So this Federal bill may contain language that allows the repeal of the permits, but I’m sure the state bill gave them the right to repeal or revoke permits, too.

Apart from the “language” in the bill, is there any indication that they are planning to revoke the live rock aquaculture permits?

If there is, just remember how long it took them to issue the permit in the first place. It’ll probably take them twice as long to revoke it if they decide to do that. It’ll probably take over a year before the Feds even have a list of permits with locations of the underwater farms and another year or two for them to enact any changes to the current laws.

I’m curious how this will affect MUCH bigger players than TBS reef boulders, and that’s things like fish farms.

Pickle read it here….”(b) Permits Invalid- Any permit issued for the conduct of offshore aquaculture, including the siting or operation of offshore aquaculture facilities, under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (16 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.) shall be invalid upon enactment of this Act.”
It Say’s as soon as it is passed all permits are invalid and revoked…….Sounds like the language says exactly what there going to do……It doesn’t say allow repeal or anything read it again……

This government is getting way to power hungry and controlling…..Soon they we will have to have a permit to take a dump.

Sounds counter productive, whoever sponsors the bill must have a good reason. Is it good for the environment ? I wonder what is the argument for the bill.

Another potential blow to US Aquaculture. We might as well just keep shipping technology and efforts over seas and let them produce our food.

This has to be a power play between agencies or a back door attempt to eliminate offshore fish production.

Sad – I got most of my live rock from TBS and loved both the quality and the service

@Azurel, thanks for pointing that out. Didn’t get a chance to read the whole thing. I’m simply trying to get a grasp of the actual extent the changes in this law will enact.

So I guess the legal question is whether or not the permits issued by Florida fall under the federal Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act or are a separate state issue. (?)

Here is the message I sent to my senators, Franken and Klobuchar. I welcome anyone to use it as a base and alter it appropriately. This just goes to show how quickly something truly “good” like the sustainable practice of farming live rock can be wiped off the map by legislation whose authors possibly never even saw these particular ramifications….

—-

I am writing to bring your attention to H.R. 3534, section 704, which is currently headed to the Senate. The gist of section 704 is to instantly repeal all permits for aquaculture in federal waters. This will obviously have an immediate negative impact on a myriad of businesses that require currently held permits to conduct aquaculture projects in federal waters.

As a marine aquarist and author in my spare time, this issue came to my attention due to its potential impact on a well established sustainable aquaculture practice of farming “live rock” in the waters around Florida. This “live rock” is used in marine aquariums as the foundation for creating biologically diverse “reef aquariums” where even corals themselves are grown and propagated in captivity. In the past, “live rock” simply meant literally hacking apart coral reefs and collecting the rubble. In the case of the Florida based live rock farming projects, dry rock from land is dumped in “desert” areas, and allowed to be colonized before being later harvested for the aquarium trade. These project are a shining example of a sustainable business that means jobs for Americans and competes with less sustainably harvested “live rock” from foreign sources.

In a time of economic crisis, the last thing we need to do is put more hard working Americans out of work, let alone targeting those investing millions in forward thinking sustainable projects such as live rock farming off the coast of Florida. I am asking that you and your colleagues work to alter or remove section 704 in HR 3534 in a manner that permits this businesses a fair hearing and the opportunity for their permits to be reviewed, rather than being chopped off at the knees as the legislation would currently do.

Best Regards,

Matt Pedersen
MACNA & IMAC West 2009 Aquarist of the Year
847-732-7333 – cell

For additional information on the impact of this bill on live rock farming in Florida, please see the article that brought this matter to my attention – http://reefbuilders.com/2010/08/03/live-rock-hr-3534-law-aquaculture-federal-waters-offshore/

Definitely upset with hearing this, all the live rock in my tanks are Florida rock.

Aquaculture was stripped out of the CLEAR Act – according the the very anti-aquaculture site http://www.sosfla.org

The U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to vote this week on the Consolidated Land, Energy, and Aquatic Resources (CLEAR) Act. The CLEAR Act was meant to promote clean energy while increasing safety regulations for offshore drilling in federal waters. At the same time, it would have created new provisions to stop other environmentally harmful practices, such as aquaculture, from taking place in the Gulf. Unfortunately, these provisions have been stripped out of the House bill as a result of powerful lobbying from the aquaculture industry and their allies.

Don’t kill the messenger – I am against this as up in our neck of the ocean, we are working on marine spatial planning to help determine best areas to site aquaculture. People want to eat fish, don’t want imports, but don’t want it farmed, but don’t want to protect fisheries. Unfortunately, a majority of the public is too ignorant to look up facts for themselves, and don’t realize the corner they are being painted into.

If this legislation has surprised you, then you also need to be aware of the Capps (D-CA) bill national sustainabile offshore aquaculture act of 2009 (H.R. 4363). Sen Vitter (R-LA) also introduced (s.3417) the Research in Aquaculture Opportunity and Responsibility Act of 2010. This bill prohibits any regional fishery mangament council from developing or approving permission for offshore aquaculture, and tries to push everything on shore.

Unfortunately, offshore aquaculture has been labelled “industrial” farming. Even coral farming is getting bunched in with that label. ALL aquaculturists (food and ornamental) need to band together, much the same way all ornamental producers (wild and farmed) need to band together.

Michael

@ Pickel

It sounds to me like the Feds are taking away State authority to be able to authorize permits…..Now it don’t say that at some point the Feds and the Secretary of Interior will/won’t reissue permits…..

That in some ways is the question….
I mean is it the feds are gonna come in and destroy these peoples business like it sounds…..Power grabs, they are talking about doing the same type of thing here in Michigan and remover Michigan’s State authority over the surrounding great lakes……

I just read the whole story about the permits. Thats a great story and good for them.

@Michael, I was looking for that when writing the post and according to the Gov’t site, no amendment to the bill that included striking Sec 704 was in there.

Unfortunately for live rock farmers, they fell into a larger group and obviously some other form of aquaculture was doing something others deemed harmful and is just a by-product of the legislation.

Am hoping there is some sort of amendment or grandfather clause to clean up the bad apples but allow productive industries like this to thrive.

I suppose now would be a really good time to buy up live rock from Florida if you were thinking of getting any. Help our live rock farmers build up a bit of “reserves” if they have to weather a legislative storm….

@Brian

The anti-aquaculture provisions of Section 704 were dropped from the bill that the House considered as part of a decision by the House Democratic leadership to drop all non-spill related provisions from the bill that the Natural Resources Committee passed. I hate to say it, but for once, SOS actually had some of their facts right.

It often takes several days for Thomas, the Congress’s legislative information database to list the most up to date version of legislation, especially after a complex bill with numerous amendments has been passed, as is the case with the CLEAR Act.

When you posted this yesterday, Thomas did not have the version of the bill that passed the House. That version has now been posted and is the version that is listed as Engrossed in the House.

While this provision has fortunately been knocked out of the oil spill response legislation, Michael correctly notes that two other bills have been introduced that would impact offshore aquaculture. While it is unlikely that the Capps legislation would be considered this year, supporters of aquaculture, particularly offshore aquaculture, need to remain vigilant to efforts by opponents of aquaculture to include similar provisions in other “must pass” bills later this year. It is conceivable that Sen. Vitter or Rep. Capps could seek to have something added to an appropriations or other bill that is considered “must pass.”

An informal coalition of aquaculture supporters and interests came together to oppose Section 704 and this group has recognized that there is a distinct lack of awareness of and understanding of the many facets of aquaculture – from onshore to offshore, from finfish to shellfish to live rock – and of the important role aquaculture can and should play in sustainable fisheries and oceans policies in the United States.

Feel free to contact me should anyone have additional questions about Section 704 or other legislative and regulatory efforts in relation to aquaculture, fisheries, and oceans related policies

Absolutely ridiculous,
We started doing this to protect the Reefs and lower costs.
Leave it to the fed to do the exact opposite of what is best for everyone

To give credit where it is due, I first heard that section 704 was being stripped on July 30 at John Sackton’s http://www.seafoodnews.com . This is a fee-based site, hence I felt it was better to go with a publicly accessible albeit inflammatory web site.

@ Michael -

Oh I never consider it a problem to link to the SOS and FWW folks – generally good to know what they are saying and their “alert” brought chuckles from many of us involved in the policy side because of their characterization of “powerful lobbying” from the aquaculture industry.

The house passed the CLEAR bill and the moratorium on offshore aquaculture has was officially removed. It is on the Senate claendar. http://www.thomas.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.3534:

in other offshore news:
“A lawsuit intended to halt the development of offshore fish farming in the Gulf of Mexico has been put on hold by Judge Gladys Kessler of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. ”

http://www.seafoodsource.com/newsarticledetail.aspx?id=4294998294

Owner of Federal aquaculture lease in the Florida Keys. Site is active and we are harvesting on a regular basis. Has this bill already passed? How can we help other than by contacting our senators? Rich