Issues
The Problem Advancing the Quality and Understanding of American Aquaculture Act (AQUAA ACT)
The Advancing the Quality and Understanding of American Aquaculture Act, S. 3100 or the “AQUAA Act” was introduced in the Senate on October 28, 2021 by Senator Wicker (R-MS) with cosponsors Senators Schatz (D-HI) and Rubio (FL). The House Bill, H.R. 6258, was introduced on December 14, 2021 by Representative Palazzo (R-MS) with cosponsor Representative Case (D-HI). Both bills have the same purpose: “to establish a regulatory system for sustainable offshore aquaculture in the United States exclusive economic zone, and for other purposes.”
This isn’t the first time OFF proponents have tried to pass legislation opening the floodgates to finfish farming. There have been several other attempts over the past 20 years. This exact Act was introduced in 2018, but thanks to our coalition’s efforts, the bill did not advance!
Another Problem Executive Order 13921: Promoting Seafood Competitiveness and Economic Growth
Executive Order 13921 is an Executive Order put in place by the Trump Administration on May 7, 2020. It fast-tracks regulatory processes to bypass important environmental safeguards, avoids full public input, and ignores sound science for offshore finfish farm permitting and siting. It is the status quo set by Trump and is still in effect.
As of December 2021, the Biden Administration has fully revoked 51 out of 219 EO’s signed by Trump, but not this one. EO 13921 directs the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to be the lead on promoting offshore finfish farming (OFF). The EO calls on NOAA to identify sites and fast track a regulatory process. OFF does not benefit fishing communities, the environment, or healthy food production, but the facilities do profit a handful of corporations and the industrial seafood lobby. And, they advance the same industrial food production model that has forced farmers to sell their land, polluted the waterways, and contributed to poor nutrition and health problems.
DCO2 members and a diverse group of nearly 180 partners representing roughly 9 million people have urged the Biden Administration to revoke the Trump EO and instead invest in ocean conservation, fishing communities, and a healthy food supply.
OFF in Our OceansRegional Initiatives
Several states have considered allowing offshore finfish farms in federal waters just beyond their state water boundary. Florida and Hawai’i have been wooed by corporations looking to exploit nature’s ecosystem services, regardless of the impact on the marine environment or coastal communities. Ocean Era raises Kona Kampachi (Almaco Jack) at its research facility off Kona, Hawai’i. They also are collaborating with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to create another facility called Velella Epsilon in Florida.
Executive Order 13921 directs NOAA to create Aquaculture Opportunity Areas (AOAs). The agency subsequently identified potential industrial AOAs in the Gulf of Mexico and Southern California Bight. In February 2022, the agency released a new Guide to Permitting Marine Aquaculture in the United States, to provide industry with a better understanding of the permitting process. NOAA’s actions to facilitate aquaculture development in federal waters ignore the outcome of a key federal lawsuit in the 5th Circuit, which held that the agency does not have authority to manage aquaculture in federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, the main federal law on fish and fishing regulations in the U.S. (Gulf Fishermens Ass’n v. Nat’l Marine Fisheries Serv., N. 19-30006, 2020 WL 4433100, (5th Cir. 3 August 2020)).