Join us in telling President Biden that we want to protect our oceans from industrial finfish farming!

Our oceans and coastal economies are at risk. Large corporations are threatening to come in to our offshore ocean waters with massive, polluting finfish farming facilities. These developments, often called OFFs (offshore finfish farms) are the equivalent of factory farms for fish. OFFs involve raising finned fish like salmon or yellowtail are crammed into large pens or cages out at sea.

Because the fish are packed so tightly into the confinements, chemicals like antibiotics and pesticides are dumped into cages to stop the spread of disease and sea lice. These chemicals, along with fish waste and excess feed, are allowed to flow freely into the water, which contaminates a shared resource and threatens our health! Animal welfare concerns are also prominent due to the inhumane conditions of the cages.

From Washington to California to Maine, small-scale sustainable fishermen, lobstermen, and aquaculturists like oyster and seaweed farmers are trying to make a living. Not only do these large, corporate operations pollute the resource our locals need to survive, but they also undercut local seafood systems and threaten economies along the coast of the entire United States.

Why are our government agencies making it easier for companies to establish offshore fish farms in our oceans? A 2020 Executive Order designated NOAA as the sole agency for regulating OFFs and required new sites for aquaculture projects to be developed every four years. We must act now to ensure that oceans across the country are not carved up and exploited with offshore finfish farming!

Other harmful, pro-factory farm policies are on the horizon in this new Congress. Join us in telling President Biden to revoke Executive Order 13921 to protect our waters, our economies, and keep out fish farms once and for all!