Obama Administration Shifts Aquaculture Strategy

As first blogged by our friends at acuaculturetoday, Commerce secretary Gary Locke last week said the administration will develop federal aquaculture regulations, including a system that could permit offshore fish farming in the ocean waters for the first time.

As part of the secretary's briefing before a senate committee hearing in Washington D.C., Locke further detailed a decision to change a Bush administration proposal that would have expedited a permitting system for offshore aquaculture under the Minerals Management Service. He said the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will oversee the preparation of the Obama administration's fish-farming guidelines, according to aquaculturetoday's blog post.

I was waiting to hear what the Obama administration would be doing with aquaculture policy. As the UN and other international organizations have seen the light in recent months and accepted the fact the industry is a more-or-less a good thing for consumers and, if done correctly and sustainably, for the oceans and those individuals, communities that rely on them.

Stay tuned for further info on aquaculture policy out of the Obama White House.