Offshore Aquaculture in the Gulf of Mexico Could Yield Economic Distress

On October 24 2007, Food and Water Watch hosted a media event to introduce a new report Offshore Aquaculture: Bad News for the Gulf of Mexico indicating that open water aquaculture could contribute to significant economic problems for Gulf fishing communities.

Since January 2007, the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council, an advisory body to the National Marine Fisheries Service has been rapidly developing a plan to allow commercial scale open water fish farming in Gulf of Mexico waters. The current plan, poised to be finalized soon, does not adequately consider economic impacts to fishing communities, among other issues.

Listen to the intro here (mp3)

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Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director of Food and Water Watch

read The report

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has been promoting offshore aquaculture –– growing fish in nets or cages between three and 200 miles from shore –– as the best way to increase U.S. seafood output. Now, NOAA wants to establish this large-scale fish farming off the U.S. Gulf of Mexico coast. Learn more about the environmental and economic consequences of offshore aquaculture in Offshore Aquaculture: Bad News in the Gulf. Click here to read the press release and here to read the report online

Ms. Hauter explained Food and Water Watch’s mission and the organization’s concerns with the rapidly developing plan to allow commercial scale fish farming in Gulf of Mexico waters. She said that the plan has not had adequate public input and has been fast tracked since January 2007. Originally the plan was to be finalized at an October 30–31 meeting, though it does not deal with many important issues:

The Council plan does not:

• Require compensation for exclusionary use of public resources for private profit
• Have strict environmental requirements about pollution and harm to habitat and wildlife
• Prevent farming of endangered or threatened species and species of concern
• Protect essential habitat and fishing grounds by requiring buffer zones around special or fragile places
• Prevent using oil rigs for aquaculture
• Talk about how increasing aquaculture can hurt other marine wildlife by using more prey species in feed
  

The report highlights one of the most disturbing matters ignored by the Gulf Council’s plan: economic impacts on fishing communities. She can be reached for further comment through the FWW press room or by calling 202-797-6550.

Listen to Wenonah here (mp3)

Paula Terrel, an Alaskan salmon fisherman and representative of the Alaska Marine Conservation Council on fish farming issues.

Ms. Terrel discussed her experiences as a fisherman with impacts from open water Atlantic salmon farming in the Pacific Northwest. She explained that Atlantic salmon, a non-native species, have escaped from farms and become established in nearby waters. She also detailed problems with assorted diseases and sea lice in wild salmon nearby fish farms and that wild caught Alaskan salmon prices plummeted in past years after a flood in the market of farm-raised Atlantic salmon. All this has seriously harmed fishing communities in the past. She can be reached for further comment at: paula [at] akmarine.org or by calling 907-277-5357

Listen to Paula here (mp3)

Sal Versaggi, of Versaggi Shrimp Company and member of the Southern Shrimp Alliance

Mr. Versaggi explained his experiences as a Gulf of Mexico shrimper with price declines largely due to competition from imported farmed shrimp. He explained that most of the farmed shrimp is produced from multi-national corporations that are not concerned by the price they receive for their product as long as they make some sort of profit. U.S. Gulf shrimpers can not compete with such low prices, and many have been put out of business. He can be reached for further comment at: Versaggi-Shrimp [at] intnet.net or by calling 813-248-5089.

Listen to Sal here (mp3)

Important note: These are examples of what could happen to fishing communities if open water aquaculture develops on a commercial scale in the United States and competes with wild caught fish. While salmon and shrimp are not likely to be farmed in open waters in the Gulf of Mexico, an assortment of species are currently slated for growth there.