Press Release from Food and Water Watch:

Hawaii Court Allows Factory Fish Farming in Federal Waters

Judge Finds Reasonable Federal Agency’s Determination that Aquaculture Activities Are “Fishing”

Statement from Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter

Honolulu, HI —“We are very disappointed by the court’s decision, which seems to say that aquaculture facilities can be permitted in federal waters, even if not authorized by a regional fishery management council. We do not think this is what Congress contemplated when they enacted our nation’s fishing laws, and we are currently considering all of our legal options, including an appeal.

“In her ruling last week, United States District Judge Susan Oki Mollway approved the National Marine Fisheries Service’s issuance of a “fishing” permit for Kona Blue Water Farms’s Velella aquaculture project in federal waters off of Hawai’i. The agency had contended that it could issue the permit under the federal fishery law, the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery, Conservation, and Management Act, which defines the term “fishing” to also include “harvesting.” The court found the issuance of the permit to KBWF reasonable because ‘[t]he project involved the growing and gathering a ‘crop’ of almaco jack to sell for human consumption.’

“Food & Water Watch feels strongly that NMFS should not have granted KBWF a permit at all. NMFS’s determination that, when Congress used the word “harvesting” in the 1976 law, its somehow contemplated allowing the raising of fish in futuristic floating industrial fish farming cages in the open ocean – as if it was traditional fishing – is completely without merit. Regardless, in this case, the governing regional fishery management council never even authorized the activities in the federal waters off of Hawai’i, and a proper environmental impact study was never conducted.  

“Food & Water Watch and KAHEA filed a suit against NMFS in August, 2011, for issuing an illegal fishing gear permit to Kona Blue Water Farm for their Valella Project. The lawsuit is based on the fact that the federal government lacked the authority to grant the permit and failed to adequately assess the environmental impacts of Kona Blue’s offshore aquaculture operations as required under federal law.”