Ocean Conservancy Insists Federal Waters Not Be Opened To Aquaculture Without Strong National Standards

Fish farming in American waters — devoid of national standards — sets a dangerous precedent; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration should reject plan

Media Contact: Tim McHugh

June 5, 2009

Washington, DC — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), within the Commerce Department, began soliciting public comment on a plan that would for the first time authorize aquaculture operations (fish farming) in federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico. The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council approved the plan at their meeting in January of this year. If NOAA and the Department of Commerce also approve the plan, it will pave the way for industrial aquaculture operations in the Gulf, even though there are no national environmental, socio-economic, and liability standards. In spite of vast public opposition voiced about the plan from both the Gulf region and the US as a whole, the Gulf Council became the first of the eight regional fishery councils to approve open-ocean aquaculture in federal waters.

"We should not and cannot open up our oceans to aquaculture or any other large scale industrial uses without the strong national standards that are so evidently needed. If the Gulf of Mexico is allowed to move forward with this plan, what is to stop a second Council from instituting drastically weaker standards in their own area?" asked George Leonard, director of Ocean Conservancy’s aquaculture program. "Without a precautionary approach complete with overarching environmental, socio-economic, and liability standards, NOAA could put much of the Gulf’s ecological and economic foundation at risk. This includes the recent progress the Gulf Council has made in restoring wild caught fish stocks such as red snapper."

"Today’s action by NOAA should serve as a wake up call to Congress that decisions on national policy are being made without their input. They must debate the merits of a national aquaculture bill that protects the nation’s oceans from the risks of an expanding domestic open-ocean aquaculture industry," concluded Leonard.

Ocean Conservancy has been working to win strong environmental standards for aquaculture during the past two Congresses and through state legislatures. California’s state guidelines, adopted in 2006, serve as a model for the kind of national legislation that Ocean Conservancy envisions. National standards must ensure that offshore aquaculture develops in an orderly manner, incorporates appropriate public input, protects the long-term public interest in healthy marine ecosystems, and poses minimal risks to fisheries, marine wildlife, and the ecosystems on which they depend. To mirror the California guidelines, specific national provisions should include a requirement to farm only native species of local genotype, minimize the use of wild-caught fish as feed, prevent discharges to the maximum extent practicable, and prevent the spread of disease while minimizing the use of all drugs and chemicals.

To view the NOAA request for comment, click here: http://sero.nmfs.noaa.gov/bulletins/pdfs/2009/FB09-035%20NOA%20Aquaculture.pdf