Reports

This report, Land-Based Recirculating Aquaculture Systems, provides an introduction to Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS). RAS are closed-loop fish farming facilities that retain and treat water within the Systems addresses why RAS could be an important method of producing more fish for the United States; highlights research, development and technical innovations in RAS; and discusses concerns and recommendations for the future of these systems. Land-Based Recirculating Aquaculture Systems also provides commercial case studies of existing successful RAS operations in the United States.

Since the initial release of Fishy Farms in October 2007, there have been many regional and national developments regarding the status of open ocean aquaculture (OOA) in the United States.

Over the past few years, food safety alerts about dangerous tomatoes, canned chili, peanut butter and beef have made Americans uneasy at the grocery store. Even before this summer’s warning about salmonella-tainted tomatoes and jalapenos, three-quarters of Americans were more concerned about food safety than they were five years ago.

After a series of safety scares about imported seafood in 2006 and 2007, U.S. consumers are recognizing that more than 80 percent, about 10.7 billion pounds of the seafood they eat, comes from outside the United States. Much of it is imported from Asia and Latin America, regions that have potentially unsafe production practices.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is promoting open ocean aquaculture as a way to reduce the country’s $9.2 billion seafood trade deficit and ease pressures on decimated wild marine fish populations. Despite this substantial financial and political support, open ocean aquaculture has not been shown to be environmentally sustainable, financially viable, or technically possible on a commercial scale. The report, "Fishy Farms: The Problems with Open Ocean Aquaculture", discusses these problematic findings in depth.

The Food and Drug Administration oversees the safety of seafood imports. However, inadequate funding and a mediocre inspection program contributed to the federal government agency physically inspecting less than two percent of the 860,000 imported seafood shipments in 2006. Only 0.59 percent of shipments were tested for contaminants in a laboratory. "Import Alert: Government Fails Consumers, Falls Short on Seafood Inspection", looks at data from FDA import refusals of seafood shipments at the border and identifies trends in the data from 2003 to 2006 and highlights issues related to imports of shrimp, the most popular seafood among U.S. consumers.

The negative effects of eating industrially produced shrimp may include neurological damage from ingesting chemicals such as endosulfans, an allergic response to penicillin residues or infection by an antibiotic-resistant pathogen such as E. coli.

Trade representatives at the World Trade Organization are demonstrating once again that they value the ease at which exporters make profits over the public good. The government has a responsibility to protect our food supply, not to sell off consumer health in the name of “free trade.”

Irrational Approach explores the public trust, socioeconomic and environmental problems associated with individual fishing quotas. Under an IFQ program, individual quota holders are guaranteed a portion of the total amount of fish that can be caught within a fishery. This report documents how the allocation of private rights to a public resource is detrimental to coastal communities and marine ecosystems.

This report details the health impacts of eating farm-raised shrimp. Part of the Pharmed Shrimp series.