NOAA Identifies Two Aquaculture Opportunity Areas

The Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) introduced that it has recognized the primary two areas the place Aquaculture Alternative Areas (AOAs) will likely be positioned in federal waters off Southern California and within the Gulf of Mexico.1

The choice of these two areas is step one in direction of establishing ten AOAs nationwide by 2025.2 NOAA recognized these two areas in response to the Government Order on Selling American Seafood Competitiveness and Financial Progress.3 The Government Order mandated sweeping modifications to the regulatory scheme for industrial aquaculture with the aim of eradicating boundaries to the event of economic aquaculture within the waters of the USA. 

The AOA areas have been chosen primarily based upon their excessive potential for expanded industrial aquaculture. Each areas have already got a major quantity of knowledge to tell aquaculture website choice and important curiosity from firms in search of to develop sustainable aquaculture operations. Whereas NOAA has described the AOAs as small and outlined geographic areas, it has not specified a specific proposed measurement or boundaries for every AOA. The proposed AOAs are anticipated to assist three to 5 aquaculture websites of various sorts together with finfish, shellfish, macroalgae, or some mixture of thereof. NOAA plans to launch a major public outreach course of to interact with stakeholders and use a data-driven siting evaluation to determine particular AOA websites in every area which are environmentally, socially, and economically applicable for industrial aquaculture.

The Government Order additionally directs NOAA to organize a Programmatic Environmental Impression Assertion (PEIS) for every AOA pursuant to the Nationwide Environmental Coverage Act (NEPA) that considers the environmental results of the proposed AOAs. The PEIS might determine appropriate species for aquaculture within the area, appropriate gear for aquaculture in such places, and appropriate reporting necessities for house owners and operators of aquaculture amenities in such places. The Government Order directs that the PEIS for every AOA be accomplished inside two years of website choice.

The AOAs symbolize a major alternative for firms in search of to develop an aquaculture farm in federal waters in Southern California or the Gulf of Mexico and who’re keen to attend for NOAA to finish the prolonged public outreach, particular website choice, and PEIS course of. In that case, partaking the PEIS course of could also be an efficient avenue to make sure that the environmental overview course of addresses the suitable scope and vary of potential actions and their impacts. Identification of appropriate website places for aquaculture and coordinated programmatic environmental overview has the potential to take away important obstacles to the growth of home aquaculture tasks. Aquaculture tasks are at present required to undergo intensive environmental overview and website choice evaluation prior to allow approval, which has confirmed to be value prohibitive for a lot of potential candidates. NOAA will take the lead within the sophisticated and troublesome technique of figuring out offshore aquaculture website places that decrease consumer conflicts. Additional, in getting ready a PEIS, NOAA will carry out the overwhelming majority of the environmental overview required below NEPA, which might symbolize important value financial savings to candidates, though such candidates would seemingly nonetheless must conduct a particular environmental overview tiered off of the extra basic PEIS evaluation to guage the particular environmental impacts related to their proposed challenge. 

The institution of AOAs, as soon as accomplished, is more likely to considerably scale back the time and price related to procuring regulatory approvals inside the AOA areas, together with the NEPA course of for project-specific proposals; nevertheless, candidates nonetheless might want to acquire all required permits from different regulatory businesses. In Southern California, for instance, relying on the location location, this might require acquiring permits or authorizations from the U.S. Military Corps of Engineers, the California Coastal Fee, the Regional Water High quality Management Board, the U.S. Environmental Safety Company, the U.S. Meals and Drug Administration, the California Division of Public Well being, and/or the U.S. Coast Guard.

If this AOA course of is profitable, the Government Order anticipates that the Secretary will designate two extra AOAs per yr. Aquaculture firms in search of to determine farms in Southern California and the Gulf of Mexico that need to make the most of the AOA course of must be in shut coordination with NOAA throughout the public outreach course of. Coordination with NOAA will assist make sure that the places chosen meet the operational and logistical necessities for his or her proposed challenge, that their proposed operation is taken into account throughout the AOA course of, and that the phrases and circumstances related to improvement inside the AOA are affordable and cost-effective. Aquaculture firms which are inquisitive about growing elsewhere in federal waters must be in coordination with NOAA to advocate for his or her area to be chosen within the subsequent spherical of AOA designations. Even when an organization doesn’t need to make the most of the AOA course of, the regional information assortment that will likely be a part of the AOA course of will be utilized by different aquaculture candidates that search allowing outdoors of the NOAA AOA framework.

Footnotes 

1 Press Launch, NOAA Broadcasts Areas for First Two Aquaculture Alternative Areas below Government Order on Seafood (Aug. 20, 2020), accessible right here. 

2 For a extra detailed dialogue of the impacts of the Government Order on Selling American Seafood, see our alert COVID-19: Trump Administration Takes Actions to Help U.S. Aquaculture. 

3 Exec. Order 13921, 85 Fed. Reg. 28,471 (Could 12, 2020).