Aquaculture Approved for the Gulf of Mexico
Photo Credit NOAAToday, September 3, 2009, Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke approved implementation of an irresponsibly designed offshore aquaculture plan for the Gulf of Mexico. The Marine Fish Conservation Network is dismayed at this decision by Sec. Locke. The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council submitted to Sec. Locke a fundamentally flawed offshore aquaculture plan, despite a lack of national standards, a lack of legal authority, and a lack of adequate environmental safeguards. The Gulf aquaculture plan will open the door to large-scale commercial operations in the Gulf of Mexico resulting in potentially disastrous impacts for native, wild fish and Gulf Coast ecosystems. The scale of fish farming in federal waters envisioned in the aquaculture Fishery Management Plan would conflict with fisheries and fishermen in numerous ways, and could have been prevented if Sec. Locke had blocked the Gulf Council’s plan.
http://www.conservefish.org/
Photo Credit NOAAToday, September 3, 2009, Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke approved implementation of an irresponsibly designed offshore aquaculture plan for the Gulf of Mexico. The Marine Fish Conservation Network is dismayed at this decision by Sec. Locke. The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council submitted to Sec. Locke a fundamentally flawed offshore aquaculture plan, despite a lack of national standards, a lack of legal authority, and a lack of adequate environmental safeguards. The Gulf aquaculture plan will open the door to large-scale commercial operations in the Gulf of Mexico resulting in potentially disastrous impacts for native, wild fish and Gulf Coast ecosystems. The scale of fish farming in federal waters envisioned in the aquaculture Fishery Management Plan would conflict with fisheries and fishermen in numerous ways, and could have been prevented if Sec. Locke had blocked the Gulf Council’s plan.
http://www.conservefish.org/
