The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Division of Aquaculture (FL DACS) sent out a notice to invite public comments on proposed new standards for the growing of fish in open ocean waters, known as “open water aquaculture”, this past Friday. Various groups and individuals following the development of the new rules, including the Center for Food Safety, Gulf Restoration Network and Institute for Fisheries Resources, are pleased to see them in final stages.
“The requirements that this rule will implement are very important for protecting Florida ocean and coastal resources”, says Marianne Cufone, a Florida attorney and environmental advocate, who was part of a task force that helped develop the new rules. She and others pushed for strict standards so that open water culture of fish off Florida would be as environmentally sensitive as possible.
FDACS created a task force back in April 2005, in response to the urgings from a coalition of groups that wanted stringent guidelines to prevent negative impacts from a hoping-to-expand open water aquaculture industry. The task force included a wide range of representatives from Florida agencies, conservation organizations, aquaculture industry participants, scientists, fishermen and others. Draft standards were completed in April 2006 and under went rigorous review by Florida agencies for the past eight months. The result, called a “Best Management Practices Manual” was released officially to the public December 15th. Fl DACS will be accepting comments for 21 days, until Jan 5, 2007, about whether a rule to implement the draft should be approved.
Joseph Mendelson, Legal Director of the Center for Food Safety says his comments will include praises for the Best Practices, in particular, those regarding what fish can be grown, “One of the most important provisions in the new standards is a total prohibition on use of non-native or genetically engineered fish in Florida open water aquaculture.” He explains, “Some fish will escape from the net pens into the ocean from various complications like severe weather, predators tearing at netting, faulty equipment, human error and other possibilities. If escaped captive fish are different than the local wild fish, they could change the ecosystem and natural fish populations permanently. The new FLDACS requirements for using local and unaltered fish attempt to prevent this.”
The two biggest concerns for many groups involved with the development of the new standards was pollution, both of the environment and wild fish populations, and conflict of interest issues. Pollution of wild fish populations occurs when there is intermixing of aquacultured fish with wild fish. Pollution of the environment occurs when there are substances coming out of the aquaculture facility into the water, like excess food, fish waste, parasites and other diseases, excessive algal growth, dislodged cage or other facility materials and antibiotics or other chemicals. The new Best Practices address both these issues.
The assorted user conflicts that are expected between offshore aquaculture and other ocean uses will likely arise because offshore aquaculture facilities will take up real space in the marine environment. Aquaculture facilities will therefore displace or compete with other uses. For example, if an aquaculture facility is located near or within a popular fishing ground, those fishing will likely be required to move elsewhere, so as not to infringe upon the facility’s area. Other foreseen problems are between states and regarding fragile habitat or protected areas, if facilities are established nearby. There are no buffer zones required and no explicit prohibitions on aquaculture in certain protected sites. The guidelines did not entirely deal with potential use conflicts.
“The rules are fairly good, but do miss the mark on fully protecting Florida’s sensitive habitats, like corals and seagrasses”, says Cynthia Sarthou, Gulf Restoration Network’s Executive Director. She explains, “An aquaculture facility can be developed near fragile habitat, it just can not be on it. We’ll be urging those reviewing site permits and leases to diligently protect special areas by ensuring that aquaculture operations are well away from our natural treasures.”
Open water aquaculture has actually been a hot topic nationwide. This year, the U.S. Senate reviewed a bill contemplating an open ocean aquaculture regime for the entire country, The National Offshore Aquaculture Act, S-1195. It was not finalized as law, but another bill with similar contents is expected to be unveiled early next year. Many states, like Florida, are choosing to develop their own regulations now to protect unique local assets, in the event the national law is overly lax.
Mitchell Shapson, Policy Analyst for the Institute for Fisheries Resources, has been part of programs in both Florida and California on open water aquaculture matters, with a hope of helping to develop a nationwide coalition. He says “The contents of the national bill did not provide any environmental standards, and so States must protect their own unique natural assets. California did it earlier this year, and now Florida is poised to do so as well, when they approve their new standards.”
Though many agree the new proposed Best Management Practices are a much needed first step forward before any open water facilities are permitted in Florida, there are still some unaddressed concerns. “Unfortunately explicit requirements for insurance, or a bond to be posted to cover expenses for unforeseen problems were not included”, says Cufone. She feels that was a big mistake, given serious past problems in Florida with abandonment of industrial facilities, like Piney Point, and recent violent storms.
Another issue is that the new standards only cover facilities that produce under 100,000 pounds of fish annually. “100 thousand pounds is not a lot of product for one year”, Cufone says. “Other guidelines for larger facilities are still needed in Florida. Hopefully those will be in process soon.”
