May 28, 2025 – Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a permit that will allow the first industrial-scale fish farm to begin operating in federal waters.
The pilot project, called Velella Epsilon, has been stalled for about six years; its approval follows an executive order signed by President Trump in April ordering the deregulation of aquaculture and the opening of some protected waters to commercial fishing.
It’s particularly significant because Velella Epsilon, which is expected to produce 20,000 red drum annually about 40 miles off the coast of Sarasota, Florida, has been at the center of a larger debate over farming the oceans for years.
On one side, environmental groups and coastal fishermen see any large-scale ocean farming of finfish as too risky, given past ecological disasters and the potential impacts on wild fisheries. On the other side, experts and advocates say we should find ways to farm more fish for climate benefits, to combat overfishing of wild species, and to reduce dependence on seafood imports.
Supporters of Velella Epsilon say it represents a new kind of open-ocean system that is designed specifically to eliminate the negative impacts of the offshore aquaculture operations of the past. This group has the support of powerful seafood corporations, grocers, restaurant chains, and their lobbyists.
Now, the approval is happening in the context of larger changes to how the federal government regulates the oceans as a source of food. In addition to Trump’s executive order, deep cuts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are likely to impact the agency’s ongoing efforts to expand and regulate offshore aquaculture.
Earlier this year, the EPA also announced it would take a “nonregulatory” approach to managing water and habitat quality and the wild snapper, shrimp, and other fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico, which Trump recently renamed the Gulf of America. (Link to this post.)
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