Open Ocean Aquaculture is not Fishing – Part 2

This sort of planning is a familiar concept. On land, it's called zoning. Every town, city, county and state has planning offices that produce detailed maps of land use to guide development that minimizes user conflicts and ideally balances development with conservation.

Few, if any, do so for the open ocean. (Massachusetts is a notable exception.)

Congress should be putting in place strong national environmental, health and liability standards that cover not just the Gulf of Mexico, but all of our federally managed oceans. A one-council-at-a-time approach, without the foundation of these national standards, is unacceptable.

We must take the time to bring order to the oceans through inte grated and comprehensive ocean governance. We must assemble and analyze the oceanographic, economic and social information needed to make thoughtful decisions for the long-term use — and health — of our oceans.

The Gulf aquaculture plan sets us off on a development path without the benefit of foresight provided by such a process.

We would never allow comparable major industrial development to happen on land without a high level of planning, sufficient public in volvement and careful consideration of the consequences.

We must not allow it to begin in the ocean with the Gulf Council's open-ocean aquaculture plan.

It is the responsibility of every citizen, of our elected representatives and of our federal and state agencies to ensure that, in the face of an uncertain and changing world, we make intelligent decisions about our ocean's future.

Moving ahead with a plan for open ocean aquaculture in the Gulf of Mexico is no plan at all.

Source: http://www.al.com/opinion/press-register/insight.ssf?/base/opinion/1232878580174400.xml&coll=3

Tags: