March 17, 2022–The Northwest Aquaculture Alliance (NWAA) today announced the appointment of Innovasea Systems Inc. Senior Vice President, Langley Gace, to its Board of Directors.
Gace, a Bainbridge Island, Washington, resident, was formerly the President of Washington-based OceanSpar, LLC, a pioneer in the development of submersible net pens for open ocean aquaculture. In 2015, OceanSpar merged with Open Farm Technologies to form Innovasea Systems, a new company committed to developing the next wave of innovative, open-ocean products to support the growing marine aquaculture industry.
Innovasea currently employs 250 people worldwide, providing full end-to-end solutions for fish farming and aquatic species research.
Gace said he looks forward to serving on the leadership team of NWAA to promote the advancement of fish farming and shellfish production in the West Coast and Pacific regions. “We need aquaculture to feed the world today and into the future,” he said, adding that the Alliance “plays an important role in promoting the many benefits of responsible aquaculture while providing a platform for networking opportunities in the aquaculture sector.”
Gace said the current global political situation should serve as a call to action for policymakers and regulators to make aquaculture production a matter of national food security. “Today, the United States ranks 17th in the world in terms of aquaculture production currently importing 80 percent of the seafood that we consume,” Gace noted. “Given the public health guidance to Americans to eat seafood twice a week, we as a country and as individual states and regions must take the necessary steps to produce more seafood domestically. Aquaculture is the future.”
Jim Parsons, NWAA Board President, said the addition of Innovasea to NWAA and Gace to the NWAA Board is a key strategic step in helping amplify the voice of the people and the companies that are engaged in the responsible production of aquatic foods. “Langley Gace is an internationally respected innovator who clearly understands the importance of aquaculture in feeding the world,” he said. “We are honored to have him join the Alliance.”
