The Gulf of Mexico opened to industrial-size fish farms Thursday after federal regulators declined to oppose the plan. Although environmental and fishing interests objected to the proposal, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration allowed the Gulf plan to take effect by not ruling on it, citing an absence of U.S. regulations for fish farming in federal waters.
Officials said the federal agency will develop and implement a national policy for offshore aquaculture, a process that could take nine months. Until then, the farms could open in the Gulf — though as a practical matter it would take much longer to get one up and running. “Our options in a case like this are very limited,” NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco said in a statement. “I believe this is the best approach to the situation.”
The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council, which regulates fishing in federal waters from Texas to the west coast of Florida, proposed the farm plan and forwarded it to NOAA for approval. NOAA had until Thursday to make a decision. The proposal, intended to help reduce the nation's reliance on imported seafood, calls for raising millions of pounds of amberjack, red snapper and other species each year in submerged pens three miles to 200 miles off the coast.
But the plan has raised concerns from environmental and fishing interests about how to protect the Gulf's waters and wild fish stock from disease, pollution and other threats that have troubled fish farms in other countries.
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