On January 7, the Biden transition team announced the nomination of Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo to be the next Secretary of Commerce. The Commerce Secretary oversees the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), under which is the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). As such, Raimondo would oversee federal environmental and business policies that impact […]
Today, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the main federal agency tasked with managing ocean resources, will move to designate waters off Southern California and in the Gulf of Mexico as “Aquaculture Opportunity Areas” (AOA). Areas designated as AOAs have been pre-approved for expansion of industrial aquaculture facilities, as dictated in President Trump’s May […]
Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held illegal the Department of Commerce’s federal regulations (through National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Marine Fisheries Service) that would have permitted, for the very first time, large-scale industrial finfish aquaculture operations offshore in U.S. federal waters. The appellate court affirmed a 2018 […]
On Friday afternoon, February 12th, twelve fishing and public interest groups jointly sued the federal government, challenging new regulations allowing industrial fish farming in the federal waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), under the Department of Commerce are agencies charged with protecting […]
The Gulf of Mexico—and the many people that care about and depend on it for their livelihoods — have taken a beating in recent years; major hurricanes and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill continue to cause long term problems. Even as Gulf fisheries struggle to recover from the devastating impacts from these catastrophes, a new […]