Hardly a month goes by without a health study concluding that Americans should eat more fish. There's just one problem – the world doesn't have nearly enough fish.
Wild stocks leveled off years ago, and scientists warn of crashing populations caused by overfishing. Meanwhile, human population growth and rising worldwide wealth are driving sharp increases in demand for seafood.
The answer is aquaculture, a fancy world for seafood farming. The industry is growing rapidly around the world – everywhere but the United States, where environmental opposition and red tape have stymied would-be farmers.
Congress has a perfect opportunity this year to clear away obstacles. The National Marine Fisheries Service, a federal agency, is promoting a bill to create a regulatory system for aquaculture in federal waters, which extend from three to 200 miles offshore.
This bill deserves passage.
Aquaculture got a bad rap because of the environmental abuses in other countries. Yet Americans import 70 percent of their seafood each year, with about 40 percent of it farmed. This should be a U.S. industry, under U.S. supervision.
The right way to farm fish is being demonstrated in San Diego at the Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute. The institute has been raising hatchlings in Carlsbad for years to replenish wild stocks of threatened species. Lately it's been honing commercial-scale technologies at SeaWorld, Santa Catalina and Ensenada.
Researchers raise California yellowtail, rockfish, sea bass and other species in deep-water pens. Waste is flushed naturally. Workers monitor health and nutrition to yield food that recently won a sushi competition in Japan.
It's time for environmentalists to embrace responsible aquaculture, and for Congress to release this industry into the wild.
