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ATLANTIC BEACH, N.C. – A conference at the North Carolina coast coached businesses how to profit from prawns and capture the attention of catfish buyers. The 23rd annual North Carolina aquaculture development conference opened Friday in Atlantic Beach.

The manager of Castle Hayne Fisheries, Nancy Sugg, came out to Friday's Aqua Culture Conference in Atlantic Beach because she believe the industry is expanding,

"I think the industry is growing, you know,” said Sugg. “It's a wonderful product. It's a good fish, our hybrid. And I think the whole aquaculture industry is improving."

Studies show that she's right. According to NCAquaCulture.org, the industry brought more than $50 million to the state just in 2008 alone.

Steve Hedlund, Editor of SeafoodSource.com, says the future of this industry looks bright,

"Aquaculture now represents 46 percent of the world's fish supply,” said Hedlund. “So, it's almost half. So it will only continue to increase over the next 10, 20, 30 years."

Hedlund believes people sometimes have a negative outlook on aquaculture which really isn't warranted because harvested fish are not only safe but it's also easier for consumers to find the food's origin,

"There's more traceability,” he said. “You're able to trace the product from egg to plate essentially. So in terms of food safety, it has an advantage. But, really, there's no difference between wild and farm product. It just really depends on the species, the taste of the species, the texture of the species."

Dr. Tom Losordo, a professor from North Carolina State University, says there's been a decline in the number of farms harvesting fish, the industry is still prospering.

"The actual money that has gone into the pockets of the farmers, we call that farm gain value, went up 6 percent,” said Losordo. “So here we are in a recession and the farm gain value of the product grown in North Carolina, went up to about $32 millions, up from about $29 million. So we've actually had a pretty good outcome"

Dr. Losordo adds that aquaculture is important because it helps satisfy the desire for seafood without over-fishing the world's oceans.