August 10, 2020 — The Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) has made public its first monitoring and evaluation report, which showcases the impact of certified responsible aquaculture.
The report, released 5 August, highlighted improvements in the environmental performance of salmon farms in Norway, Canada, and Chile, and shrimp farms in Vietnam.
August 10, 2020 — This week a federal court ruled that offshore fisheries cannot be permitted in the Gulf of Mexico under existing policy. Opponents of a proposed fish farm off Sarasota’s coast called the decision a victory, but the CEO of the company spearheading the local project says he’s pushing ahead.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that it was illegal for the Department of Commerce to issue regulations that would have permitted large-scale aquaculture operations offshore in U.S. federal waters. The ruling affirmed a 2018 decision, which the Trump Administration had appealed.
“Basically, the case hinged on whether aquaculture could be considered fishing under the law and the court decided that it couldn’t,” said Marianne Cufone, a Tampa and New Orleans based environmental law attorney who argued against fish farming.
“That seems correct,” she said. “Fishing and fish farming are not the same thing–just like duck hunting and duck farming aren’t the same thing. The agency was essentially saying that because they pull the fish from the water out of the net pens, that that equates to harvesting a wild fish and as the court said in its opinion, they wouldn’t bite.”
August 7, 2020 — A plan to offer recreation opportunities and improve salmon habitat where a bend in the Skagit River hugs Marblemount is getting a boost in funding.
The $265,600 being given to the nonprofit Skagit Fisheries Enhancement Group comes from a penalty levied against Cooke Aquaculture for a 2017 incident in which a company net pen broke, allowing Atlantic salmon to get into the Salish Sea.
The money will allow for completion of Pressentin Park, which has been in the works for several years in coordination with Skagit County Parks and Recreation.
August 5, 2020 — In July, the Global Aquaculture Alliance released a guidance document for aquaculture facilities to reduce the transmission of COVID-19, under its Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) third-party certification program.
The guidance “is intended to act as a resource for seafood processing facilities seeking best practices to keep their employees healthy and limit the exposure to and the spread of COVID-19,” according to the organization.
August 5, 2020 –A federal appeals court has struck down plans to open the Gulf of Mexico’s federal waters to fish farming, creating mixed messages to the industry on exactly who will be managing the future of offshore aquaculture in the U.S.
On Monday, 3 August, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans blocked recent federal rules that would have allowed large-scale industrial aquaculture operations in offshore waters for the first time, upholding a 2018 federal ruling that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is not permitted the authority to regulate offshore aquaculture under existing national fisheries laws.
August 5, 2020 — NOAA Fisheries lacks the legal authority to regulate aquaculture in the Gulf of Mexico, a federal appellate court in Louisiana ruled yesterday, delivering a major blow to the Trump administration’s long push to allow industrial fish farms in federal waters.
In a 2-1 ruling, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans rejected NOAA’s argument that it could issue aquaculture permits because of the 1976 Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act to regulate the “catching, taking or harvesting of fish.”
“‘Harvesting,’ we are told, implies gathering crops, and in aquaculture the fish are the crop,” the judges said in their decision. “That is a slippery basis for empowering an agency to create an entire industry the statute does not even mention. We will not bite.”
The appellate court affirmed a 2018 decision by U.S. District Judge Jane Triche Milazzo, who ruled that NOAA only had authority to regulate the “traditional fishing of wild fish” and that if Congress meant for the agency to oversee fish farming, lawmakers would have made that explicit in the nation’s primary fisheries law (Greenwire, Oct. 4, 2018).
“The act neither says nor suggests that the agency may regulate aquaculture,” the appellate judges wrote. “The agency interprets this silence as an invitation, but our precedent says the opposite: Congress does not delegate authority merely by not withholding it.”
August 4, 2020 — A federal appeals court in New Orleans has upheld a decision that throws out rules regulating fish farms in the Gulf of Mexico.
The farms use enormous open-topped nets or submersible pens to raise huge numbers of fish, including tuna, salmon, seabass and cobia, out in open water.
The government says fish farming, including that on the open sea, is vital to seafood production and can both provide jobs and protect species and habitats. Opponents say huge numbers of fish confined in nets out in the ocean could hurt ocean health and native fish stocks, and the farms would drive down prices and devastate commercial fishing communities.
Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Washington Post
August 3, 2020 — The aquaculture industry in Maine is steadily growing, with three large farms being built with recirculating aquaculture systems by Nordic Aquafarms, Whole Oceans, and The Kingfish Co., but will the state be able to grow its workforce to meet the demand for skilled employees?
That’s the question asked and addressed in a new 123-page report from the Gulf of Maine Research Institute that identifies the labor needs of Maine’s growing aquaculture industry and charts a course for Maine to establish a comprehensive workforce training system.
July 27, 2020 — The following was released by the Gulf of Maine Research Institute:
On Monday, the Gulf of Maine Research Institute published a new report which identifies the labor needs of Maine’s growing aquaculture industry and charts a course for Maine to establish a comprehensive workforce training system to meet those needs.
The report — produced by the Gulf of Maine Research Institute in partnership with the Maine Aquaculture Association and Educate Maine, with support from FocusMaine — captures the findings of a collaborative project team that included local partners, industry voices, and a team of outside experts drawn from four Scottish consulting firms.
After extensive interviews with Maine aquaculture businesses, including established and prospective land-based operations, marine producers, service providers, and supply chain companies, the team is now sharing their findings across this rapidly-growing sector.
“With so many businesses, NGOs, and individuals invested in the responsible growth of this industry, we knew this project needed to be a true collaboration,” said Gulf of Maine Research Institute Aquaculture Program Manager Chris Vonderweidt, who led the 18-month project. “It’s crucial for all of us to understand what workforce development efforts are required to realize the potential for Maine’s coastal economy and working waterfronts — so it’s exciting to be able to provide some of those answers.”
Workforce Need:
Maine’s aquaculture industry includes a constellation of largely owner-operator scale shellfish and marine algae farms, mid-sized service providers, and largescale finfish production operations. New production models, such as land-based Recirculating Aquaculture Systems, provide yet another growing employment opportunity in this sector.
While the needs of these various business models are wide-ranging and variable, one common need emerged from the study: an expanded pool of well-trained workers.
Today, Maine’s total aquaculture workforce exceeds 600 direct employees, plus auxiliary services, further trades, transport, processing, equipment supply, and retail employment across the value chain.
Based on interviews with existing and prospective business owners, the industry will require an influx of new trained workers in the coming years. By 2022, the aquaculture workforce is projected to include around 880 employees across production and related activities, and over 1,600 across the supply chain. By 2030, the workforce could exceed 1,000 direct employees, and over 2,000 in the total production, supply chain and downstream markets.
Without a deliberate effort to train and develop these workers, Mainers may not realize the full economic benefit of this expanding industry.
“Finding workers with the right skills is a year-after-year challenge for Mook Sea Farm,” said Bill Mook, owner of Mook Sea Farm. “I’m impressed with the proposed system that is founded on industry needs and prioritizes the type of training and experience to produce employees that can enable our continued growth.”
Education and Training Opportunity:
After identifying the scale of the workforce need for Maine’s aquaculture industry, the report goes on to identify opportunities to meet these needs.
The report reveals the importance of practical know-how and on-the-job experience to nearly all the businesses participating in the interviews. Maine’s industry stakeholders believe on-the-job training is valuable, but they also expressed a desire for more programs structured to develop and formalize occupational competencies.
The report identifies Maine’s community colleges and career technical education centers as well-prepared to create learning opportunities that meet industry demand identified through the research.
The report specifically recommends the creation of three vocational hubs across the state to provide vocational training specific to aquaculture: Southern Maine Community College in South Portland, the Mid-Coast School of Technology in Rockland, and Washington County Community College in Calais.
“We are delighted about the opportunity to train and develop Maine students to expand our state and regional workforce in support of our vital waterfront industry,” said Washington County Community College President Susan Mingo.
“SMCC is well-positioned with our oceanfront location, a highly regarded Marine Science degree program and instructors who are experienced in aquaculture and business,” adds SMCC President Joe Cassidy. “We look forward to working with the Gulf of Maine Research Institute and people in the aquaculture industry to determine how we can best support this growing Maine industry.”
Among the other recommendations made within the report are a Maine Department of Labor-approved aquaculture apprenticeship program, the development of new occupational standards, and marketing support to promote the new learning opportunities.
For more on this project, including both the full Maine Aquaculture Workforce Development Strategy report and a Summary Report, please visit: https://www.gmri.org/projects/maine-aquaculture-workforce-development-strategy/.
July 23, 2020 — A boat traveling southwest from Sarasota into the Gulf of Mexico for a little over two hours will reach a spot where the ocean is 130 feet deep and the sandy sea floor holds no corals, seagrass or shipwrecks.
For almost three years it’s been the proposed site for anchoring a submerged mesh cage — one about the size of 20 backyard swimming pools — to raise a fast-growing native fish called the almaco jack. A company’s small pilot project aims to show how offshore fish farming can be done responsibly with minimal environmental impacts to produce sustainable seafood. Opponents are deeply concerned that, if permitted, the project would lead to larger fish farms that spark algae blooms and compete with regional fishers.
A Trump administration executive order introduced in May could now accelerate the launch of offshore fish farms as part of its mission to boost domestic seafood production. The order calls for investigating two U.S. locations to start up commercial aquaculture, the farming of aquatic animals and plants. Florida representatives, including U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott and Agriculture and Consumer Services Commissioner Nicole Fried, have asked for Florida’s federal waters, defined as three to 200 nautical miles from shore, to be one of those locations.
Fish farm proponents point to a growing population with growing demands for seafood that can’t be met by wild-caught fish. Over 80% of seafood eaten in the U.S. is imported, though some of that includes U.S. seafood processed elsewhere then imported back to the U.S.
“We’re essentially exporting our ecological footprint,” said Neil Sims, CEO of Ocean Era, the company applying to raise captive fish in the Gulf. “We need to figure out how to grow these fish ourselves in U.S. waters where we can have control over the environmental standards and the food safety standards.”