A plan to allow industrial-scale fish farms in the Gulf of Mexico has come up against strident opposition from environmental and fishing interests in recent months, forcing federal fisheries regulators to revisit details about ecological health and safety.

At a meeting this week in Baton Rouge, regulators will resume discussions on introducing the offshore aquaculture concept to the Gulf. If approved, the area would be the nation's first testing ground for open-ocean fish farms, which use submersible cages or industrial-strength nets to raise fish for commercial sale.

With the United States importing 80 percent of the seafood it consumes, industry proponents say the fish farms could yield more domestic seafood supply and break the dependence on imports. But the plan has sparked concerns about the effects on wild fish populations and the extent of government safeguards on production.

"To say 'no' and to stop it is shortsighted," said Chuck Wilson, executive director of the Louisiana Sea Grant College program based at LSU. "But we need to make sure that first it's economically feasible and environmentally safe, and that those safeguards be in place. It's all about taking risks and understanding the benefits."

The offshore aquaculture plan comes amid heightened public concern about the safety of imported food, particularly from China. Farm-raised seafood is at the center of that debate, with evidence of the Chinese product, particularly shrimp, being tainted with banned antibiotics and other chemicals.

The environmental concerns center mostly on the large concentrations of fish in one spot, increasing the risk of disease transfer and pollution from fish wastes. Gulf facilities would be limited to federal waters from three to 200 miles offshore: a much deeper and more free-flowing environment than the shrimp farms in shallow Chinese bays or the near-shore salmon farms of the Pacific Northwest.

Commercial fishing groups argue the excess supply could drive out of business fishers already hobbled by overseas competition.

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plans_under_scrutiny.html