The partners -- a government, non-profit, corporate consortium -- are currently seeking permits from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (COE) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and plan to begin operations this October. They may also be able to avoid the state permitting process entirely, since Grace is located outside state waters in the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), but it will be necessary to seek a federal consistency determination, pursuant to the federal Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA), from the California Coastal Commission.

For many years the oil industry has been looking for ways to get out from under the costs of removing obsolete oil rigs whose wells have run dry and cleaning-up the surrounding seabed as required by their original leases. Aquaculture is one of many proposals for the old rigs, in addition to LNG [liquefied natural gas] terminals, prisons, power stations, research facilities, marine resorts and most recently talk of converting them to "homeland security stations."

The idea of using oil and gas platforms for aquaculture operations has been explored before in places like the Gulf of Mexico. A bill -- H.R. 2654 or "the Rigs to Reefs Act of 2003" -- was introduced on 26 June 2003 in the U.S. Congress in order to allow decommissioned oil rigs to be used for other commercial operations. Among other provisions, the bill would exempt companies from having to remove rigs within a year of lease termination and award them tax credits for allowing their rigs to be used for mariculture, artificial reefs or scientific study.

H.R. 2654 is now in the House Ways & Means, and Resources Committees. Additional aquaculture conversion legislation is in preparation with the Bush Administration, and oil industry lobbyists are pushing hard for action in Congress to bless similar rigs-to-aquaculture schemes. Meanwhile, the Grace venture, if approved, will be joining several other open ocean farms that have sprung up in the United States. There are several ventures, for instance, in the Caribbean that are growing cobia as well as a commercial farm in Hawaii that is raising moi in underwater cages. In addition, an experimental coldwater fish farm in the Gulf of Maine is growing halibut, haddock and cod. For the 13 February Los Angeles Times article search the Times archive under "aquaculture" at: http://www.latimes.com.

9:07/02. OPEN OCEAN FISH FARMING REPORT RELEASED: A landmark white paper was released 8 February by the Institute for Agriculture & Trade Policy titled "Open Ocean Aquaculture: The Future of U.S. Fish Farming?" This report is the first to chronicle the state of open ocean aquaculture in the U.S. today and to comprehensively assess its potential social, environmental and economic repercussions in a balanced manner. The report ends with a set of recommendations that should be met before open ocean aquaculture can be considered legitimately sustainable. The Congressional push to legitimize conversion of abandoned oil rigs to open ocean aquaculture (see Sublegals 9:07/01 above) without any of these controls makes the topic of great current interest. The report, press release and executive summary can be downloaded from the following web address: http://www.iatp.org/fish.

9:07/03. BC FISH FARM FINE REMANDS, RENT REBATES RESULT IN INVESTIGATION: The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) carried a news story 5 February on the call for a formal investigation by the Canadian Auditor General, now underway, of the British Columbia government's recent under the table refunding of more than $800,000 (Can) in environmental violation fines and retroactive reduction of rents for government lands of another $1.5 million, for a total of $2.3 million (Can), in recent rebates to the British Columbia farmed salmon industry. Environmental groups have questioned the legality of such rebates, and accused the British Columbia government of being far too cozy with the controversial farm fish industry. B.C.'s Financial Administration Act says debts to the government "may not be forgiven without the approval of (the cabinet), if the amount is $100,000 or more."

Canada's National Democratic Party leader Carole James, in criticizing the current B.C. Liberal government, said: "This shows a government that's out of control, that has no ability to be able to keep track of their ministry or keep track of our public dollars." The current Liberal government recently lifted a long-standing moratorium on B.C. fish farm permits and is encouraging growth in the salmon aquaculture industry, in spite of many serious concerns about the impact of these operations on wild salmon migrating nearby (see Sublegals, 6:25/12; 6:16/05; 6:11/11; 5:06/05). For the full CBC story see: http://vancouver.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/View?r=1602452010& filename=bc_fishfarms20040205.

9:07/04. NEW "SEAFOOD WATCH" SUSTAINABILITY LIST ISSUED: The Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch program has recently developed a new pocket guide to sustainably harvested seafood geared toward a national audience. The new species in the national pocket guide include stone crab, blue crab, Atlantic halibut, Atlantic sole, grouper, red snapper and squid. To order a free supply of the National Seafood Watch pocket guides, email seafoodwatch@mbayaq.org or call (831) 647-6873. To learn more about the basis for each recommendation you can visit their web site at: http://www.montereybayaquarium.org.

9:07/05. NOAA, FISHING INDUSTRY DEVELOP TURTLE-FRIENDLY GEAR TO REDUCE TURTLE BYCATCH UP TO 90 PERCENT: With mounting evidence that sea turtle interactions from mid-ocean longline gear are a serious bycatch problem, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has developed new gear technologies to help fishermen reduce accidental capture and harm to endangered sea turtles by as much as 90 percent, and to make more profit as well. NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service (aka NOAA Fisheries), in cooperation with commercial fishermen and private industry, has completed three years of fishing-equipment research in the high seas of the Atlantic Ocean to develop new turtle-friendly gear and fishing methods for commercial longline vessels.

"The results of this study have global implications for all nations with longline fishing fleets," said Dr. William Hogarth, NMFS Director. Gear studies show that encounters with leatherback and loggerhead turtles can be reduced by 65 to 90 percent by switching the type of hook and bait from the traditional J - style hook with squid as bait to a large circle style hook with mackerel. "These new approaches are the answer we've all been waiting for," said Nelson Beideman, Executive Director of Bluewater Fisherman's Association, a commercial longline group with 13 vessels in the study project. "We are pleased to announce that we have successfully documented practical ways for pelagic longline fishermen to overwhelmingly reduce sea turtle interactions and also to substantially reduce harm from any remaining sea turtle interactions."

There are also good economic reasons to convert to the new gear. Using the new gear, fishermen are now able to retrieve their hooks and other gear, avoid the extra time spent on entangled turtles, and with the significant bycatch reduction achieved the pelagic longline industry may have fewer bycatch-related restrictions. Further, tests showed that the use of these techniques can increase directed catch by as much as 30 percent. For turtles that might still incidentally captured, participating fishermen have also developed new de-hooking and release techniques to increase survival rates. Results of the study have received the endorsement of both fishermen and environmental groups such as the World Wildlife Fund.

Commercial longliners catch some of America's most popular seafood: tuna, swordfish and mahi mahi. The fishing technique has been controversial because of the level of incidental bycatch. However, U.S. longline fleets account for only a small fraction of total world turtle bycatch, so the new techniques will still need to be applied in other countries to make a substantial difference in sea turtle bycatch rates. For more information about this project see: http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/mediacenter/turtles.

9:07/06. GLOBAL GMO TRADE ON AGENDA AT CARTAGENA MEETING: A longstanding dispute between the U.S. and the European Union over genetically modified organism (GMO) crops escalated recently with the U.S. suing the E.U. before the World Trade Organization (WTO) court, claiming the E.U.'s consumer driven moratorium over "Frankenfoods" was an artificial trade barrier. In response, the E.U. may lift its five year ban on new GMO crops, but an upcoming meeting called the Cartagena Protocol may become the next battleground over the global proliferation of GMO crops. The protocol, which aims for transparency in global GMO trade, obliges exporters to provide more information about GM products before shipment to other countries. This transparency is designed to help these counties decide whether to accept the shipment or not. Under the current protocol rules a nation may reject GMO imports or donations if it fears they pose a danger to traditional crops, undermine local cultures or cut the value of biodiversity to indigenous communities. Signatory countries now number more than 80 and will meet late February in Malaysia to discuss how to implement the protocol. The protocol went into effect as international law in September 2003. For more, read the 20 February Reuters story on line at:
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/23897/story.htm.

9:07/07. UN DRAWS BATTLE LINES AGAINST MARINE INVADERS: A 11 February Reuters story highlights recent meetings of the U.N.'s International Maritime Organization (IMO) dealing with the alarming spread of invasive alien aquatic organisms, a problem causing tens of billions of dollars in damages each year to fisheries and marine ecosystems. "The introduction of harmful aquatic organisms and pathogens to new environments has been identified as one of the four greatest threats to the world's oceans," IMO Secretary-General Efthimios Mitropoulos said at the opening of the London meeting. "Proper control and management of ships' ballast water is therefore a major environmental challenge for IMO and the global shipping industry."

Highly adaptive blooms of toxic red-brown algae have killed large quantities of marine life and contaminated shellfish. Zebra mussels from eastern Europe have caused close to a billion dollars worth of damage to water pipes and underwater structures in North America. The IMO also says there is evidence linking ballast water to the introduction of specific strains of cholera (Vibrio Cholerae) to the Gulf of Mexico and parts of South America. Current guidelines for sucking up ballast water from ports and dumping it thousands of miles away are insufficient. Survivors of voyages, flushed out with a ship's ballast in port, thrive in new habitats because they are freed from predators and parasites. The IMO is thrashing out proposals, ten years in the making, about when, where and at what depths transnational ships should be allowed to flush and replenish their ballast tanks. See: http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/23777/story.htm.

9:07/08. FISH FARMING A NET-LOSS PROPOSITION, SAYS PROMINENT FISHERIES SCIENTIST: In a commentary article from the 25 January Seattle Times, Canadian fisheries scientist John Volpe notes that British Columbia and Washington State salmon fish farms are still experiencing major problems with pollution, disease and parasites, and producing only a small fraction of the economic benefits of the wild salmon fisheries they are threatening and quickly supplanting. Additionally, three to five kilos of edible fish are still required to grow one kilo of edible farm salmon, "a net loss of protein badly needed by humanity." In the end, he says, "In light of the remarkable shortcomings of this industry, it is time consumers and bureaucrats recognize that industrial salmon farming is a solution in search of a problem. Aquaculture in general has a bright future to be sure, but farm-rearing salmon is no one's idea of sustainability." For the full commentary article online go to: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/157539_focus25.html.

9:07/09. NOXIOUS UNDERSEA ERUPTIONS KILLING BILLIONS OF FISH OFFSHORE AFRICA: The New Scientist reported 7 February that massive undersea eruptions of poisonous hydrogen sulfide are having major impacts the world's richest fisheries offshore Namibia in Southern Africa. The Benguela upwelling in the area, the world's largest, supports a fishery worth around $400 million per year and supplies Namibia its second largest source of income after mining. Microscopic diatoms apparently grow in abundance in the upwelling, but those which do not become food sources soon form thick beds of sediment on the ocean floor which then decompose, releasing hydrogen sulfide which poisons marine life and strips oxygen from the waters over large volumes. For more information on the problem see: http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994639.

9:07/10. FOURTH ANNUAL FISHERIES OBSERVER CONFERENCE SLATED FOR SYDNEY 8-11 NOVEMBER 2004: The Fourth Annual Fisheries Observer Conference will be held in Sydney, Australia during the week of 8-11 November this year, the first time the conference has been held in the Southern Hemisphere. The stated purposes of the conference are: (1) to bring together the international fisheries and observer communities to discuss common fisheries observer issues; (2) to facilitate discussions of the role of observer programs as management, compliance and scientific programs, within the broader context of fisheries monitoring systems; (3) to address some of the key issues, related to the delivery of observer programs, from the perspective of governments, service providers, the fishing industry, and observers, and; (4) to explore the current applications, limitations and future uses of scientific data collection from observer programs. The deadline for submitting presentation abstracts is 2 April. For more information see: http://www.fisheriesobserverconference.com.

9:07/11. OFFSHORE B.C. OIL DRILLING BAN COULD BE LIFTED SOON; EXPERT PANEL REPORT RELEASED: A decades-old moratorium on offshore oil development in British Columbia could soon be lifted by Canada's federal government, according to an article in the 17 February issue of Canada's Toronto Globe and Mail. An "expert panel" study commissioned by the Liberal federal government, which is avidly pro-development, from the Royal Society of Canada was also recently released that the government says indicates that development could proceed safely under current technology. Bans on offshore drilling, implemented in 1972 by the federal government and in 1989 by the B.C. government, "were put in place because of concerns that oil and gas activities" would endanger the pristine setting and fisheries of the Queen Charlotte Islands, according to the 170-page report. However, "provided an adequate regulatory regime is put in place, there are no science gaps that need to be filled before lifting the moratoria on oil and gas development," the report continued. The report brings the lifting of the offshore oil development moratorium in British Columbia one step closer, against considerable opposition from local fishing industry interests, environmentalists and First Nations (see Sublegals, 5:18/11; 5:07/02; 4:04/05).

The report's authors did stress, however, that it's too early to ease restrictions on oil tankers along the Canadian West Coast. Certain steps need to be taken to guard the environment, the report likewise notes, such as designating sponge reefs as "marine-protected areas" and having a 20-kilometre buffer zone to outlaw drilling too close to land. The report is available at: http://www.rsc.ca/BC_offshore/indexEN.html. Environmentalists and fishermen had also complained that the expert advisory panel was weighted heavily with proponents of oil development (see http://www.davidsuzuki.org/Campaigns_and_Programs/Salmon_Aquaculture/ News_Releases/newsaquaculture02240401.asp).

9:07/12. CAP AND TRADE CUT AND PASTE: EPA MERCURY POLLUTION TRADING PROPOSALS DRAWN STRAIGHT FROM POWER INDUSTRY LOBBYISTS: If new rules proposed by the Bush Administration to cut power-plant mercury emissions sound like they were written by power industry lobbyists, it's because many of them were. The proposal, released by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on 30 January (at 69 Federal Register 4651-4700) for a 60-day public comment period, contains at least 12 paragraphs lifted almost verbatim from confidential memoranda sent to the EPA by Latham & Watkins, a top Washington corporate environmental law firm representing many power companies with mercury emission problems.

Environmentalists and public health advocates strongly criticized the EPA proposal, which would put a new "cap-and-trade" pollution credit marketing system in place that would let power plants buy and sell mercury pollution credits among themselves, but would not require most plants to use the best available technology to clean up their own mercury emissions, as required by current more stringent pollution control regulations. Owners of coal and oil fired power plants have been pushing for these exemptions to escape the costs of retrofitting old power plants with more expensive modern "scrubbers" to reduce mercury levels in plant emissions.

The EPA claims the new program would use market forces to gradually reduce overall airborne mercury emissions by nearly 70 percent by 2018, but critics contend that without actual reductions plant-by-plant, through the installation of more effective new technology, total toxic mercury emissions in most plants would not actually decrease. Mercury is a powerful neurotoxin that makes its way from smokestack emissions into rivers and streams, and sometimes into seafood harvested for human consumption. The 31 January Washington Post carried an article by Eric Pianin on the proposed regulations, and the influence that the power plant industry had on developing those proposals, available on the web at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64630-2004Jan30.html.

9:07/13. PACIFIC COAST GROUNDFISH DPEIS DOCUMENTS NOW AVAILABLE: The Pacific Coast Groundfish Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (DPEIS) is now available for public review. The Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) propose to evaluate, at a broad scale, how to minimize bycatch in the West Coast groundfish fisheries to the extent practicable, minimize the mortality of unavoidable bycatch and ensure that bycatch is reported and monitored as required by law. The proposed action would establish the policies and program direction to achieve this purpose. When this Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) is finalized, the Council is expected to immediately undertake preparation of a new groundfish fishery management plan amendment that will include conservation and management measures necessary to minimize bycatch and to minimize the mortality of bycatch that cannot be avoided, to the extent practicable. This DPEIS is intended to provide the analytical underpinnings for that conservation effort.

You may download an electronic copy of the DPEIS from the Pacific Council's website at http://www.pcouncil.org/groundfish/gfbdpeis.html or from the NMFS Northwest Region website (see http://www.nwr.noaa.gov/1sustfsh/groundfish/fmp_eis.htm)
or request it on CD-ROM by contacting the Council office (503-820-2280
or toll-free 1-866-806-7204, email to kit.dahl@noaa.gov). The Pacific Council will identify its recommended alternative for this action at its 4-9 April 2004 meeting in Sacramento, California. Public comments on the DPEIS must be received by 27 April 2004.

NMFS is now accepting comments by email. For this DPEIS document, submit them to: bycatchDPEIS.nwr@noaa.gov. Include in the comment subject line: "Comments on the Pacific Coast Groundfish Bycatch Draft Programmatic EIS." Written comments should be submitted by mail to D. Robert Lohn, Regional Administrator, Northwest Region, NMFS NOAA, 7600 Sand Point Way N.E., Bldg. 1, Seattle, WA 98115-0070. Comments may be submitted by fax to: 206-526-6736. A copy of your comments should be submitted to Susan A. Kennedy, Acting NEPA Coordinator, Strategic Planning Office (PPI/SP), SSMC3, Room 15603, 1315 East-West Highway, Silver Spring, MD 20910; or by fax to 301-713-0585; or by email to: nepa.comments@noaa.gov.

9:07/14. OCEAN ZONING WORKSHOP -- HALIFAX, CANADA 10-11 MAY: A workshop entitled, "Ocean Zoning: Can it Work in the Northwest Atlantic?," will be held at Saint Mary's University, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada from May 10-11, 2004. The workshop is designed to explore the concept and effectiveness of ocean zoning as a tool for integrated management of marine resources and activities. It will provide an important opportunity for marine resource managers, policy makers, ocean users and stakeholders with an interest in integrated ocean management to learn from ocean zoning experiences internationally and to consider its application to the Northwest Atlantic region, including waters off Atlantic Canada and New England. For further information, visit http://www.oceanzoning.ca or contact the Workshop Secretariat at 902-429-1335 or at oceanzon@dal.ca.

NEWS, COMMENTS, CORRECTIONS: Submit your news items, comments or any corrections to Editor at: sublegals@ifrfish.org, or call the IFR/PCFFA office with the news and a source at either: (415) 561-FISH (Southwest Office) or (541) 689-2000 (Northwest Office).

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