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Protect Our Oceans from Factory Fish Farms

Support Senate Bill 3417, the Research in Aquaculture Opportunityand Responsibility Act of 2010

What’s Wrong with Ocean Factory FishFarming?

Like factory sh farms on land, ocean sh farms are gener-ally big, dirty and dangerous.

Bad for the environment: Uneaten sh feed, sh waste andany chemicals or antibiotics used in the operation ow

through the cages directly into the ocean. This can signi-cantly harm the ocean environment. Caged sh can escapeand overtake or interbreed with wild sh, altering natural

behavior and weakening important genetic traits. Open-water salmon farms in the North Atlantic have over twomillion sh escapes each year — not an example we wantto follow in U.S. waters. Farmed sh, caged or escaped,can also spread disease to wild sh.

Bad for communities: Factory sh farms can interfere withthe livelihoods of commercial and recreational shermenby taking over traditional shing grounds or harming wildsh populations. Plus, these sh farms are likely to fol-low existing seafood trade patterns and ship their productelsewhere for higher prots, leaving the United States withdamaged habitats, depressed local economies and no newfood sources.

Ocean factory farming is unlikely to increase the domes-tic supply of sh, as the sh grown in such operations areoften carnivorous — they require animal protein to grow.Often farmed sh are fed diets that include small, wild shso the practice can reduce the amount of food in the oceanfor larger wild sh, marine mammals, birds and people too— especially in the various countries where smaller share a main source of protein. Often it takes many poundsof wild sh to grow just one pound of farmed sh. This re-sults in a net loss of seafood and ultimately decreases foodsecurity in the United States and across the globe.

Bad for our health: Factory sh farms often produce lower-quality seafood using under-regulated antibiotics or chemi-cals that could threaten consumers’ health. Excessive useof antibiotics on sh farms can cause bacteria to becomeantibiotic-resistant, sometimes making human pathogensuntreatable with common medicines.

Ocean factory sh farming, also known as offshore aquaculture, involves growingthousands of sh in large cages and net pens in open ocean waters. These

facilities threaten coastal and shing communities, consumers, and the health of our oceans. A new piece of legislation would protect us as well as our marine

environment by requiring a detailed report on the impacts from ocean factory farmsworldwide. The bill would also ban these facilities for up to three and half years in ourfederal ocean waters while the report is prepared and reviewed.

FISH

Pacic threadn inside a factory sh farm off the coast of Hawaii. Photo by theNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Department of Commerce.

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Who Supports Factory Fish Farms?

The current push for ocean factory sh farms in U.S.federal waters (between three to 200 miles off the coast)began under the Bush administration and has contin-ued through the Obama administration via the NationalOceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). NOAA,the very agency tasked with conserving and managing ourocean resources, is oddly one of the strongest promoters of the industry. Right now, NOAA is crafting plans for a new

federal policy to promote ocean sh farms, instead of pur-suing other, more sustainable options to supplement wilddomestic seafood.

Protecting Our Oceans and Ourselves

The Research in Aquaculture Opportunity and Responsibil-ity Act of 2010 (S. 3417), introduced by Senator Vitter (R-LA), gives the waters off our coast up to a three-and-a-half-year reprieve from the threat of factory sh farms. There isno good reason to move forward with offshore aquacultureuntil we have fully evaluated the impacts, especially oncommunities, wildlife and consumers, and determinedwhether it’s a safe option. The bill will do the following:

• Prevent the approval of plans, permits, rules and regu-lations for offshore aquaculture permits for three and ahalf years.

• Require the Secretary of Commerce to submit a fullreport to Congress including:

  Impacts to native sh species from offshore aqua-culture operations around the world

  Economic impacts to recreational and commercial

shing

Impacts on coastal communities

  A full analysis of environmental issues and impacts

  Recommendations on regulatory guidelines toprotect native sh species/populations

• Require the Secretary of Commerce to review alter-nate, more sustainable options to supplement wild-caught seafood by submitting a full report on thepotential for land-based recirculating aquaculturesystems and providing grants for such research.

Better Solutions

This new legislation not only helps to protect our oceansfrom negative impacts of factory sh farming — it alsohelps move us toward a better future. While offshoreaquaculture comes with many negatives and guarantees nopositives, there are options that can be combined with im-proved stewardship of our wild sh populations to increasesupply of safe, sustainable seafood, create new green jobsand protect the marine environment.

Some forms of shellsh can be farmed sustainably, includ-ing mussels, clams and oysters. Farming these species doesnot involve the use of chemicals or wild sh in feed, and insome cases can help improve water quality.

There’s also a technology supported by this bill to grow shon land in closed-loop, low-energy, high-yield operationsthat reuse nearly all the water initially put into the system.These systems can create jobs and increase local seafoodsupply in a variety of locations.

Support This Bill!

Multinational corporations have forever changed the wayfood is grown on land — to the detriment of public health,the environment and local communities. Senate Bill 3417can help steer us toward a more sustainable future for sea-food and protect our oceans, coastal and shing communi-ties and consumers.

Take Action

Please ask your senators to support Senate Bill 3417 andput a moratorium on ocean factory sh farms.

To help protect our oceans, go to

www.foodandwaterwatch.org/sh for more information.

An example of a factory sh farm cage off the coast of Hawaii. Photo by theNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Department of Commerce.

For more information:web: www.foodandwaterwatch.orgemail: info@fwwatch.orgphone: (202) 683-2500 (DC) • (415) 293-9900 (CA)

Copyright © June 2010 Food & Water Watch