Lastly, you’ll want to make sure that your farm won’t be located in or near a critical habitat area. Avoid areas with seagrass and other bottom vegetation, as these are important breeding grounds of many marine critters, which your anchors could disturb. You’ll also want to avoid marine mammal haul-outs and areas where fish, such as herring or salmon, are known to spawn. 

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and many states have mapping tools and databases that you can use to identify some of these critical habitat areas. The NOAA Aqua Mapper, Connecticut’s CT ECO Aquaculture Mapping Atlas, and Alaska’s Mariculture Map Beta are just a few such examples. In the lesson Understand the Regulations, select your state from the drop-down menu to find mapping tools specific to your area.