Policy Study, during a hearing on offshore aquaculture on Thursday.

"We are getting a great deal of this increase from overseas, and much of the increase in imports comes from fish farms far from the reach of U.S. environmental regulations," he said.

According to Sununu, in the past three years more than a billion pounds of shrimp have been imported each year, Atlantic salmon imports have doubled and tilapia imports have tripled.

The purpose of the hearing was to study the growing of fish in cages in the ocean, an alternative to importing most of the nation's seafood. The committee is studying how to control and promote this industry. Without regulation, seafood can be imported with toxins, which is why the committee is interested in the creation of U.S. fish farms that could be regulated by federal law.

One of the witnesses at the hearing was Richard Langan, a proponent of aquaculture and the director of the University of New Hampshire's Open Ocean Aquaculture Program. The goal of the university program is to further develop commercial aquaculture throughout New England, create employment opportunities and contribute to community and economic growth, according to the program's Web site.

"Our project is looking at species that are native to our area, shellfish and finfish, and we sort of had a very early success with shellfish, in particular mussel culture; we saw that we had excellent production capacity," Langan said after the hearing. "We went out and did an economic assessment of it, and that came back very favorable, so we've done a great deal of outreach to fishermen in New Hampshire."

Langan said that the program also is assisting a New Hampshire fisherman with a commercial start-up in New Hampshire waters. The program hopes that the fisherman is successful so other local fishermen will attempt aquaculture projects.

Jessica Sperlongano is an intern with the Boston University Washington News Service.