Groups Sue Over NMFS Gulf of Mexico Aquaculture Rules

Fishing, environmental and consumer advocacy groups joined forces last month to sue the National Marine Fisheries Service’s (NMFS) issuance of a final rule permitting large scale offshore finfish aquaculture in the Gulf of Mexico, the first rule of its kind in the U.S. The challengers include the Gulf Fishermen’s Association and the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholder’s Alliance, which represent commercial fishermen in the region. NMFS’s final rule allows permit holders to harvest up to 64 million pounds of farmed fish from the Gulf annually. Opponents argue that finfish aquaculture is so inherently different from harvesting wild fish that NMFS has no authority to issue permits for the practice.

Other concerns with open ocean aquaculture include the transmission of disease from farmed populations to wild fish, concentration of pollutants around net pens, and the possibility of genetically homogeneous farmed fish escaping and infiltrating wild populations.

For more information, see this 2 March Lexologyarticle. The legal complaint is available from the Center for Food Safety’s website.