Sunday, April 1, 2007
Photos courtesy by the University of New Hampshire
SeaStation cages like this one photographed near Hawaii are being used by University of New Hampshire researchers to grow cod several miles off the New Hampshire coast.
Photos courtesy by the University of New Hampshire
Divers prepare to "vacuum" fish from a SeaStation cage using a long tube stuck through a hole in the top of the massive underwater cage.
Photos courtesy by the University of New Hampshire
Glen Rice, an operations crew member, stands atop a SeaStation cage being towed to shore for evaluation in January 2006 after a stint at the University of New Hampshire fish farm demonstration site off the New Hampshire coast.
DURHAM, N.H. - With the federal government now pushing hard for the development of offshore fish farms, the Gulf of Maine is playing a central role in the debate over whether farming in deep ocean waters is environmentally safe and economically viable.
The gulf is home to some of the world's most turbulent seas and nastiest weather -- a perfect testing ground for developing high-tech cages and automated feeding equipment that can stand up to a world-class beating. Several institutions and businesses in Maine and New Hampshire are developing equipment and expertise for offshore operations.
The political environment is equally turbulent. Fishermen -- many of whom are already struggling for economic survival -- worry that large-scale aquaculture of groundfish species such as cod or flounder could depress the prices of wild fish. Conservation groups, who have long viewed near-shore aquaculture as an environmental threat, see many of the same problems with offshore sites, such as concentration of fish waste in one area.
Other countries are adopting technology developed in the United States and aggressively promoting the industry, said Michael Rubino, who manges the aquaculture program for the National Marine Fisheries Service. The issue for American policymakers, he said, is whether the United States will participate or sit on the sidelines.
"The biggest challenge is: 'Do we want to do this or not?' "
MAINE AN INDUSTRY LEADER?
Maine's experience with inshore salmon farming, combined with aquaculture research being conducted at the University of New Hampshire and the University of Maine, gives the region an opportunity to be an industry leader, said Steve Page, president of Ocean Farm Technologies of Searsmont. The company manufactures spherical cages well-suited for ocean conditions and sold overseas.
"There is a real synergy between what's going on the universities and the experience of the salmon industry that gives our state a huge head start in terms of commercial-size aquaculture business," he said.
At a time when many wild fisheries are in trouble and demand for fish is increasing, the aquaculture industry can meet that demand in a way that doesn't hurt the environment or wild fish stocks, proponents argue. Moving fish farms offshore, they say, can avoid conflicts with landowners, mitigate environmental impacts and provide the fish with more stable habitat.
But environmentalists argue that large amounts of wild forage fish, such as herring, must be caught to feed the fish in the pens. That removes food that supports wild species such as tuna and whales, said Roger Fleming, an attorney with the Conservation Law Foundation.
For a farmed fish to grow a pound, it must be fed 2.5 to 3.5 pounds of fish meal, he said.
"It's not removing pressure from fish stocks," he said, "but making things worse, by removing a forage system that our stocks need to recover."
The health of commercially valuable wild stocks, such as haddock and flounder, depends entirely on the availability of forage fish, said Curt Rice, a Portland groundfisherman.
"It's a very delicate balance," he said. "I think it's better to let Mother Nature rather than man feed the fish."
Proponents say fish foods made of agricultural products such as soybeans are being developed.
MORE OPTIONS, HIGHER COSTS
The biggest environmental impact of inshore fish farms is the accumulation of fish waste in one area. In Washington and Hancock counties, where Cooke Aquaculture is raising about 3 million salmon on 10 operating near-shore farms, the huge tides help flush out the waste. In addition, the company rotates its sites, much like a farmer rotates crops, to lessen the impact.
Cooke, which is based in New Brunswick, in recent years has invested $60 million in Maine aquaculture projects, and it sees a future in offshore aquaculture in waters off the coast of Maine.
The company is developing its own cages. It is also now raising 750,000 cod in pens in the Bay of Fundy and is ramping up production because it sees a strong market for farm-raised cod, said Cooke spokesperson Nell Halle.
Conflicts with landowners limit the location of inshore pens, she said. Moving pens offshore allows more options. But it also means greater costs because of greater distances from shore and more expensive equipment.
"It's an unexplored frontier the farther out you go," she said.
Great Bay Aquaculture, a commercial hatchery in Portsmouth, N.H., supplies Cooke Aquaculture with the juvenile cod for its ocean pens. The cod are the offspring of wild cod, minimizing any genetic risk to wild stocks if the cod escape.
George Nardi, the company's chief technical officer, said the company would like to establish a commercial offshore farm in the Gulf of Maine once the technology becomes commercially viable. He believes that's at least two years away.
More work needs to be done to assure that automated feeding equipment and pens can withstand heavy wave action, he said. The pens get fouled by marine organisms and need to be cleaned by divers, a costly and dangerous endeavor.
As violent as the open ocean can be, though, it is also a more stable environment for fish, he said. The temperatures and salinity are more constant.
At an experimental fish farm about six miles off the coast of New Hampshire, just south of the Isles of Shoals, the University of New Hampshire has been raising fish since 1999. They have raised summer flounder, halibut and haddock and are now raising 45,000 cod. Two cages located 80 feet below the surface are served by a single automatic floating feeder.
No chemicals or antibiotics are used in the process. The feeding is so efficient, and the waste so dispersed, that the water just 100 yards from cages is unaffected, Rubino said.
"You can't tell the difference," he said.
The Isles of Shoals extends New Hampshire state waters beyond three miles from the mainland, allowing researchers to establish their aquaculture program farther offshore and still remain under state jurisdiction.
In federal waters, three to 200 nautical miles offshore, farms are not allowed because there is no established regulatory framework.
SUPPORTING LEGISLATION
The Bush administration intends to change that. On March 12, it submitted a bill to Congress that would let the Commerce Department issue 20-year permits to companies that raise fish in deep ocean waters.
Promoting the bill at the Boston International Seafood Show last month, U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez cited the growing demand for seafood worldwide and the need for a safe, reliable domestic seafood supply.
About 70 percent of all the seafood eaten in the United States comes from overseas, contributing to a trade deficit of about $9 billion in fish, Gutierrez said. Almost half the imported seafood is farm-raised.
"The question for our country is, 'How can we be a bigger player and how can we capture a bigger share of global seafood production?' " he asked.
The administration proposed a similar bill two years ago, but it failed to advance. Sponsors have modified the bill to anticipate the concerns of critics. For example, the bill permits states to ban fish farming up to 12 miles off their coasts.
Right now, the U.S. aquaculture industry is relatively small. It has focused mainly on catfish, tilapia and other freshwater fish. Only Maine and Washington are farming salmon, and Maine's operations are larger.
In Maine, fish farmers harvested 11.6 million pounds of salmon valued at $23.2 million in 2005, according to the latest statistics from the Department of Marine Resources.
The explosive growth of farmed-rasied shrimp and salmon has meant lower prices for consumers, but it has driven down prices of wild Maine shrimp and most species of wild salmon caught by Alaskan fishermen.
Many Maine fishermen worry the same thing would happen with farmed-raised groundfish.
Richard Langan, a former groundfisherman who now directs the Ocean Aquaculture Program at UNH, said fish is now a globally traded commodity and that a ban on offshore aquaculture in the U.S. would have no affect on the market. He said fish farms help wild stocks by reducing fishing pressure.
"There will always be wild fishery," he said. "It's simply not enough to supply the demand without hurting the fish population."
The issue comes down to competing values, Fleming said.
Many people are simply troubled by the idea of using the ocean for the industrial-scale disposal of fish waste, he said.
"Just the notion of using the ocean as dumping site for this waste doesn't set well with a lot of folks," he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Staff writer Tom Bell can be contacted at 791-6369 or at:
Reader comments
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Do explain how the federal fisheries can make a boat limit to four hundred pounds send it on an eight hour steam one way and that saves fuelreport abuse
And after five year of the State stoping this its completely gone do explain the explanation I gave produced more meat poundage compared to killing off a good area Let me ask you this do you or have you ever grown carrots
And you claim on the way you make your living
This has gone on for hundred of years you know years without regs.report abuse
You don't see anything with the destruction of small scallops one year and the following year, less but larger scallops? report abuse
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