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| 13 October, 2008 |
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| Should other nations follow Alaska's lead in using aquaculture as part of a fishery enhancement programme? |
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USA: Coalition urges Congress to oppose open ocean aquaculture 16 March, 2007 -
A proposed bill on open water aquaculture was introduced to the general public yesterday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in a Washington DC briefing. According to the coalition, if finalised, the bill would permit millions of fish to be raised in large commercial cages off America's coasts. It says this could be detrimental to oceans, wild fish, and people. "For the past several years, scientists, fishermen and conservation groups have been focused on healthy oceans and the need for strong leadership in developing sustainable marine conservation policies," said Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director of Food & Water Watch. "Unfortunately, NOAA is putting all this at risk by promoting industrial fish farming off our coasts." "The Bush Administration has strongly promoted open ocean aquaculture for years and still has not adequately incorporated environmental safeguards or addressed the many problems caused by fish farms in their policy," said George Kimbrell of the Center for Food Safety. "The NOAA aquaculture bill was a non-starter in the last Congress and it should be rejected by this one as well." NOAA's goal is to grow the US aquaculture industry from $900 million to $6 billion. "The new bill is a minuscule step up from the previous bill, but it still leaves too many specifics to regulators whose purpose is to promote an industry that can dump untreated sewage equivalent to that of 17 million people into our oceans," said Mitchell Shapson of the Institute for Fisheries Resources. According to the coalition, NOAA expects the majority of industry growth to be from raising carnivorous finfish, like tuna or halibut, which rely on a steady diet including wild fish in some form. "Our government's priority should be ocean and fisheries protection, as pursuant to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries, which calls for adherence to the precautionary principle," said Paula Terrel of the Alaska Marine Conservation Council. According to the coalition, the Bush Administration's plan promotes the construction of large-scale fish farms in deep waters from three to 200 miles off the US coast. The coalition says it is objecting to the plan because it: lacks substantial environmental provisions, including a prohibition on the farming of genetically engineered fish; lacks consumer protection initiatives; contains weak provisions for protecting traditional fisheries-dependent communities; and ignores regional jurisdiction over the planning, regulation, and monitoring of open ocean fish farms.
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