Don’t Cage Our Oceans: The Army Corps’ Nationwide Permit for Commercial Finfish Aquaculture Found to be Unlawful
October 24th, 2024 — by Ashlyn Tracy — Category: Aquaculture
In 2022, Don’t Cage Our Oceans and other nonprofit organizations groups (collectively “DCOO”) sued the United States Army Corps of Engineers (“Corps”) for its issuance of Nationwide Permit 56 (“NWP 56”), which authorized the installation of finfish aquaculture structures within oceans around the country.
Don’t Cage Our Oceans: Challenging the Army Corps’ Nationwide Permit for Commercial Finfish Aquaculture
July 1st, 2024 — by Collin Dowson — Category: Aquaculture
In 2022, several environmental advocacy groups sued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) for its decision to issue Nationwide Permit (NWP) 56. NWP 56 is a general permit issued by the Corps under the Clean Water Act (CWA) for commercial finfish aquaculture.
NPDES Permit Issued for Aquaculture Activities in the Gulf of Mexico
June 29th, 2022 — by Betsy Randolph — Category: Aquaculture
On June 8, 2022, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a five-year National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit for Ocean Era’s offshore aquaculture project in the Gulf of Mexico.
The National Sea Grant Law Center (NSGLC) is excited to announce the publication of Volume 11:1 of the Sea Grant Law & Policy Journal. This Special Edition of the Journal is the culmination of the NSGLC’s recent project on offshore aquaculture.
On January 13, 2021, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) published a Final Rule for modified and new Nationwide Permits (NWPs). Among the new NWPs were three relevant to mariculture operations: NWP 48 for shellfish, NWP 55 for seaweed, and NWP 56 for finfish. The new NWPs will become effective on March 15, 2021.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries Division (NOAA Fisheries), also known as the National Marine Fisheries Services, announced on August 22, 2020 that two of the nation’s first Aquaculture Opportunity Areas (AOAs) will be in federal waters off southern California and in the Gulf of Mexico.
On August 11, 2020, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued a long-awaited announcement that certain aquaculture producers are eligible for financial assistance under the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP). Although the program was originally launched by the USDA in April to provide assistance to agricultural producers impacted by the economic effects of COVID-19, the agency’s decision to include aquaculture came after a public comment period in June that gave producers and industry the opportunity to submit data demonstrating that various aquaculture commodities meet the criteria for CFAP eligibility.
On August 3, 2020, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued its much-awaited decision in Gulf Fishermens Association v. National Marine Fisheries Service. The litigation concerned the authority of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to regulate aquaculture under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (“Magnuson-Stevens” or “the Act”), which has been the primary federal mechanism for regulating wild fisheries since 1976. Although one member of the three-judge panel that heard the case dissented, the court ultimately affirmed the district court's ruling that a NMFS rule purporting to regulate offshore aquaculture in the Gulf of Mexico exceeded the agency’s statutory authority.
This week, the National Sea Grant Law Center (NSGLC) traveled to Providence, RI to participate in the National Seaweed Symposium. Seaweed aquaculture is a budding industry in the United States, and the Symposium is part of a Seaweed Hub that will be run by Sea Grant programs on the East and West Coast, as well as the NSGLC, over the next three years.
In September 2018, Judge Jane Milazzo of the federal Eastern District of Louisiana handed down a ruling that held the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) overstepped its statutory authority by promulgating rules that would have permitted finish aquaculture operations in the Gulf of Mexico.
Throughout July and August, the National Sea Grant Law Center (NSGLC) will be hosting a webinar series to highlight the work and findings of its collaborative project, entitled “Overcoming Impediments to Shellfish Aquaculture through Legal Research and Outreach.”
On June 21, North Carolina’s governor signed a bill into law that makes several critical changes to the state’s shellfish aquaculture leasing program. The bill—S.B. 648—was unanimously passed by the state’s Senate in early May, with the House doing the same on June 12. The final text of the bill was refined in a yearlong stakeholder process, and is drawn in part from a strategic plan for shellfish mariculture that was developed last year by the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill’s North Carolina Policy Collaboratory.
In February, news broke that the European Union Commission’s Competition Authority had carried out unannounced inspections at the premises of several European aquaculture companies, including facilities owned by Norwegian companies Mowi, Grieg Seafood, and SalMar and Lerøy Seafood (as joint owners). Soon after, the Commission announced that the inspections were part of an investigation focused on accusations of anti-competitive cooperation in the Norwegian Atlantic salmon aquaculture sector.
On March 8, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that it would be deactivating the import alert it had previously imposed on AquaBounty AquAdvantage Salmon—fish that have often been termed “frankenfish” by the media. The lifting of this ban marks the first time that a genetically engineered (GE) animal product has been cleared for sale to U.S. consumers.
On October 22, the court for the Western District of Louisiana denied a motion for summary judgment in Carline Fisheries. v. Vector Disease Control (No. 6:16-1506, 2018 BL 389535 (W.D. La. Oct. 22, 2018)). According to the aquaculturist plaintiffs in this case, Vector Disease Control (“Vector”), a pesticide spraying company, caused the deaths of numerous farmed crawfish when it aerially sprayed the insecticide Permanone over portions of Iberia Parish in November 2015, as part of an effort to control local mosquito populations.
When Hurricane Michael made landfall on October 10, 2018, it claimed nearly forty lives across four states, and its aftermath continues to claim the livelihood of oystermen in Apalachicola, Florida. The town and bay of the same name are historically famed for their oysters, which once made up 90% of the wild caught oysters in Florida and 10% in the nation. Oil spill pollution, a drought, and a water use dispute decimated the native oysters in recent years, leading to a shift to aquaculture.
On September 25, a coalition of fishing and public interest groups, represented by the Center for Food Safety (CFS), won a lawsuit challenging National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) rules that would have permitted finfish aquaculture operations in the Gulf of Mexico.
Animal welfare has become a hot button issue in the aquaculture industry over recent years. There is great debate both in the United States and internationally over what degree of welfare protection, if any, farmed fish should be entitled to during their lives and at slaughter.
