SARASOTA COUNTY, Fla. — Fresh seafood is a critical healthy protein for humans — but where we get our fish is the subject of intense debate. A proposed one-year pilot project to build pens off the coast of Sarasota is drawing criticism and praise.
The project, called Velella Epsilon, was first proposed by Ocean Era in 2017. Acquiring all of the proper permits and legal challenges continues to cause delays.
In June 2022, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approved permits for the facility in federal waters 45 miles southwest of Sarasota in 130 feet deep waters.
NO FISH FARMS RALLY
At a recent rally in Venice, environmental groups, commercial fishermen and concerned citizens held a protest against the project.
"We've been in opposition since day one when it comes to this industrialization of our oceans," Casey Streeter said.
Streeter is a commercial fisherman operating out of Matlacha. He lost everything when Hurricane Ian decimated coastal Lee County. He believes the fish farm threatens his livelihood and the entire fishing industry.
"We're worried about genetically inferior fish getting into breeding populations. If you look in other countries and other places, they've had disasters," Streeter said. "I'm currently doing waterway cleanup, post-hurricane Ian. And if we had these pens off Fort Myers, I'd be cleaning these pens out of the mangroves. So I've seen what water does. Water always wins. And regardless of the design or how they think they're going to be able to protect against these extreme weather events, I don't see it happening.”
The top concerns are impacts from red tide, water contamination from fish waste, fish escaping the pens and impacting wild stocks, hurricanes, the use of antibiotics, and environmental impacts and marine life.
In 2017, an endangered Hawaiian monk seal was found dead in a commercial fish farm operated by Blue Ocean Mariculture in the waters around Hawaii. According to a release by the Hawaii Department of Land & Natural Resources, the seal drowned after getting in through an opening in the pen after "a large side panel to allow a shark to escape."
The seal drowned because it could not escape the pen.
According to Allison Garrett, Communications Specialist with NOAA Fisheries, "it's important to highlight that there has not been a mortality incident since that event, and the event actually helped to establish a research project where that farm partnered with NOAA to study how monk seals interact with aquaculture gear to prevent future incidents from occurring."
The death, described as a rare occurrence, still raises concerns for the project in the Gulf of Mexico.
"We need to worry about our turtles and our marine mammals," Streeter said. "They migrate, they move, they go to different depths, and they're going to have interaction with all these pens because they're going to do what they normally do."
Globally, offshore salmon farming has come under the microscope. A news article from the Guardian in Feb. 2021 cited a study fromJust Economics that pointed to parasites, pollution and high mortality rates of farmed salmon.
The permit was originally for Almaco Jack; now, Ocean Era plans to harvest red drum fish and change their design.
"Not only do we oppose the original permit, we oppose it even more so now because you can't change things up under one permit and say you don't need a new one," Cris Costello, Senior Organizing Manager for Sierra Club, Florida, said.
ABC Action News reporter Michael Paluska contacted the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for comment on the permitting process.
"EPA can't provide a comment because the permit is currently the subject of ongoing litigation," Davina Marraccini, the Acting Press and Government Affairs Section Chief for the EPA, said in an e-mail.
OCEAN ERA
Paluska Zoomed with Ocean Era CEO Neil Anthony Sims. From his office in Hawaii, Sims answered all of the questions raised by the public.
Question about hurricanes:
"If a storm comes through, we'll be able to submerge at least 30 feet below the surface so the storm will just wash over the top of it," Sims said. "These net pens are engineered to be able to withstand hurricanes of that strength. And that's why they are submersible. But then remember, by using red drum, these are fish that would be produced in the very same hatcheries and released into the wild anyway for the recreational fishery. So any escapes will just be part of that same genetic mix that the hatcheries already use in their restocking program. So I think people can feel very comfortable about the use of this species."
Response to use of antibiotics:
"Antibiotic use is very heavily regulated in all of the aquaculture in the U.S. and particularly in offshore aquaculture, and we would not plan on using any prophylactic antibiotics in the offshore farm at all."
Red tide concerns:
"Most red tide impacts are very close in the near shore waters. And this is part of the advantage of being out in deeper water further offshore. So I think that your fishermen will say that they don't see the effects of the red tides 40 miles offshore; most of the red tide impacts are really close to shore. So we wouldn't expect it if it was out there. Now, if it is going to hit us out there, that's something that we would deal with at the time. And if there are mortalities, we'll remove them, yes."
Water quality concerns:
"So long as you're in deep enough water far enough out offshore, then there's going to be no significant impact either on the water quality or on the substrate, the sea floor below the net pens. So that's really encouraging for us, as we see the need for more seafood."
Ocean Era established two offshore operations in Kona, Hawaii, that Sims said have been a big success.
"And there's been very rigorous monitoring of that offshore site. There's no significant impact from that operation," Sims said. "So the goal of this project is just to be a demonstration for the Florida fishing and boating community to be able to let them see offshore aquaculture is just fish in the ocean. And that's the natural place for them to be."
EDUCATING THE PUBLIC
"Offshore aquaculture is really that next step," said Andrew Richard, Regional Aquaculture Coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Southeast Regional Office.
NOAA is not part of the permitting process but acts as a conduit to educate the public and debunk misinformation.
"Every aquaculture project that's placed out into our ocean environment, whether it's a pilot scale project or commercial scale project, undergoes a really robust environmental review process that looks at everything from the potential environmental impacts, social impacts, economic impacts," Richard said. "And that's all thoroughly analyzed using the best available science and information that we have to ensure that these projects are placed out in the environment, that they operate as they're described, and that they have minimal impacts to our environment communities."
"We import about 70 to 80% of the seafood we consume here in the United States. And about 50% of that comes from aquaculture products grown elsewhere. So, there's a huge opportunity here in the United States to be growing our seafood here," he added.
Farming fish here could translate into sustainability and less environmental impacts, farming closer to home.
"It is a shorter supply chain, lower carbon footprint; you're not having to ship seafood across the oceans through the air. You know, you're able to grow this locally, land it locally, and then it enters the supply chain through our local communities," Richard said. "I don't have any concerns. I think there was a really good robust environmental analysis that was done for this project. And, I think at the end of the day, it will be really helpful, showing the public and showing our communities how these operations can operate sustainably in an environmentally friendly way."
GROWING FISH AND PLANTS TOGETHER
At the 200-acre Mote Aquaculture Research Park, we saw how advancements in technology and practices are pushing the needle forward to produce high-quality farmed fish.
"We're able to grow salt plants with an inland system 17 miles from the shore. It's also a great way to conserve energy," said Dr. Nicole Rhody, Program Manager and Director of Aquaculture at the research park. "We've been thoughtful in how the system was designed."
Rhody said the research behind every project is intensive. The goal is to find the best practices to feed and support their community.
"We want to see new farmers come in and have a chance to take this work that we've done and create a business from it. And we want to see those products available in our local supermarkets, at the farmer's markets. Then in our restaurants, because that's what's really going to drive those businesses forward," Rhody said. "Certain fisheries have been overfished, and we want to supplement those in areas that we can."
Rhody gave us a tour of their aquaponics and the hatchery where snook and red drum are raised. She believes there's a lot of misinformation when it comes to eating farm-raised fish.
"We have to improve our domestic seafood supply. It's all imported. And that's going to be a challenge for us going forward if we don't expand aquaculture production," Rhody added.
We were with Mote scientists as they released the first batches of more than 20,000 red drums into Phillippi Creek on Sarasota Bay. It was part of an ongoing partnership with Salt Strong to find the most effective methods to replenish and enhance red drum populations.
The Ocean Era project plans to use a locally harvested red drum. Sims said they have yet to identify what facility it will come from, but Mote is a possible choice.
Experts at Mote said their fish pose no risk to wild populations.
"The snook and the red drum that we release, their parents are completely wild fish," Ryan Schloesser, Program Manager of the Fisheries Ecology and Enhancement Program at Mote Marine Lab, said."So there's no concern about them going back into the environment and becoming part of the population because they came right out of that population."
A CHEF'S TAKE
Fish and plants raised at the Mote research park often make it onto menus and customers' plates at local restaurants.
"I was lucky enough to be a guinea pig for their products," Stephen Phelps, chef and owner of Indigenous in Downtown Sarasota, said. "Somebody gives me that red drum from what they were doing through that farming process, which is very unique. And a wild-caught fish. I'm feeling a little more confident eating the farm stuff because it's been babied and watched all day, and it's been in clean water."
Indigenous opened in 2011. Phelps said for consistency and stability in his prices, farmed fish are his go-to, and when he gets a batch of beautiful wild-caught fish, they are used for nightly specials.
The night we sat down with Phelps, he was making a lionfish ceviche as the special. Lionfish is an invasive species that has wreaked havoc on wild fish populations.
"A customer asked, 'How come you don't have that black grouper on the menu that we saw a month ago?' I said, 'Well, the fishermen went out and couldn't get it.' So we run into those situations where that fish isn't there for us," Phelps said. "We need to have this farmed fish to give us that protein. Now, we have to decide if we can build them right and put them in the right places."
Phelps recently traveled to Central America to tour offshore fish farms there. He said it was an excellent opportunity to see how their fish farms operate and compare it to what Ocean Era plans to build off Sarasota's coast.
"Being in the middle is sometimes a challenge," Phelps said. "As I explained, society needs [fish farms] because we need that protein. And then the half of me that says I'm against it is because of a poor design or a poor model for a company. They were going to do this 40 miles offshore, which also becomes a fuel problem."
"The way they changed the design of the pen and the species just didn't make sense to me," he added. "Most of these successful offshore farms are within 12 miles offshore. And the 40-mile trek just made me wonder, are people sleeping on the boats overnight? A lot of red flags came up at that meeting."
A fear of hurricanes continues to dominate the conversation as well.
"I went through Hurricane Ian, and I can't see how anybody would be confident with anything in a hurricane unless you know it's been tested through many hurricanes in another area," he said. "With the red drum species that they've introduced to everybody now, we've proven that that can be done on land for a lot less money and a lot less environmental impact."
But Phelps reiterated that he is not against fish farms.
"Fish farms on land and offshore are vital to us; we need them both," he said. "But this situation has not been reviewed enough. The first one who gets it right here and then we should talk again, we could all get together and say, 'Wow, you know, fish are great, haven't had any problems. Now, should we do one over there?' And until that happens, it will be hard to understand what will happen around here."
