The Hubbs-SeaWorld Aquaculture Project: A Raw Deal

The Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute — a non-profit research institute associated with the for-profit SeaWorld — is currently planning to develop the first commercial open ocean aquaculture project in federal waters, five miles off the coast of San Diego, California. Building on its fish farming enterprise in Baja California, Mexico, Hubbs-Seaworld is proposing to grow 1,000 metric tons of striped sea bass to start, with the goal to produce 3,000 metric tons of fish annually by the fifth year of operation. This is more than three times the size of the only other existing commercial offshore aquaculture facility in the United States. Although this is pitched as a pilot research project, representatives of Hubbs-Seaworld have explicitly boasted that the facility will ultimately be transferred to a for-profit business entity. Hubbs-Seaworld and the for-profit corporation would share revenue from the project. From 1998 to 2007, Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute received more than $700,000 from the Department of Commerce for open ocean aquaculture research. Now, after receiving public dollars to fund its preliminary work, Hubbs-SeaWorld plans to make money off of our public fish resources.

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