Cornelia Dean is reporting for the New York Times that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said on September 3, 2009, that they would “draft a national policy on fish farming in federal waters but in the meantime would allow aquaculture rules for the Gulf of Mexico to go into effect.”The gulf rules are the first domestic laws on aquaculture operations in federal waters. The rules were a project of the federal fishery management council “with jurisdiction over the area.” The rules establish permit requirements, species allowed to be farmed, where farming can occur, and other rules. Jim Balsinger, the acting administrator of the agency’s Fish Service, told Dean in a phone interview that the agency didn’t have grounds to block the gulf plan without a federal policy for saltwater fish farms.
Some environmental groups are against letting the proposal take effect. They fear the precedential impact of such action. According to George Leonard, head of the aquaculture program for the Ocean Conservancy, the gulf plan ‘“lacks enforcement standards for the risks we know accompany this kind of farming.”’ Leonard also believes a region-by-region plan is contrary to previous pledge’s by the Obama administration to develop a general regulatory framework for coastal waters.
Dean reports that fish farming only accounts for roughly 5 percent of the fish produced domestically, and the majority of that is freshwater plant-eating fish. Additionally, shellfish raised in state waters accounts for a large portion of saltwater aquaculture. This tread is not reflective of the rest of the world.
Still, many believe there are problems with current practices that can only be addressed at a national level. For instance, “[i]t takes more than a pound of wild fish to produce a pound of farmed fish.” Further, saltwater fish farms can “incubate microbes and other parasites that threaten wild stock.” Regardless, interest in this industry does not appear to be waning.
To read the New York Times’ story click here.
Posted: 09/08/09
