Food Law Prof Blog

GAO Report on Offshore Marine Aquaculture

The Government Accountability Office has recently released a report considering the administrative and environmental issues inherent in developing a regulatory system for offshore marine aquaculture.  From the introduction:

Globally, aquaculture production has grown significantly over the past 50 years, from less than 1.1 million tons around 1950 to about 65.5 million tons in 2004. A majority of global aquaculture fish and shellfish are raised in a freshwater environment and species raised in a marine environment make up about 36 percent of aquaculture production. Marine aquaculture is dominated by high-value fish, such as salmon. Many countries are producing marine fish, though a NOAA official indicated that most production is occurring in shallow, sheltered areas relatively close to shore. A few countries, such as Ireland, have expressed interest in or are developing policy frameworks to regulate offshore aquaculture in the open ocean. To date, however, a NOAA official said that no countries have substantial offshore aquaculture industries with facilities sited in open-ocean environments.

The United States’ aquaculture industry includes both onshore and nearshore operations and produces both fish, such as salmon and catfish, and shellfish, such as oysters. Onshore aquaculture facilities are primarily involved in raising freshwater species, such as catfish. Marine aquaculture facilities in the United States are generally located in waters close to shore and in sheltered conditions, and they most frequently raise oysters, mussels, clams, and salmon. The salmon aquaculture industry in the United States is concentrated in Maine and Washington, although the industry is relatively small compared with the global salmon aquaculture industry, accounting for less than 1 percent of the world’s production.

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YouTube video about sea lice and salmon

The Farmed Salmon Cases decision a couple weeks ago (blogged here), which I was asked to write about for FindLaw (here) has me thinking more about salmon. I wrote briefly about the sea lice problem in my guest commentary for FindLaw:

Another reason consumers might be interested in making an informed choice between farmed and wild salmon is that salmon farming can endanger native salmon species. Salmon is an anadramous fish, which means that it lives its adult life in salt water, then returns to freshwater streams to spawn and die. In the spring, the eggs hatch, and the little fish (called "fry," but not worth frying) start to grow and make their way out to the ocean. The adults never see their offspring.

This is a fine system for salmon. Blood-sucking sea lice often attach themselves to adult salmon, but the tiny parasites are not a big deal on a big fish. Moreover, sea lice can't live in fresh water, so they die off when the salmon go upstream to spawn. By the time the fry make it out to the ocean, they are big enough to withstand occasional sea lice, and the really small fish never encounter large numbers of sea lice.

However, when salmon farms are located near salmon migration routes, the large numbers of adult fish swimming close together mean that sea lice infestations are inevitable. The problem that has made headlines recently is that small fish swimming out to sea encounter large numbers of sea lice on the way out. The fry, which can't withstand large numbers of lice, never make it to adulthood. In some areas, this means that natural populations are declining in the face of salmon farming. Interestingly, the California Supreme Court's decision may indirectly help rectify this situation somewhat if labeling causes more consumers to choose wild salmon over farmed salmon, thus decreasing the viability of salmon farming and the negative effect on migration.

The video below shows sea lice up close.  Towards the very end, the researchers sing a rousing rendition of "Salmon Swims Tonight" (based loosely on In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight).

OpEd: [Organic] "Cod is Dead"

OpEd article in the Sunday Herald in Scotland March 9, 2008:

Cod is dead...now let's get rid of fish-farm blight

by award-winning food writer Joanna Blythman

"I'D BE lying if I said that I was sorry to see Johnson Seafarms in Shetland going down the tube. More like "I told you so". My first reaction, when I heard of the launch of its "No Catch" farmed cod three years ago, was sadness. Here we go again, another fine wild fish was to be debased, just like that sad travesty, the farmed salmon. This was followed by astonishment that any organic certifying body - in this case, the Organic Food Federation - was daft or greedy enough to lend its credentials to an operation which had all the hallmarks of being another flash-in-the-pan goldrush, like ostrich farming and biofuels, brought to you by speculators and venture capitalists who promise everything then don't deliver, not unlike Daniel Day-Lewis's scary oil man in There Will Be Blood".

. . .

"The fact that No Catch cod has gone belly up should crystallise the debate about farmed versus wild fish. It should have established the principle that farmed fish at £20 a kilo is not the white night riding in on a charger to save depleted fish stocks. Fish farming is riven with structural problems. Fish like salmon and cod are notoriously poor converters of food, and almost wholly dependent on wild fish stocks. Their wastes, which are concentrated under packed cages thick with sluggish, bored specimens, debase water quality and spread disease throughout an alarmingly wide marine ecosystem".

The article ends with:

"AND yet the dominant thinking within the old Scotland Office, and now I fear, in the Scottish government, is that fish farming is an industry that deserves knee-jerk support. What a tragedy for Scotland that we should have been hoodwinked by such a bankrupt proposition and allowed ourselves to sell down the river the heritage we should have protected: inspirational wild fish and a clean marine environment. Our 30-year love affair with fish farming has proven to be the biggest ecological disaster to hit the west coast of Scotland in living memory.

Perhaps the worst thing about all the over-hyped claims made for fish farming is that it allows us to take our eye off the ball of wild fish stocks. It gives us an excuse to write off the seas and oceans as a source of future sustenance for the world's rising population. But if we can't manage our wild stocks for the common good then we might as well give up now and start looking for another planet to colonise. The penny must drop that, far from taking the pressure off wild stocks, aquaculture depletes them.

Greenpeace, which wisely has always seen fish farming as an environmental threat, not an opportunity, argues that depletion of wild fish stocks can be halted, even reversed, by creating marine reserves, a bit like wildlife parks, where no fishing is allowed and stocks can recover. There is persuasive evidence from New Zealand that stocks can bounce back in just a few years.

But marine reserves are a grown-up, low-tech solution that necessarily entails some short-term pain for fishermen and consumers, and offers nobody any immediate prospect of making money. In discussions of what to do about the looming crash in key fish stocks, we have always been in thrall to the guy with the quick fix, high-tech panacea, which just happens, incidentally, to guarantee a windfall for investors and miscellaneous stakeholders. More fool us."

Full article and online discussion via: http://www.sundayherald.com/oped/opinion/display.var.2104813.0.0.php

You can also read an article - "Why organic salmon is causing a nasty smell" - by Joanna Blythman in the October 2006 issue of The Observer Food Monthly: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2006/oct/22/food.foodanddrink

Thank you to Don Staniford for providing this information.  The cod and salmon pictures are from the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)website: http://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/lineart/

California farmed salmon cases: state food labeling law not preempted

The California Supreme Court has reversed a California Appellate Court decision holding that the state's food labeling law was preempted by the federal Food Drug and Cosmetic Act. 

In Farm Raised Salmon Cases, several individuals had commenced separate actions against owners and operators of grocery stores alleging that the defendants sold artificially colored farmed salmon without disclosing to consumers the artificial coloring. 

The California Supreme Court held that the state cause of action is NOT preempted when the state statute is identical to the federal.

Farm Raised Salmon Cases California Supreme Court Opinion

FDA Warns of Ciguatera Poisoning from Gulf of Mexico Fish

This week the FDA is warning consumers of the risk of ciguatera poisoning linked to fish harvested in the northern Gulf of Mexico.  The risky fish were traced to an area in federal waters south of the Texas-Louisiana coastline. The Associated Press reports at least 28 cases in people around the country since November.  The riskiest fish are grouper, snapper, amberjack, and barracuda.

According to the CDC, ciguatera poisoning is caused by eating fish that have eaten toxic marine algae.  Symptoms include nausea, vomiting, and neurological dysfunction such as sensing cold things as hot and hot things as cold. The FDA’s Bad Bug Book says that ciguatera poisoning usually sets in hours after eating the fish and, while generally short-lived, can last for years in some cases.

The FDA is stressing that seafood processors should review their HAACP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point) plans concerning fish that can harbor the toxin.  Failure to do so may result in fish products being classified as adulterated under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 342(a)(4)). 

Link to FDA’s warning letter to the fisheries industry. 

Thank you to William Mitchell College of Law student Ellen Laine for preparing this post. 

Killer jellyfish wipe out Northern Island salmon farm

(Link to Mauve stinger jellyfish photo)

AP: Jellyfish Kill 100K Salmon in N.Ireland

By SHAWN POGATCHNIK –

DUBLIN, Ireland (AP) — The only salmon farm in Northern Ireland has lost its entire population of more than 100,000 fish, worth some $2 million, to a spectacular jellyfish attack, its owners said Wednesday.

The Northern Salmon Co. Ltd. said billions of jellyfish — in a dense pack of about 10 square miles and 35 feet deep — overwhelmed the fish last week in two net pens about a mile off the coast of the Glens of Antrim, north of Belfast.

Managing director John Russell said the company's dozen workers tried to rescue the salmon, but their three boats struggled for hours to push their way through the mass of jellyfish. All the fish were dead or dying from stings and stress by the time the boats reached the pens, he said.

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Organic Aquaculture Symposium this week

The National Organic Standards Board Organic Aquaculture Symposium takes place tomorrow.  Papers are available on the Symposium website. (Hat tip to Don Staniford, Pure Salmon Campaign, for the reminder.)

Go to the Symposium website for a list of panelists and poster presentations.  Papers are also available on the website.

USDA buys Alaska pink salmon for food aid programs

I found this article from the Alaska Coastal Journal interesting.  When I tell people my interest in Food Law extends to nutrition policy, because nutritional guidelines play into the USDA's purchases for food aid programs, no one is ever quite sure what food programs those would be.  This article grabbed my attention for two reasons.  First, it addresses who the recipients of USDA food aid might be:

Among the hundreds of nonprofit groups and organizations that request food through the USDA program are the Salesian Mission and Food for the Poor. Both previously won approval for their proposals to include cans of wild Alaska pink salmon in their food requests.

Once the USDA approves such proposals, the federal agency accepts bids from producers of the products and makes purchases based on the bids. In the case of the pink canned salmon requested by the Salesian Mission and Food for the Poor, the USDA decided on the basis of their bids to purchase the canned pinks from Ocean Beauty Seafoods and Peter Pan Seafoods.

Schactler said the USDA has not announced yet which proposals have been accepted for the coming year, but that pilot programs are already being planned for World Vision and Catholic Relief Services to highlight the affect of good nutrition for people suffering from AIDS.

Second, pink salmon have been adversely affected in some areas of British Columbia where fish farms have been established.  (See the fascinating book, A Stain Upon the Sea, blogged here).   Here is a video of biologist Alexandra Morton explaining how salmon farms interfere with wild pink salmon in the Broughton Archipelago.

Book: A Stain Upon the Sea -- West Coast Salmon Farming (2004)

I found this book fascinating.  It was my vacation reading this past long weekend.  (The annual Education Minnesota Professional Conference took place Thursday and Friday.  William Mitchell College of Law faculty and students enjoy a Fall Break as well.) I went to Flagstaff, Arizona, to visit family.

The book is a collection of free-standing chapters.  I especially enjoyed Silent Spring of the Sea by Don Staniford -- quite possibly the most clear, comprehensive, well-documented discussion of chemicals I've ever read, and also Dying of Salmon Farming, by Alexandra Morton, which moved me nearly to tears.  Here's the publisher's blurb:

A Stain Upon the Sea
West Coast Salmon Farming
by Stephen Hume & Alexandra Morton & Betty Keller & Rosella M. Leslie & Otto Langer & Don Staniford
introduction by Terry Glavin, preface by David Suzuki

Winner of the 2005 Roderick Haig-Brown BC Book Prize!
Shortlisted for the 2005 George Ryga Award for Social Awareness!

On the West Coast, few subjects are as controversial as salmon farming. Every week, new studies raise alarming questions about the safety of farmed fish and the risk farms pose to the environment. But federal, provincial and state governments continue to support expansion of fish farms all along the coast. People are justifiably confused. Just what is the case against this new ocean-based agri-biz, and how concerned should we be? A Stain Upon the Sea is an indispensable critique of fish farming practices used in British Columbia and abroad, featuring an all-star cast of contributors. Journalist Stephen Hume examines the industry through the eyes of the Nuxalk and Heiltsuk Nations and incorporates case studies from Ireland and Alaska. Historians Betty Keller and Rosella M. Leslie explain the development of the industry in BC, from small family operations to large chain farms owned by a handful of multinational conglomerates. Biologist Alexandra Morton analyzes the biology of sea lice in the pink salmon runs in the Broughton Archipelago. Former federal employee Otto Langer gives an in-depth account of the bureaucratic nightmare that exempted the industry from environmental review. And scientist Don Staniford analyzes the chemical stew that farmed fish are raised in and the health risk this poses to humans. A Stain Upon the Sea is a must-read for anyone concerned with the quality of the food they eat and the environmental health of the planet.

NOSB Organic Aquaculture Symposium papers online

Papers to be presented at the US National Organic Standards Board 'Organic Aquaculture Symposium' in Washington, DC, November 27 are now available on the Symposium website.

FISH FEED AND FISH MEAL PANELISTS

Md. Shah Alam, University of North Carolina, Center for Marine Research Replacement of Menhaden Fishmeal by Soybean Meal for the Diet of Juvenile Black Sea Bass (PDF)

Torbjorn Asgard, Akvaforsk, NorwayFlexibility in the Use of Feed Ingredients can turn the farmed salmon industry sustainable (PDF)

Craig Browdy, Marine Resources Institute, South Carolina Dept of Natural ResourcesAlternative Approaches for Removing Fish Meal and Oils from Farmed Shrimp using Plant and Poultry Meals and Marine Algal Products (PDF)

Steven Craig, VA/MD Regional College of Veterinary Medicine, VA Tech, Total Replacement of Fishmeal and Fish oil in Diets for Nile Tilapia and the Marine Obligate Carnivore, Cobia

Brad Hicks, Chair, Pacific Organic Seafood Association, BC, CanadaFeeding Fish, Fish Meal and Fish Oil Fulfill Organic Tenets (PDF)

Jonathan Shepherd, International Fishmeal and Fish Oil OrganizationSustainable Marine Resources for Organic Aquafeeds (PDF)

OPEN CAGE NET PENS PANELISTS

Sandra Bravo, Aquaculture Institute, Universidad Austral de ChileUse of Antifouling in the Chilean Salmon Industry (PDF)

Kenneth Brooks, Aquatic Environmental Sciences, WashingtonA Comparison of the Environmental Costs Associated with Open Net Pen Culture of Atlantic Salmon and Production of some other human foods (PDF)

Andrea Kavanagh, Director, Pure Salmon CampaignA review of research on the caused and quantities of farmed fish escapes from open net cage systems and a literature review of the impact of escapes on wild fish populations, using farmed salmon as a case study (PDF)

Martin Krkosek, Centre for Mathematical Biology, University of Alberta, CanadaDisease Threats of Salmon Aquaculture to Wild Fish (PDF)

George Leonard, Monterey Bay Aquarium, Center for the Future of OceansPerformance Goals for Net Pen Production of Organic Finfish (PDF)

Neil Sims, Kona BlueApplicability of Organic Principles to Marine Finfish Aquaculture: Comparing Open Ocean Net Pens to Closed-Containment Systems for Production of Kona Kampachi

POSTER SESSION PARTICIPANTS

All oral presentation panelists will be participating in the poster session.  Everyone who had submitted abstracts but who were not selected for oral presentation, were very much encouraged to submit full papers and participate in the poster session. In addition, some of the individuals who were selected for oral presentation had submitted additional abstracts and may also be presenting information on those other topics.

Linda J. O’Dierno, New Jersey Department of Agriculture The Value of USDA Organic Labeling to the United States Consumer (PDF)

Stan Proboszcz, Watershed Watch Salmon Society, Coquitlam, British Columbia, CanadaEstimated Sea Louse Egg Production from Marine Harvest Canada (Stolt) Farmed Salmon, Broughton Archipelago, British Columbia, Canada, 2003-2004: Implications for Proposed Organic Standards (PDF)

Urvashi Rangan, Consumers Union, non-profit publisher of Consumer Reports Consumer Expectations of Organic Fish (PDF)

National Marine Aquaculture Summit Held This Week

The NOAA-Sponsored National Marine Aquaculture Summit was held earlier this week.  According to the Summit website, the event featured "a broad agenda focused on the business opportunities and challenges for U.S. marine aquaculture."  The agenda included panels on development-oriented topics such as Why the United States Should Embrace Aquaculture; U.S. Aquaculture Investment Opportunities and Constraints; and Economic Incentives & Research & Development for Aquaculture.

Food and Water Watch has criticized the event as too development-focused.

EU Agrees on more restrictions on cod fishing

From TheAge.com.au

European Union ministers agreed more controls to reduce cod fishing in the Baltic Sea to preserve stocks that are at risk of collapse after years of chronic overfishing, officials said.

Restrictions will be placed on the number of days in a month at sea that vessels may catch cod in western and eastern Baltic waters, and summer fishing bans will also apply - two months in the eastern Baltic, and one month in the western.

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Food charity v. food security

From the Arizona Daily Star:

Faith leaders want to help make Tucson a "food secure" community — a place where no one has to worry about where their next meal is coming from.

That may sound idealistic, but food bank leaders are convinced that with some added awareness about the benefits of small gestures, such as buying local, anything is possible.

Projects such as community gardens and "gleaning" programs to share fruit from local trees are already happening in Pima County. But the challenge for faith groups is convincing parishioners to embrace the idea that emergency food handouts are not a long-term solution.

Article: Faith leaders fight hunger with "food secure" tactics

Proposed Fish Farming Legislation

This is from the Press Release on the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) website:

Earlier this week Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez unveiled proposed federal legislation to promote safe and sustainable aquaculture in order to meet the growing demand for seafood, help the U.S. industry better compete and reduce the need for U.S. imports. The bill will allow aquaculture in federal waters—seafood farming beyond three miles off the coast—with stringent environmental provisions and is designed to complement efforts already underway in the states. Aquaculture is currently a $1 billion U.S. industry and a key area for future sustainable economic growth in the fishing industry.

Great Lakes Fish Virus

A viral disease that affects wild fish is evidently working its way throught the Great Lakes.  A Minnesota Public Radio report notes that it has now been found in Lake Huron.  Minnesota is only one huge lake away at the far end of Lake Superior.

The virus isn't believed harmful to humans. Beyond the "ick" factor on the beach, the real trouble could be to businesses that deal with live fish.

"The big concern right now is that the virus will get into fish farms - the aquaculture facilities - and potentially wipe out a chunk of the nation's aquaculture capability," [says Fred Snyder, an extension specialist with Ohio Sea Grant].

The New York Times on Organic Fish

The New York Times ran an article about organic fish last Tuesday: Organic food Distinction Draws Fire From Environmentalists, Fish Farmers, in which Andrew Martin explains the controversy surrounding the designation of farmed fish as organic. Fish "farming" often involves cramped nets that result in concentrated fish waste pollution. On the other hand, "wild" fish live in uncontrolled conditions and cannot be certified as organic.

To the dismay of some fishermen — including many in the Alaskan salmon industry — this means that wild fish, whose living conditions are not controlled, are not likely to make the grade. And that has led to a lot of bafflement, since wild fish tend to swim in pristine waters, show lower levels of contaminants, and be favored by fish lovers.

“If you can’t call a wild Alaska salmon true and organic,” asked Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, “what can you call organic?”

No uniform standard for organic fish

"Organic" under US law is not always the same as "organic" under the laws of other countries, but stores can sell foreign foods as "organic" nevertheless.  In the case of fish, we do not have an organic standard yet, so there should never be a USDA Organic label on seafood. Read the AP article in the Houston Chronicle: Despite label, fish might not be organic