NOAA is seeking public comment on how it spends money to support aquaculture programs, and you can let them know how you feel about it! While the agency funds a variety of aquaculture projects through its NOAA Sea Grant program, Saltonstall-Kennedy (S-K) program, and Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, these programs run the spectrum between somewhat beneficial to downright awful.

Don’t Cage Our Oceans coalition and our members are tired of having to repeatedly call out the agency on its misguided spending priorities, only to see it double down on grants for factory fish farming and agribusiness/biotech partners, instead of supporting coastal residents who would like to make a living farming seafood through values-based approaches that actually benefit local economies and communities. Here’s just two examples of factory fish farm awardees from this year alone:

Two 2022 Sea Grants totalling over $1.3 million were allocated towards research that would directly benefit the Hubbs Sea World Research Institute / Pacific6 Enterprises investment group in commercially growing sashimi grade yellowtail in southern California, in the face of public opposition to this project spanning well over a decade. Hardly the type of fish to “feed the world.”

Also for 2022, the Ocean Era corporation, which has changed names and rebranded 3 times in 10 years, was directly awarded a $300,000 S-K grant to demonstrate the commercial viability of growing snapper in Hawaii. It will also benefit from a $1 million Sea Grant to research and improve the efficiency of growing Almaco jack, the species expected to be grown at the company’s Velella Epsilon facility in the Gulf of Mexico.

Between the years 2017-2022, over $28 million was awarded to projects that benefit the offshore fish farming industry through just the Sea Grant, S-K, and SBIR programs alone. This shows the industry cannot stand on its own, and will not  be an overall benefit to the U.S. if it requires massive amounts of public dollars just to exist. It is urgent that the agency reflect on its true mission, reset itself, and remember that it serves the U.S. public first.