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
Today, President Biden announced Dr. Rick Spinrad as the new Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. As NOAA lead, Dr. Spinrad will oversee agency policies on weather, climate, and ocean science, including environmental and business policies that affect fishing and coastal economies.
We write to you as members of the Don’t Cage Our Ocean Coalition1 to respectfully and urgently request that you and your administration stop and reverse the rapid advancement of industrial marine aquaculture set in motion by several executive actions from the Trump administration
WASHINGTON – Today the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued a nationwide permit facilitating the rapid development and construction of large-scale commercial finfish aquaculture facilities in federal waters, among other major industries.
The permit, which takes effect on March 15, 2021, will allow corporations to speed and scale up the development of industrial fish farms. This form of aquaculture uses large, floating net pens and cages that allow pollution, like excess feed, fish waste and chemicals, to flow freely into open waters, damaging marine ecosystems and harming the local fishing communities and coastal economies that depend on them.
WASHINGTON – U.S. Congressman Don Young (R-Alaska) reintroduced the Keep Fin Fish Free Act (H.R. 274), 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 recent escape of nearly 50,000 non-native salmon in Scotland after a storm destroyed the pens – which threaten wild fish by spreading pests and disease, and increasing competition for food, habitat, and reproduction.
52 organizations call on President-Elect Biden to replace EO 13921 to support domestic, sustainable wild-capture fishing instead of industrial aquaculture development
SARASOTA, FL — The Don’t Cage Our Ocean Coalition joined together today with local and regional partners to file an appeal against the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) pollution discharge permit for Velella Epsilon, an industrial finfish aquaculture facility vying for construction permits in federal waters off of Sarasota, Florida. The EPA’s permit will allow the facility to dump untreated wastewater directly into the surrounding ecosystems.
Groups filing the appeal, which include Center for Food Safety, Recirculating Farms Coalition, Friends of the Earth, Center for Biological Diversity, Food & Water Watch, Healthy Gulf, Suncoast Waterkeeper, and Tampa Bay Waterkeeper, argue that the permit violates the Clean Water Act (CWA), the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
WASHINGTON, D.C.— Senators Roger Wicker (R-MO), Brian Schatz (D-HI) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) have introduced Senate Bill 4723, which would pave the way for the federal government to permit offshore, industrial finfish farming facilities.
This form of aquaculture uses giant floating net pens and cages that allow pollution to flow freely into open waters, damaging marine ecosystems and thus harming the local fishermen and coastal economies that depend on them.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) yesterday announced its intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Pacific Ocean AquaFarms facility off the coast of San Diego, CA, bringing this risky project one step closer to reality. This announcement follows the agency’s recent decision to designate federal waters in Southern California and the Gulf of Mexico as Aquaculture Opportunity Areas (AOAs), a move toward pre-approval of these AOAs for aquaculture development with little review or oversight.
WASHINGTON – Today, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) will move to designate federal waters off Southern California and in the Gulf of Mexico as “Aquaculture Opportunity Areas” (AOA). Areas designated as AOAs have been pre-approved for expansion of industrial aquaculture facilities, as dictated in President Trump’s May 2020 Executive Order on Promoting American Seafood Competitiveness and Economic Growth.
