January 9, 2014 — While many mainstream media articles spread the notions that coastal aquaculture is not safe for its surrounding environment, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has released a new report dispelling those myths.
In its extensive Marine Cage Culture and the Environment report, scientists from NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Sciences (NCCOS) evaluated more than 400 studies reviewing environmental interactions with coastal aquaculture.
“A lot of the negative things we read about aquaculture in the media are folks citing one bad example or citing something that isn’t in practice anymore. We wanted to look at this very critically from a scientific standpoint and provide a fair and balanced analysis,” James Morris, PhD, ecologist for NCCOS and one of the report authors, told SeafoodSource. The researchers primary findings were that coastal aquaculture “can be quite sustainable when you do it right, including siting and adequate monitoring,” Morris said.
For example, researchers found that concerns about antibiotics and other medications leaching into the surrounding marine environment are not a concern in coastal aquaculture. “The use of antibiotics, therapeutants and antifoulants at marine fish farms has declined greatly (up to 95 percent) in the last 20 years,” the researchers wrote. “Heavy metals from feed and antifoulants are known to accumulate beneath cages, but are often in low concentrations and sequestered in the sediment.”
Read the full story at Seafood Source