The mission of the AGGRC is to provide global leadership for development of germplasm repositories and commercialization of genetic resources for aquatic species through interdisciplinary collaboration. Rather than positioning the AGGRC as a central global repository, our approach is instead to develop technologies and practices and provide services necessary to empower the multiple and diverse communities within aquatic species to establish their own germplasm repositories. Currently most work directly addresses the pervasive lack of standardization and reproducibility that characterizes cryopreservation within aquatic species. These problems have slowed research through inefficiency and failure. Overall, although cryopreservation is possible at a research scale, it is not being utilized to near full potential for development of repositories or repository networks. The Center is directed by Dr. Terrence Tiersch who has 25+ years of experience working with numerous colleagues across hundreds of aquatic species and user communities addressing aquaculture, wild fisheries, conservation, and biomedical models. Based on this experience concerning the problems and opportunities for aquatic species, the AGGRC is organized across four core program areas that span user needs from research through industrial-scale application.