One representative, Lee Corey, said it was the industry's responsibility to change public attitudes towards aquaculture.
Mr Corey, the owner of Fredericton's Corey Feed Mills, was one of 20 industry representatives at the provincewide aquaculture summit that wrapped up Friday in the capital.
Mr Corey, whose company has supplied the aquaculture industry with fish feed for more than 25 years, said the biggest problem facing the industry is a misinformed public, according to a report in the Daily Gleaner.
"The public hasn't quite figured out that when you go to the store and buy fish, it is soon going to be all grown, and it is not a bad thing. We need to feed people quality food," he told the Gleaner.
Corey said that New Brunswick is in a unique position to become a major player in the aquaculture industry, with the province's proximity to the northeastern United States and the Bay of Fundy.
In New Brunswick, aquaculture generates C$278 million annually.
New Brunswick Fisheries and Oceans Minister Ronald Ouellett said the summit focused on how the government could help assure that numbers continue to rise.
Changing Public Attitudes to Aquaculture
CANADA - A two-day event organised to create an aquaculture strategy in New Brunswick brought together those involved in the province's aquaculture industry with federal Fisheries and Oceans Minister Gail Shea and provincial Fisheries and Oceans Minister Ronald Ouellette.
