Industrial Ocean Fish Farming
Millions of Americans eat seafood in an attempt to consume healthier, more environmentally conscious meals. But what they don’t realize is that over half of the seafood we consume is farmed – the bulk of which is produced by industrial ocean fish farms that are fraught with environmental and social problems.
Industrial ocean fish farming – also known as open ocean or offshore marine aquaculture – is the mass breeding, rearing, and harvesting of seafood in net pens, pods, and cages. These are essentially underwater factory farms in our ocean, with devastating environmental and socio-economic impacts.
Friends of the Earth seeks to:
- Shift the focus away from mainstream, industrial seafood production, and toward truly sustainable farming and wild fishing practices
- Develop federal and state policies for sustainable aquaculture practices that exclude industrial ocean fish farming
- Launch a market transformation for truly sustainable seafood
Oceans Stop Congress from industrializing our oceans with floating factory farms!TAKE ACTION
Oceans Stop Trump from opening our oceans to Big OilTAKE ACTION
Oceans Protect our oceans from factory fish farms!TAKE ACTION
American fishing industry groups and individual fishermen from across the country today delivered a letter calling on both houses of Congress to oppose any attempts to legitimize open net pen finfish aquaculture.
Friends of the Earth today delivered more than 38,500 comments opposing a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration plan to increase aquaculture production.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will hold another listening session in Raleigh, North Carolina today to continue discussing its five-year strategic plan, which targets an increase in aquaculture production by leasing federal waterways to companies looking to build floating feedlots.
In early March 2018, Washington’s state legislature passed House Bill 2957—a bill that bans all future industrial net pen operations by 2022. This bill should send a message to the aquaculture industry that its time is up.
We can continue to feed the global population without further industrializing our oceans by utilizing recirculating systems and through sustainable wild-capture fishing, agroecological shellfish, and plant mariculture in the open ocean.
The Trump Administration is making a huge push to bring destructive and polluting industrial ocean fish farming to U.S. waters.
Industrial ocean fish farming is looking to take over our oceans and hijack our wild seafood, leaving no room for local fishing communities, tribes, tourism, ship traffic, and recreational anglers.