Aquaculture changes urged Report: Farmed fish releases must stop

With the continued growth of the aquaculture industry, immediate efforts need to be made to eliminate the accidental release of farmed fish into the wild, scientists say in a report released this week by the Pew Oceans Commission.

The commission, headed by former White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta, is seeking new ways to protect the nation’s ocean resources. Its members were in Rockport last month to hold a public hearing on the subject. Pat White, executive director of the Maine Lobsterman’s Association, is on the 14-member commission, which will make recommendations to Congress and the president next year.

In their report, the three scientists tell the commission that the harm done to the ocean environment by aquaculture is minor compared to that done by overfishing, coastal development and global warming. The authors are from Environmental Defense and Stanford University.

Still, because farmed fish now account for one-third of the seafood eaten by people worldwide, they recommend changes in the industry to limit its impacts. They include reducing escapes to stop the spread of diseases and parasites to wild fish and the interbreeding of farmed and wild fish; developing stronger effluent standards for fish farms; and championing research and development in the aquaculture arena.

“Aquaculture is here to stay,” said Rebecca Goldburg of Environmental Defense. “The challenge is to ensure that this young industry grows in a sustainable manner and does not cause serious ecological damage.”

Maine leads the nation in marine aquaculture, largely because of the salmon farms in Washington and Hancock counties. Aquaculture generated $100 million in revenues here last year.

Because of the prominence of the industry, many of the issues raised in the report are being discussed and protective measures are being crafted here in Maine.

“The concerns are nothing new,” said Sebastian Belle, director of the Maine Aquaculture Association.

The industry in Maine, he said Friday, has responded to all the concerns raised in the report.

“Of any place in the world, we are farther ahead than anybody,” Belle added.

The escape of farmed fish into the wild has been an issue that has dogged salmon aquaculture for years. Federal fisheries officials listed the intermingling of farmed and wild fish as one of the primary reasons for wild Atlantic salmon in eight Maine rivers to be placed on the endangered species list last year.

With the spread of the deadly salmon disease, infectious salmon anemia, from the Canadian Maritimes to Maine, regulators again have called for better fish-containment protocols.

Environmentalists called for a moratorium on new aquaculture sites after learning it took the state seven weeks to inform federal authorities that 100,000 farmed fish escaped into Machias Bay during a storm earlier this year. Although wild Atlantic salmon are an endangered species, there is no requirement that fish escapes be reported to the federal government.

Despite the rancor between environmentalists and fish farmers, the groups in June announced they had reached an agreement to reduce the number of farm-raised salmon that escape into Maine waters. Under the agreement, fish farms must develop plans to contain their fish. The plans must be made available to regulators for review, and farm practices will be audited annually by an independent expert.

The Maine Aquaculture Association received a $500,000 grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to be used to develop containment protocols and to study the feasibility of marking all farmed fish to distinguish them from their wild counterparts.

The groups were holding their first committee meeting to discuss the drafting of such containment plans Friday, said Dave Peterson, CEO of Atlantic Salmon of Maine, the state’s largest salmon farming company.

There will be some additional costs involved in developing the plans and making the changes they necessitate, but they are likely to be outweighed by the benefit of not losing fish, Peterson said Friday.

“We are as interested as anyone in keeping the fish in the pens,” he said. A full-grown salmon is worth about $20.

Some other issues mentioned in the report are being addressed by state and federal agencies.

Fore example, new effluent standards under the federal Clean Water Act are being developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. And the Maine Department of Environmental Protection is drafting standards for aquaculture permits.

Research on the aquaculture industry in Maine also is expanding.

In what would be the largest federal investment in the University of Maine, the U.S. Department of Agriculture this spring indicated its willingness to pour $25 million into marine aquaculture research facilities for the campus.

Four-fifths of the money would go toward the construction of a 49,000-square-foot building on the Orono campus that would house 14 federal scientists and 10 assistants, as well as some UM marine science faculty. The remainder of the money would be used to upgrade facilities at UM’s saltwater fish hatchery in Franklin, which could lead to an additional 10 or more full-time jobs at the hatchery.

Work by the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service would focus on raising salmon, cod, halibut and haddock.

This year’s federal budget contains $2.5 million for designing the Orono building and the Franklin improvements. Maine’s congressional delegation intends to put $25 million for construction into next year’s federal budget plan, now being drafted.