The more than 200,000 gallons of crude oil that have been gushing into the Gulf of Mexico daily since 20 April is nothing shy of a tragedy. Without a doubt, the disaster's impact on the Gulf's marine ecosystem and the livelihoods and fishing communities it supports will be significant and long lasting.
But does the disaster justify impeding the development of open-ocean aquaculture in the 250,000 square miles of U.S. Gulf waters?
U.S. Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) and his allies at environmental NGO Food & Water Watch think so. On Tuesday, Vitter introduced a bill that would delay the implementation of a permitting framework for open-ocean fish farms in the Gulf by three-and-a-half years. He contended that the marine ecosystem "cannot handle any more stress."
But just how taxing would a few fish farms be on the Gulf's marine ecosystem, especially when compared to the approximately 3,500 oil and gas platforms already dotting the Gulf? And what if a fish farm found itself in the path of the oil slick? These were among the questions posed earlier this month at a SeafoodSource-organized webinar titled "Can open-ocean aquaculture reach its potential?"
"Fish farms don't explode, catch fire and pump oil into the ocean," said Neil Sims, co-founder and president of Kona Blue Water Farms in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, during the webinar. "A catastrophic accident at open-ocean fish farm might look like an inadvertent release of fish into the ocean — that's about the worst that could possibly happen."
What about avoiding an approaching oil slick? "The oil spill certainly has our attention — [it] makes a wonderful case for submersible net pens if you're in an area that's susceptible to that kind of event," said Steve Page, owner of Ocean Farm Technologies in Searsport, Maine, which designs and manufactures submersible net pens. "Perhaps the pens can be towed out of the way if you knew that an oil slick was coming. That's often done in the salmon industry when a red tide bloom is coming."
As tragic as the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe is, it shouldn't stop the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration from establishing a permitting framework for open-ocean aquaculture.
Three-and-a-half years is a long time. If the United States doesn't embrace open-ocean aquaculture, other countries will; some already are. Instead of raising fish in our waters — and potentially providing work to struggling fishermen looking for an alternative source of income — we'll be importing the same fish from abroad.
Are the environmental concerns associated with open-ocean aquaculture so daunting that all progress should come to a screeching halt in the Gulf? The answer is "no." Aquaculture is the only means to increase the U.S. seafood supply, so let's embrace it before it's too late.
