Senator Sullivan. Image-Sullivan/Youtube screengrab
WASHINGTON—Thursday, U.S. Senators Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) introduced the Keep Finfish Free Act, bipartisan legislation to prohibit federal agencies from issuing any permit or taking any other action to authorize or facilitate commercial finfish aquaculture operations in federal waters, known as the exclusive economic zone, from 3 to 200 nautical miles off U.S. shores, unless Congress passes future legislation explicitly authorizing such permits. The legislation is consistent with current Alaska state law, which bans offshore finfish farming in state waters.
“Alaskans are deeply invested in protecting the health of our marine ecosystem and maintaining the sustainability of our world-class fisheries,” said Senator Sullivan. “That is why I’m introducing legislation with Senator Booker to ban risky fish farming operations in federal waters that could jeopardize the health of our fish species and undermine Alaska’s coastal fishing communities. I hope my colleagues will join us in passing this important legislation to keep American finfish healthy and free!”
“Industrial finfish aquaculture operations are like underwater factory farms, polluting our oceans and spreading potentially deadly diseases and parasites to wild fish,” said Senator Booker. “These operations use millions of pounds of wild fish to feed the caged fish at an unsustainable rate of consumption that depletes marine resources in traditional fishing areas. As we make decisions that will impact the future of our oceans, we should not go down the unsustainable road of allowing commercial finfish aquaculture in our federal waters. Instead we should chart a different path built around the health of wild fish stocks and ocean ecosystems.”
“Reintroduction of the Keep Finfish Free Act is a welcome display of support that Senator Sullivan and Senator Booker have for the fisher people who provide natural and healthy food to the world,” said Melanie Brown, Native Alaskan fisherwoman and outreach director at SalmonState. “Thank you, Senators, for leading the charge on keeping net pens out of the waters of our wild-caught fisheries.”
“Thank you, Senator Booker, for introducing the Keep Finfish Free Act. The last thing our ocean needs is industrialization, especially off New Jersey and New York coasts,” said Cindy Zipf, executive director of Clean Ocean Action, based in Long Branch, NJ. “Offshore finfish farms would harm and contaminate our wild and free ocean with pollution including from pharmaceuticals, chemical feed, and concentrated fecal matter. It will also promote diseases and genetic mutations which will threaten native species. In short, nothing but yuck. We need strong laws to ensure our ocean is clean and healthy for all to enjoy today and for future generations.”
“What affects fishers affects farmers, too; we co-exist within the same food systems. Factory farming on land has displaced small producers, harmed rural communities, and depleted natural resources,” said Cali Alexander, board member and policy chair with the Northeast Organic Farming Association of NJ (NOFA-NJ), and former state seafood administrator with the NJ Department of Health. “Now, industrial-scale fish farming threatens to do the same. So we at NOFA-NJ are grateful to Senator Booker for co-sponsoring the Keep Finfish Free Act, a vital push toward keeping food production truly sustainable and in the hands of those who put food on our plates.”
