AnimuX
04-09-2009, 03:24:AM
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6601064.html
The first industrial-sized fish farms will be allowed to open in the Gulf of Mexico after the federal government decided Thursday to take no action on the plan.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration did not make a ruling because the U.S. lacks regulations for fish farming in federal waters.
Officials said the federal agency would develop and implement a national policy for offshore aquaculture — a process that could take nine months. Until then, the farms could open in the Gulf.
“Our options in a case like this are very limited, and I believe this is the best approach to the situation,” NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco said in a statement.
That the agency allowed fish farms in the Gulf in the absence of a ruling troubled some environmentalists and fishing interests.
The Ocean Conservancy, for one, described the lack of action as “a dangerous precedent” and urged regulators to move quickly on a federal policy.
The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council, which regulates fishing in federal waters from Texas to the west coast of Florida, proposed the plan for fish farms to approval to NOAA in January.
The proposal — intended to help reduce the nation's reliance on imported seafood — calls for raising millions of pounds of amberjack, red snapper and other Gulf species each year in submerged pens three miles to 200 miles off the coast.
But the plan has raised concerns from environmental and fishing interests about how to protect the Gulf's wild fish stock and waters from disease, pollution and other threats that have troubled fish farms in other countries.
Most of America's fish farms raise freshwater catfish and rainbow trout, although there are some oceanic farms in near-shore waters under state jurisdiction that produce shellfish, such as crawfish.
Still, imports now satisfy 84 percent of the nation's growing appetite for seafood, and at least 40 percent of that is farmed, according to the most recent federal data.
The Gulf is widely viewed as the nation's most readily exploitable area for large oceanic feedlots, because fish tend to grow bigger faster in its warm waters.
The Gulf council predicted that the proposal, as drafted, would produce up to 64 million pounds of seafood each year — equivalent to more than 50 percent of the annual commercial catch off the Texas coast.
The first industrial-sized fish farms will be allowed to open in the Gulf of Mexico after the federal government decided Thursday to take no action on the plan.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration did not make a ruling because the U.S. lacks regulations for fish farming in federal waters.
Officials said the federal agency would develop and implement a national policy for offshore aquaculture — a process that could take nine months. Until then, the farms could open in the Gulf.
“Our options in a case like this are very limited, and I believe this is the best approach to the situation,” NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco said in a statement.
That the agency allowed fish farms in the Gulf in the absence of a ruling troubled some environmentalists and fishing interests.
The Ocean Conservancy, for one, described the lack of action as “a dangerous precedent” and urged regulators to move quickly on a federal policy.
The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council, which regulates fishing in federal waters from Texas to the west coast of Florida, proposed the plan for fish farms to approval to NOAA in January.
The proposal — intended to help reduce the nation's reliance on imported seafood — calls for raising millions of pounds of amberjack, red snapper and other Gulf species each year in submerged pens three miles to 200 miles off the coast.
But the plan has raised concerns from environmental and fishing interests about how to protect the Gulf's wild fish stock and waters from disease, pollution and other threats that have troubled fish farms in other countries.
Most of America's fish farms raise freshwater catfish and rainbow trout, although there are some oceanic farms in near-shore waters under state jurisdiction that produce shellfish, such as crawfish.
Still, imports now satisfy 84 percent of the nation's growing appetite for seafood, and at least 40 percent of that is farmed, according to the most recent federal data.
The Gulf is widely viewed as the nation's most readily exploitable area for large oceanic feedlots, because fish tend to grow bigger faster in its warm waters.
The Gulf council predicted that the proposal, as drafted, would produce up to 64 million pounds of seafood each year — equivalent to more than 50 percent of the annual commercial catch off the Texas coast.