80 percent of seafood consumed in the U.S. is imported, with about half of those imports coming from aquaculture
Divers survey one of the submersible cages used to farm Cobia by Snapperfarm Inc. off the coast of Puerto Rico.As the federal government continues developing a national policy for fish farming, more than two dozen people from across the Gulf Coast showed up to weigh in Monday night in New Orleans.
Open-ocean fish farming has been one of the most hot-button ecological issues in the Gulf of Mexico over the past two years, as fisheries regulators finalized a plan that would allow large-scale facilities aimed at producing native Gulf finfish in a controlled environment. The plan was approved, but has not moved forward in lieu of a comprehensive national aquaculture plan being drafted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The Gulf fish farming proposal has come up against stiff opposition from environmental and fishing industry groups, who say waste from the fish farms could pose hazards for wild fish in the Gulf and disrupt traditional fishing communities.
"Don't come and act like it's going to put jobs in coastal communities, because it's not," said Ronnie Anderson, a shrimper from the Houma area. "Poor people are not going to own one of these fish farms."
Many critics over the past few years have pointed to problems with the imported seafood from fish farms overseas, including those in China and southeast Asia. But several supporters of aquaculture research used the same argument Monday as a reason to move forward with developing a more robust domestic aquaculture industry.
"We're not going to save the planet or the Gulf of Mexico by not doing it," said Reg Blaylock, assistant director of the marine aquaculture program at the University of Southern Mississippi. "By our choice to not do it, all we've done is shifted the responsibility, the risk, to other places, where we know they don't follow the research and the scientific knowledge base we have developed here in the United States. By not doing it, we've guaranteed that it's going to be done, and we have no way to manage the risk."
The federal government has promoted aquaculture over the past few years as a way to address the growing amount of imported seafood needed to keep pace with demand in the United States. As it is now, 80 percent of seafood consumed in the United States is from imports, with about half of those imports from aquaculture.
"We're a major supporter -- without even maybe knowing it -- of global aquaculture," said Barry Costa-Pierce, a professor of fisheries and aquaculture at the University of Rhode Island who was part of the NOAA aquaculture panel that is stopping at six locations across the country.
Although open-ocean aquaculture has been center stage for the Gulf, NOAA is developing a national aquaculture policy that will also encompass farming close to the shore and technologies on land, such as ponds or recirculating tanks to raise fish.
Michael Rubino, the manager of NOAA's aquaculture program, said the goal is to have the plan drafted by mid-summer. Once the plan is finalized after a public comment period, the agency could then determine whether the Gulf fish farming proposal was in line with the national standards or needed to be changed, Rubino said.
Chris Kirkham can be reached at ckirkham@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3321.