STAR-BULLETIN FILE
Moi, or Pacific threadfin, swim in Cates International's cage in the ocean off Ewa Beach.
Fish farms under fire
A report says the growth
of offshore aquaculture should be
halted, pending environmental rules
The United States should place a moratorium on the growth of salt-water fish farming until environmental protections are put in place as part of an overhaul of national policy on the oceans, a Pew report said.
The Pew Oceans Commission said that once national environmental standards are established, any business that doesn't meet them within five years should be forced to stop operations until compliance is achieved.
The recommendation was one of many in a three-year study on the health of the oceans around the U.S. mainland, Hawaii and American territories. Leon Panetta, former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, chairs the commission, whose members include New York Gov. George Pataki.
"Take care of the oceans, and the oceans will take care of you," Panetta said, recalling what his grandfather told him when he was a boy.
An Oahu fish farming operation, though, says environmental standards are already stringent, and the cultivation helps cut down on the catch of wild species.
Panetta and the commission said "there is a consensus our oceans are in crisis and that reforms are essential." The report said human activities, such as agricultural runoff, coastal development and over-fishing, were imperiling the health of the seas.
"What we once considered inexhaustible and resilient is, in fact, finite and fragile," the report said.
U.S. policymakers need to overhaul the nation's oceans policy to reflect "an understanding of the land-sea connection," the Pew panel said. An independent oceans agency is needed in the U.S. government, separate from the Commerce Department, where the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration resides now, the commission said.
Standards for the marine aquaculture industry, and especially Atlantic salmon farming, should regulate the release of nutrient and chemical pollutants generated in fish farms, promote species not dependent on fish meal and fish oil for feeding and limit aquaculture to indigenous species, the group said.
Almost 1 million Atlantic salmon escaped from their marine pens off the West Coast in the past 15 years, the Pew commission said. The fish have been spotted in rivers in British Columbia and diluted the gene pool by breeding with Pacific salmon.
The marine aquaculture industry is much smaller than its fresh-water cousin in the United States, said Randy MacMillan, president of the National Aquaculture Association. The practice is more widespread overseas, in Chile, Scotland, Norway and Canada, he said.
Much of the reason is due to the higher costs involved in operating on the open sea, where strong waves can damage equipment. He said some operations exist or are planned in Hawaii, Washington state, Maine and Florida. Precise data on marine fish farms is difficult to come by, he said.
"We would not be in favor (of a moratorium), because we believe there are sufficient environmental protections out there through the Environmental Protection Agency and other federal agencies," he said.
Virginia Enos, vice president of Hawaii aquaculture company Cates International Inc., disagrees with a number of the report's conclusions.
The Ewa-based producer is the only one in the United States. It raises moi, or Pacific threadfin, in underwater cages off Oahu.
The Pew Commission did not consult with her company when it visited Hawaii, she said.
"When their representative was in Hawaii, they did not consult with the industry here. We have extremely rigorous environmental monitoring as part of our lease with the state. There is also a separately financed federal research project that monitors us. I would argue that environmental protections are strongly in place -- at least in the state of Hawaii," she said.
Enos agrees that the world's ocean's are in trouble, but not because of aquaculture.
"Offshore aquaculture is an evolutionary method to produce fin fish rather than deplete precious ocean stock," she said.
John Corbin is manager of the state's aquaculture program at the Department of Agriculture, which oversees and regulates all aquaculture activities as well as reviews applications for new aquaculture businesses.
Currently, there are three potential operations under review, he said.
"We do have a regulatory framework and it is working for offshore aquaculture. Our process bends over backwards to get input from affected public and all necessary agencies. While no process is perfect, ours is certainly working and in my view working well," he said.
Star-Bulletin reporter Lyn Danninger and Bloomberg News contributed to this report.
