In the Gulf of Mexico, there has been much interest in innovation towards transforming unused offshore oil and natural gas platforms into fish farms. Some oil companies have experimented with platforms to anchor underwater pens.
This week a crucial step in this process has developed. Authorities have approved the ardently debated proposal to allow large-scale fish farming in the Gulf of Mexico, creating the first federal regulations for a fledgling industry.
Opponents have cited concerns about damage to the Gulf’s environment, as well the effect on traditional fishing communities that have relied on catching and selling wild fish.
But supporters say the industrial-scale pens and cages could provide a new source of seafood, 80 percent of which now comes from imports.
Commercial seafood company owner John D. Ericsson favours the plan. He said the United States has fallen behind countries like Greece, Norway and Chile, where offshore farming has taken off.
Ericsson said his company, Florida-based BioMarine Technologies Inc., is looking at growing fish in cages that could contain up to 60,000 cobia, also known as king fish, and amberjack. He said it would take about $10 million to set up an offshore fish farm.
Despite approval Wednesday from the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council, a 17-member regional advisory body that sets fishing regulations in the Gulf, the fish-farming plan still faces a series of administrative hurdles, and needs approval from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Officials who developed the plan say it will be at least a year before anyone could apply for an open-ocean aquaculture permit, even with the necessary approval.
More than 100 environmental and fishing industry groups have signed on against the fish-farming plan, and many say they are hopeful the new Obama administration will quash the measure or send it back to the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council for revisions.
One of the main complaints has been that offshore aquaculture regulations should be developed by Congress on a national scale, rather than by a regional body such as the Gulf council.
The Gulf council’s plan calls for 10-year permits to set up offshore fish farms.
Officials set a total cap on farmed fish production at 64 million pounds, and they expect about five to 20 such operations to emerge within the next 10 years.
Drafters say they have addressed a number of ecological concerns in the plan: It requires an up-front environmental analysis from anyone applying for a permit, mandates the hiring of an aquatic animal health inspector, and lays out numerous record-keeping requirements regarding escaped or diseased fish.
Tags: aquaculture fish farming, Environmental, fish health, Offshore Aquaculture, Oil rigs, Open ocean aquaculture, Regulations, sea cages, seafood
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This is a great use of decommissioned infrastructure that would otherwise be left to deteriorate at sea. Fortunately in Australia decommissioned oil platforms are removed by the companies who installed them due to tax concession incentives. If this were not the case, this would be an interesting concept in Australian waters also.
This is a great idea for someone who has no idea of the facts. Offshore platforms are not left to rot. By law, they must be decommissioned within a year of end of production of a lease. It costs the oil/gas company 10’s of millions of dollars to remove each of these.
Will the fish companies have this kind of money to remove a single structure should a hurricane come through and topple and or severely damage it? There are real safety concerns and the potential for serious catastrophic accident to allow a damaged structure to remain.
This is a really dumb idea.
It seems that things may be progressing with abandoned rigs being used in the Gulf of Mexico
It appears that submissions have been signed off to put up a trial proposal that is supported by some 20 Industry members in this region
Let us hope so
The idea of being given a decommissioned oil rig might sound attractive but I wonder what the real costs would be, and whether many aquaculture companies could live with the liabilities that come with them. The oil companies are leaving them on site due to the cost of removal!