Don’t Cage Our Oceans Coalition sent letters to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on their Strategic Plans to Enhance Regulatory Efficiency in Aquaculture, and for Aquaculture Research, expressing concerns about plans to speed up development of a new industrial offshore finfish aquaculture industry in the U.S.
Strategic Plans to Enhance Regulatory Efficiency in Aquaculture Comments Download pdf
Regulatory Efficiency Task Force Comments Download pdf
WASHINGTON – U.S. Congressman Don Young (R-Alaska) introduced the Keep Fin Fish Free Act (H.R. 2467), which places a moratorium on commercial permitting of marine finfish aquaculture facilities in federally controlled areas of the ocean. These facilities routinely cause massive farmed fish spills – like the August 2017 spill of more than 260,000 non-native Atlantic salmon into Puget Sound – which threaten wild fish stocks by spreading pests and disease, and increasing competition for food, habitat, and reproduction. Facilities also directly discharge a slew of toxins like untreated fish waste and pharmaceuticals; attract and entangle marine mammals and seabirds; and marginalize wild-capture fisheries and coastal economies.
