02-13-2004, 05:02 PM
[size 4]Offshore Fish Farm Proposed[/size]
[#008080]![[Image: blackpix.gif]](http://www.latimes.com/images/standard/blackpix.gif)
Nonprofit group would use a decommissioned oil platform as a base to raise tuna and bass.
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A San Diego firm announced Thursday that it wants to use an old oil platform off Ventura County to create a commercial fish farm, the first of its kind on the West Coast to specialize in fin fish.
The nonprofit Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute wants to use Venoco Inc.'s decommissioned Grace platform, in waters about 10 miles west of Ventura, to build an experimental operation that could produce up to 300 tons of fish annually.
The proposal comes amid ongoing debate among federal officials on how to best lower a multibillion-dollar seafood trade deficit by increasing domestic fish production.
"We've got to come up with something to meet this growing demand for seafood," said Paula Sylvia, a Hubbs project manager.
The five-year plan would allow Hubbs to grow and sell California yellowtail and bluefin tuna and striped bass raised in four underwater cages, and use deck space on the platform to raise cod, halibut and abalone that would be released into the ocean to increase fish populations.
No fish would be taken from the ocean's natural stocks as part of the plan, Hubbs officials said. Fish eggs would be hatched into larvae at the institute's Carlsbad facility and raised to a certain size before being shipped to the platform operation.
Although market prices vary, one ton of fish raised in the operation could fetch $7,000 or more, making 300 tons worth more than $2 million annually. Any profit from the operation, Hubbs officials said, would be used for marine research.
Critics of the proposal, including the Minneapolis-based Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, argue that while fish farming — known as aquaculture — may increase fish populations, such offshore operations would open the door to privatizing parts of the ocean.
"I just don't think we need offshore aquaculture in our oceans. It's a pipe dream, it's like exploring the moon and it has ominous implications," institute director Mike Skladany said in an interview. Skladany's organization supports small, onshore hatcheries, particularly family-owned farms in rural communities.
In a report the institute released this week, Skladany asserts that a bill pending in Congress that encourages the use of decommissioned oil rigs for aquaculture would, if passed, be bad policy and create a "new giant bio-polluting industry."
"Altering this precedent could open up similar opportunities to a raft of competing corporate interests," Skladany said. "Oil and gas drilling, sub-sea mining, abandonment of oil rigs, waste disposal and commercial rocket launching are just some of the activities that would benefit."
Opponents such as Skladany also argue that offshore operations carry too many environmental risks, such as the transfer of diseases from farm fish to wild fish and increased water pollution from fish fecal matter.
Don Kent, a marine biologist and president of the Hubbs project, said that offshore farming was a responsible way to increase fish stocks and that such commercialization was no different from any entity obtaining a legal license to fish for commercial or recreational purposes.
"We are either going to learn how to do this with these experimental programs or we're going to pass this off to other countries and say, 'You grow it for us and get it to our tables,' " Kent said.
Skladany countered that the operating costs for offshore fish farms could be extremely high, which in turn would prompt commercial companies to grow "high-end, luxury [fish] items for fancy restaurants" that average consumers can't afford.
Currently, there are experimental offshore fishing operations in Hawaii, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, New Hampshire and Puerto Rico. The proposed Hubbs facility would be the first for fin fish in federal waters on the West Coast. Federal jurisdiction extends from the three-mile state limit to 200 miles offshore. About 14 commercial pens for white sea bass dot the coast between San Diego and Santa Barbara, but those are in state waters. Abalone, oyster and mussel farms also span the West Coast.
Last month, Hubbs representatives applied for permits with the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers. Several other agencies, including the state Department of Fish and Game and the U.S. Coast Guard, must also review the proposal.
The review process was expected to take several months but Kent said that if approval came quickly, construction on the platform could begin by the end of the year.
Hubbs researchers want to use about one-third of one of the oil rig's four decks, about 10,000 square feet, for deck farming.
Meanwhile, another company, Houston-based Crystal Energy, signed a long-term lease last year to use the same oil platform for a liquefied natural gas terminal and processing facility.
Hubbs officials said that project did not appear to interfere with his group's plans, citing Venoco, the owner of the oil platform, as a supporter of the fish farm project.
Tom Raftican, president of United Anglers of Southern California, whose organization decried sweeping fishing bans off the Channel Islands put in place two years ago, hailed the Hubbs proposal in an interview.
"We think this is an excellent idea. It offers us a chance to help fisheries that could possibly be at risk," Raftican said. "There's big potential here." << Like San Diego area fishing wasn't already good enough~Bring that platform up to Long Beach!!>>
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[#008080]
Nonprofit group would use a decommissioned oil platform as a base to raise tuna and bass.[/#008080]
A San Diego firm announced Thursday that it wants to use an old oil platform off Ventura County to create a commercial fish farm, the first of its kind on the West Coast to specialize in fin fish.
The nonprofit Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute wants to use Venoco Inc.'s decommissioned Grace platform, in waters about 10 miles west of Ventura, to build an experimental operation that could produce up to 300 tons of fish annually.
The proposal comes amid ongoing debate among federal officials on how to best lower a multibillion-dollar seafood trade deficit by increasing domestic fish production.
"We've got to come up with something to meet this growing demand for seafood," said Paula Sylvia, a Hubbs project manager.
The five-year plan would allow Hubbs to grow and sell California yellowtail and bluefin tuna and striped bass raised in four underwater cages, and use deck space on the platform to raise cod, halibut and abalone that would be released into the ocean to increase fish populations.
No fish would be taken from the ocean's natural stocks as part of the plan, Hubbs officials said. Fish eggs would be hatched into larvae at the institute's Carlsbad facility and raised to a certain size before being shipped to the platform operation.
Although market prices vary, one ton of fish raised in the operation could fetch $7,000 or more, making 300 tons worth more than $2 million annually. Any profit from the operation, Hubbs officials said, would be used for marine research.
Critics of the proposal, including the Minneapolis-based Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, argue that while fish farming — known as aquaculture — may increase fish populations, such offshore operations would open the door to privatizing parts of the ocean.
"I just don't think we need offshore aquaculture in our oceans. It's a pipe dream, it's like exploring the moon and it has ominous implications," institute director Mike Skladany said in an interview. Skladany's organization supports small, onshore hatcheries, particularly family-owned farms in rural communities.
In a report the institute released this week, Skladany asserts that a bill pending in Congress that encourages the use of decommissioned oil rigs for aquaculture would, if passed, be bad policy and create a "new giant bio-polluting industry."
"Altering this precedent could open up similar opportunities to a raft of competing corporate interests," Skladany said. "Oil and gas drilling, sub-sea mining, abandonment of oil rigs, waste disposal and commercial rocket launching are just some of the activities that would benefit."
Opponents such as Skladany also argue that offshore operations carry too many environmental risks, such as the transfer of diseases from farm fish to wild fish and increased water pollution from fish fecal matter.
Don Kent, a marine biologist and president of the Hubbs project, said that offshore farming was a responsible way to increase fish stocks and that such commercialization was no different from any entity obtaining a legal license to fish for commercial or recreational purposes.
"We are either going to learn how to do this with these experimental programs or we're going to pass this off to other countries and say, 'You grow it for us and get it to our tables,' " Kent said.
Skladany countered that the operating costs for offshore fish farms could be extremely high, which in turn would prompt commercial companies to grow "high-end, luxury [fish] items for fancy restaurants" that average consumers can't afford.
Currently, there are experimental offshore fishing operations in Hawaii, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, New Hampshire and Puerto Rico. The proposed Hubbs facility would be the first for fin fish in federal waters on the West Coast. Federal jurisdiction extends from the three-mile state limit to 200 miles offshore. About 14 commercial pens for white sea bass dot the coast between San Diego and Santa Barbara, but those are in state waters. Abalone, oyster and mussel farms also span the West Coast.
Last month, Hubbs representatives applied for permits with the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers. Several other agencies, including the state Department of Fish and Game and the U.S. Coast Guard, must also review the proposal.
The review process was expected to take several months but Kent said that if approval came quickly, construction on the platform could begin by the end of the year.
Hubbs researchers want to use about one-third of one of the oil rig's four decks, about 10,000 square feet, for deck farming.
Meanwhile, another company, Houston-based Crystal Energy, signed a long-term lease last year to use the same oil platform for a liquefied natural gas terminal and processing facility.
Hubbs officials said that project did not appear to interfere with his group's plans, citing Venoco, the owner of the oil platform, as a supporter of the fish farm project.
Tom Raftican, president of United Anglers of Southern California, whose organization decried sweeping fishing bans off the Channel Islands put in place two years ago, hailed the Hubbs proposal in an interview.
"We think this is an excellent idea. It offers us a chance to help fisheries that could possibly be at risk," Raftican said. "There's big potential here." << Like San Diego area fishing wasn't already good enough~Bring that platform up to Long Beach!!>>
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