commercial aquaculture issue.

Dear MCBA Captains,

The board wants to make sure you are kept up to date regarding the proposed commercial aquaculture issue. Commercial net-pen aquaculture is the practice of raising fish in an underwater net (or solid structure cage) that serves as a pen.

Last year two companies approached the state of Michigan with proposals to raise rainbow trout in net pens in lakes Huron and Michigan.

MCBA is opposed to this type of operation on the Great Lakes.

Michigan plans to host a Great Lakes aquaculture meeting Nov. 19, 2015 in Gaylord. At that time the DNR will accept comments.

Below are some talking points to help you formulate your comments.

The Great Lakes Fishery Commission has done an excellent job laying out our concerns (CLICK HERE)

Aquaculture talking points

Main point
Commercial fish farming is all risk and no reward for the people and waters of Michigan. It has no place in the Great Lakes. The state should not even be considering it. •Supporting messages ◦The Great Lakes are a rare and valuable asset for all of Michigan, and commercial fish farms are proven sources of pollution, disease, invasive species and many other problems.
◦A few private companies are promising just a handful of jobs by bringing commercial fish farms into the Great Lakes. In return they would use the Great Lakes as a massive fish waste dump, and put the entire aquatic ecosystem at risk.

Proactive messages •A basic economic analysis shows that Great Lakes fish farming is not worth the risk. ◦Water-based recreation and tourism is broad-based and strong, including growing popularity of kayaking, stand up paddleboard, and other pursuits that thrive in our fresh, clean water.
◦Proposed Great Lakes fish farms would only support a handful of jobs.
◦Sport fishing in Michigan, on the other hand, supports 15,000 jobs and contributes $2 billion a year to the economy. (Numbers come right from DNR.)
◦Michigan’s salmon fishery supports hundreds of Great Lakes charter companies and river fishing guides. Aquaculture in the lakes puts that fishery at risk.
◦The total Great Lakes fishery is valued at $7 billion annually and supports 75,000 jobs. (That’s sport, commercial and tribal fisheries combined.)

•Commercial fish farming would add a huge new source of algae-feeding nutrient pollution. ◦A typical 200,000-fish operation creates about as much waste as a city of 65,000 people.
◦In ocean fish farms, tides flush away a lot of that waste. In the Great Lakes, that waste will remain in the coastal areas where Michigan families like to swim, fish and paddle.
◦Fish waste and uneaten food pellets will provide a nutrient buffet for toxic algae blooms, like the one that shut down Toledo’s drinking water supply in 2014.

•Crowded fish cages are breeding grounds for diseases that can spread to wild fish. ◦In 2007, a virus wiped out 70% of the fish in Chile’s huge salmon farming industry. Chile has no wild salmon; in Michigan, imagine what those diseases could do to our wild salmon fishery.
◦To prevent disease outbreaks, some fish farms dump antibiotics into the cages.

•Fish will inevitably escape from fish farms. ◦In 2009, 40,000 fish escaped a British Columbia salmon operation when workers accidentally ripped a hole in the netting while cleaning out dead fish.
◦During a 2011 storm, 300,000 fish escaped a Scottish operation.
◦These escapes happen all the time. Some additional notable incidents listed here.

•Escaped fish will wreak havoc on our Great Lakes fishery. [For evidence, relevant section begins on page 202 of this study.] ◦Escaped farm fish compete with wild fish for food, disrupt their natural reproduction and interfere with their genetic diversity.
◦These disruptions will make it harder for our wild fish to adapt and survive.
◦Michigan has some of the world’s best steelhead fishing. Steelhead are rainbow trout. The proposed fish farms would grow rainbow trout, and the escaped fish would put our incredible steelhead fishery at risk.

Reactive messages
Claim: Canada has been doing aquaculture in the Great Lakes for decades.
Rebuttal: •Canada appears to have realized it made a mistake, and is getting out of the fish farming business. Ontario—the only jurisdiction allowing Great Lakes aquaculture—has not issued any new fish farming permits in nearly twenty years.
•Fish farms dump 500 tons of solid waste into the North Channel of Lake Huron every year.
•A farm in LaCloche Channel was refused a permit renewal after the site was found to have massive algal growth and anoxic conditions—indications of nutrient overloading.
Claim: The Great Lakes are nutrient-poor. Aquaculture will provide nutrients that benefit the ecosystem.
Rebuttal: •There is no location in the Great Lakes where nutrients from fish waste are not already a stressor. Phosphorus and nitrogen loads are affecting all the Great Lakes, even where zebra mussel populations are high.
•Nutrients from fish farms will not mix with the full lakes quickly, and will instead cause concentrated deposits of nutrients in relatively small areas, creating potential for cladophora and microcystis blooms, or anoxic conditions that result in large fish deaths.

Those interested in providing public comment at the meeting are encouraged to register in advance by contacting Hannah Guyer at 517-284-5813 or guyerh@michigan.gov.


Those unable to attend the Nov. 19 meeting can provide written comments via email at DNR-Net-Pen-Comments@michigan.gov or via regular mail at:

Michigan Department of Natural Resources
ATTN: Hannah Guyer/Executive Office
525 West Allegan St.
P.O. Box 30028
Lansing, MI 48909-7528

Comments will be accepted through Dec. 4, 2015. All submitted comments will be made publicly available following the close of the comment/review period.


Other links:

Jones introduces bill banning fish farming in the Great Lakes
Detroit Free Press




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