Plans for Aquaculture expansion in the Gulf of Mexico raises concerns
The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council is about to release a 300 page document which- if approved- would open the Gulf of Mexico to considerable aquaculture development. There are thousands of oil rigs operating in the Gulf, and new ones being added each year. And some 186 platforms are expected to be decommissioned or removed each year until year 2023, according to a 2001 report by the Coastal Marine Institute.
The Gulf fishery regulators are raising the possibility that these decommissioned platforms can be used to secure fish pens and form an operational base for the production of large quantities of farmed fish. They predict that the areas $ US 800 million wild catch will continue to decline, and that cage-raised fish can save the Gulf's fisheries, enhance sport fishing and provide jobs on the high seas.
Aquaculture opponents are preparing to fight the amendment through petitions and participation in a scheduled December 13 public meeting in Mobile, Alabama. Their arguments are the same as those being used to fight salmon and shrimp aquaculture elsewhere in the world; organic pollution, impacts on wild stocks from escaped farm fish, and the spread of parasites and disease organism from caged farmed fish to wild fish.
