Statement by Andrea Kavanagh, Director, Pure Salmon Campaign, on the Bush Administration's Plan to Open Federal Waters to Fish Farming

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Statement by Andrea Kavanagh, Director, Pure Salmon Campaign, on the Bush Administration's Plan to Open Federal Waters to Fish Farming

    WASHINGTON, March 12 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following is a
statement by Andrea Kavanagh, Director of the Pure Salmon Campaign:
    Today at the International Boston Seafood Show, the Bush administration
unveiled its plan to allow industrial-scale fish farming in the open ocean.
If approved by Congress, corporations will soon be able to raise fish in
open- net pens in waters three to 200 miles offshore.
    "Once again, the Bush administration has failed to do its homework. It
wants to turn our oceans into a giant collection of corporate fish farms,
but it hasn't given any thought to what this means for the environment,
consumers and local communities.
    "The administration needs to do its due diligence and conduct an
environmental impact statement before it pursues any plans that could
devastate our oceans. We are only now beginning to understand the impacts
of fish farms located closer to the shore. Putting these farms in the open
ocean could present a whole new host of problems.
    "These open-net pens are nothing but trouble. Waste from millions of
captive fish empties directly into the ocean, polluting the water with
untreated sewage, toxic chemicals and other wastes. Not to mention,
millions of fish escape from these pens each year, spreading disease,
interbreeding with and often out-competing wild fish populations. Any new
system established in the U.S. for siting new aquaculture systems in the
ocean must eliminate these critical environmental impacts.
    "Fish can be farmed safely and with minimal ecological damage, but they
need to be raised in closed systems with strict environmental controls.
While we're not opposed to aquaculture, the administration's plan to open
up our oceans to corporate fish farming is entirely the wrong way to go."
    For more information on the dangers of open ocean aquaculture, go to
http://www.puresalmon.org.
    The Pure Salmon Campaign is a global project of the National
Environmental Trust. It has partners in the United States, Canada, Europe
and Chile all working to improve the way salmon is produced.

SOURCE Pure Salmon Campaign

http://www.puresalmon.org
CONTACT:
Dave Bard, +1-202-486-4426, for the Pure
Salmon Campaign