The money-hungry to-hell-with-the-planet policy makers are at it again, this time it is our decimated EPA aided here at home by non-thinker non-caring Marco Rubio who wants to further pollute our Gulf by dumping 80,000 pounds of fish waste. This will put excess toxins and increase the possibility of disease, and perhaps even threaten native fish species, as happened in the Pacific North West. Accidents always seem to happen, messing up promises and assurances.
Another meaningless word is “monitor,” used by water districts, water bottling companies, the Department of Environmental Protection and all kinds of people who want permits to do things that threaten the environment. The word “monitor” means “to watch and check something carefully over a period of time. The word may imply that if something goes wrong, the people/agencies monitoring will stop the procedure or process gone awry, but implication may be a false assumption. This word is hollow and meaningless.
Comments by OSFR historian Jim Tatum.
jim.tatum@oursantaferiver.org
– A river is like a life: once taken,
it cannot be brought back © Jim Tatum
The battle over fish farming in the open ocean heats up, as EPA OKs permit
Hawaii-based Ocean Era’s offshore demonstration farm, capable of raising 20,000 almaco jack in an anchored chain-link mesh pen 45 miles southwest of Sarasota, received the permit late Wednesday.
“This project hopes to demonstrate to the Florida fishing and boating community that offshore aquaculture – when done properly – will be something that they can embrace,” said Neil Anthony Sims, a marine biologist and CEO of Ocean Era.
The project – dubbed Velella Epsilon – is still awaiting a construction permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers before it can proceed.
The EPA’s discharge permit comes at a key moment for an aquaculture industry that has long looked to expand.
It also comes just a week after U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio co-sponsored a bill that would open the Gulf and other federal waters to offshore fish farming, a controversial idea backed by President Donald Trump’s administration.
However, opponents say offshore fish farms will create pollution in the form of fish waste, spread diseases to wild fish populations and increase competition with fishing companies that depend on wild catches.
The EPA’s assessment has indicated that there would be no significant environmental impacts associated with Ocean Era’s project – the only offshore fish farm proposed in the Gulf to date.
Still, environmental groups were quick to criticize the EPA’s assessment and have made strong indications that they will challenge the federal agency’s decision.
“The EPA has not adequately addressed concerns about impacts to human health, the environment and imperiled wildlife,” said Jaclyn Lopez, the Florida director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “We are also concerned about this project’s influence on red tide and Ocean Era’s ability to maintain the security of its fish farm during a severe storm.”
Almaco jack is native and common to the Gulf. The fingerlings will be sourced from brood stock that are located at Mote Marine Aquaculture Research Park and were caught in the Gulf near Madeira Beach in Pinellas County.
The copper mesh cage to be used is impact-resistant and designed to survive storm events while submerged. The EPA believes that the cage design will make it unlikely that fish will escape.
Issues of structural integrity and anchoring of the cage system pertain to the Army Corps permit application. The structural permit authorization will include permit conditions to ensure the facility is being operated and maintained to mitigate environmental impacts during any disaster.
More pushback
The day the EPA issued the permit, residents and environmental activists testified online as part of two 90-minute public meetings. During the hearings, much of the concern also centered on this and future fish farms potentially exacerbating the harmful algal blooms such as red tide that have impacted the state’s coastal economy in recent years.
Sims told the Herald-Tribune when asked about those concerns that the small cohort of fish required for this project is about 1% of the amount that would be grown offshore at a commercial farm.
Sims also noted that the United Nations High Level Panel on the Oceans and Climate Change recommended that humanity needs to start to transition to more marine-based agricultural systems.
“The Conservation International and The Nature Conservancy are all aligned with the need for expanding responsible aquaculture production in the ocean,” Sims said.
Still, other environmental groups aren’t convinced.
“I am not surprised but very disappointed that the EPA has approved the permit,” said Marianne Cufone, an environmental attorney and executive director of Recirculating Farms, one of the groups that is considering challenging the EPA’s assessment. “The EPA is tasked with environmental oversight, and this is them failing to do their job.”
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