From “Hatch” magazine, U. S.
“Advocates for marine health say aquaculture has no place in US ocean waters.”
President Donald Trump’s first-term push to open the Gulf of Mexico and other federal waters to fish farming has come to a halt in the early days of his second term. Last month, a federal judge in Washington state ruled against a nationwide aquaculture permit the Trump administration sought in 2020. The wide-ranging permit would have allowed the first offshore farms in the Gulf and the likely expansion of the aquaculture industry into federally managed waters on the East and West coasts.
The ruling, issued by U.S. District Court Judge Kymberly K. Evanson on March 17, was applauded by several environmental groups. “A nationwide permit isn’t at all appropriate because our federal waters are so different,” said Marianne Cufone, executive director of the New Orleans-based Recirculating Farms Coalition, a group opposed to offshore aquaculture. “Florida is not Maine. California is not Texas. And in just the Gulf of Mexico, there are significantly different habitats [and] different fish species that could be affected.”
Offshore aquaculture, which involves raising large quantities of fish in floating net pens, has been blamed for increased marine pollution and escapes that can harm wild fish populations. In the Gulf, there’s particular concern about the “dead zone,” a New Jersey-size area of low oxygen fueled by rising temperatures and nutrient-rich pollution from fertilizers, urban runoff, and sewer plants. Adding millions of caged fish would generate even more waste and worsen the dead zone, Cufone said.
The aquaculture industry says fish farming is the only way to meet surging demand for seafood, particularly high-value species like salmon and tuna. As wild fish stocks struggle under climate change, offshore farming could help the U.S. adapt, producing food in a managed environment less affected by ecological conditions, aquaculture advocates say.
Footnote:– It’s not the first time fish farming plans have been curbed. In 2019 the Danish government announced it would halt the development of sea-based fish farms due to environmental concerns. Meanwhile the United Nations reportsed in January this year, more people than ever before are eating farmed fish and more countries around the world are turning to fish farms as a key source of sustainable protein, states a new report from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
It is interesting that Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is pushing aquaculture when the sea fisheries need urgent attention and NZ consumers are paying exorbitant prices for fish, e.g. blue cod $65 a kg. Jones needs to forget fish farms and focus on bringing fish at an affiordable price to the New Zealander household.
The QMS (quota management system) has failed with corporate commercial fishing companies dominating the resource and dare i mention Mr Jones, making political donations to politicians’ election campaigns?
Isn’t it a coincidence that Trump had Fast Track plans for aquaculture, and here in New Zealand, Minister for (Commercial) Fisheries Shane Jones has Fast track plans (Fast Track Approval Act) and is obsessed with fish farming?
Correctly managed, I see fish farms as a means for food sustainability
Fish farming as a money earner is a fallacy. Trouble is they invariably are not properly managed as marginal economics induce fish farmers to cram more fish in, making optimum conditions for disease outbreaks which invariably happens.
King Salmon in Marlborough Sounds has suffered heavy fish losses and wewre carting tonnes – yes tonnes – each month to the local landfill.
King Salmon occupies public space and pays no rates. Anti-biotics are heavily used and artificial colouring to make the flesh orange is applied.
Altogether it mounts up to an unhealthy food, unlike a wild fish.
I never eat farmed fish especially salmon.