GUEST COLUMN: Off Sarasota’s coast, a new industrial threat

Florida’s coast is in trouble: One of the worst and longest “red tides” in state history ran from 2017 to 2019, killing hundreds of marine mammals, turtles, and fish, and now it's back; we also are experiencing the biggest Sargassum “seaweed” bloom in the world; and a devastating widespread coral die-off continues.

All of these are suspected to be related to pollution, as too many chemicals from sewage and other wastewater flow into ocean and coastal waters around Florida.

As the ecosystem struggles to recover, a new threat looms — one that will dump even more pollutants into marine waters and worsen the impacts of the red tide. It is a threat most Florida residents are completely unaware of: industrial ocean finfish farming.

A Hawaii-based company is poised to receive permits from the federal government to install a giant floating fish cage, with associated support facilities, 45 miles southwest of Sarasota.

Industrial finfish farming, also known as open ocean aquaculture, uses massive net pens to raise fish in marine waters. Many thousands of fish are trapped in these cages—eating, excreting and growing. Fish feed, antibiotics and other chemicals can be pumped into the pens, and then leak into surrounding waters. These excess nutrients and contaminants can contribute to the unnatural growth of toxic algae blooms, including red tide.

These industrial farms also interfere with wild fish populations, as farmed fish frequently escape and can spread disease and parasites to wild fish and out-compete them for food, habitat and mates.

This, of course, means economic harm to our fishing and coastal families too. In addition to threatening wild fish populations with pollution and interbreeding, these operations undercut local businesses by selling their industrially produced fish at artificially lower prices. Support businesses suffer too when fishing takes a downturn.

Despite these clear and dangerous consequences, the proposed farm aims to produce about 75,000 pounds of Almaco jack fish — more than the entire annual landings of Almaco jack in the state of Florida for the most recent year on record (2017). This corporation will be growing more than a whole year’s worth of fish in a single cage.

Some argue that farming fish on this unprecedented scale in the U.S. is a positive development, allowing us to meet increasing demand for seafood. But this form of open ocean aquaculture creates more harm than good.

As they currently operate, these facilities can destroy both ecosystems and local economies. Denmark — often considered a leader in aquaculture — recently prohibited offshore aquaculture development for the entire country, due to concerns about troubling impacts on the environment. The United States knows firsthand how damaging finfish farms can be: Washington state swiftly moved to phase out open water farming of non-native fish when over 250,000 Atlantic salmon escaped from a state water facility, introducing non-native fish to an area where native salmon populations are already dwindling.

So why are we still moving forward with an outdated and unnecessarily dangerous approach? Our federal government wants it. Even more unbelievably, the very government agencies tasked with protecting our U.S. marine resources — the National Marine Fisheries Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — are promoting approval of this project, without meaningful public input. There has been little public outreach, a limited opportunity to submit comments, and no public hearings, not even in Sarasota.

Instead of pushing this harmful project forward, our leaders should be supporting other methods of more sustainable seafood production. Finfish can be raised using appropriately scaled land-based systems that better prevent pollution and escapes. In addition, land-based farms can raise a wide variety of fish, and therefore need not compete with fishing communities catching popular local fish. The result is what everyone wants — more fresh, local seafood — without the massive environmental or economic harm of industrial finfish ocean aquaculture.

It is time for Sarasota, and neighbors across Florida and the Gulf, to stand up to corporate interests and call on our representatives to put an end to industrial development of finfish aquaculture in our waters.

Environmental attorney Marianne Cufone is a Florida resident and member of the Don't Cage Our Oceans Coalition.