Tag Archives: Florida Wildlife Federation

NOAA, NGOs debate effects of ocean farms on wildlife, Litigation may be deterring investors

Federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico have been open to fish farming for two years, but no farms yet exist. In January 2016, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service issued a rule that would let companies apply for 10-year permits to farm fish in federal waters of the Gulf, with five-year renewals thereafter.,, Paul W. Zajicek, executive director of the National Aquaculture Association, suspects companies interested in starting offshore farms are waiting for results of a federal lawsuit against the fisheries service.,, Those behind the lawsuit say NOAA’s fisheries service is trying to regulate aquaculture as fishing but lacks authority to expand into aquaculture. >click to read<21:43

Center for Food Safety lawsuit challenge’s NOAA’s push for aquaculture in offshore U.S. waters

Center for Food Safety has filed a new lawsuit challenging the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) new federal regulations permitting, for the first time, industrial aquaculture offshore in U.S. federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico. The plaintiff coalition CFS is representing in the case make up a broad array of significant interests in the Gulf of Mexico, including commercial, economic, recreational, and conservation groups. Read the rest here 09:09

Guest column: Follow the Will of the Voters – Keep the Net Limitation

On May 15, the First District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee heard yet another legal challenge to the net limitation placed into the state Constitution in 1994 by 72 percent of Florida’s voters. This critical conservation issue was placed on the ballot 20 years ago after many years of short-sighted management of public marine resources that allowed huge nets to be used in our state’s salt waters. These nets, which catch fish by entangling them by their gills,,, Read more here  10:02