Two environmental groups have filed a lawsuit in federal court to prohibit a local aquaculture company from testing the viability of free-floating ocean fish farms.
The suit was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Honolulu by KAHEA The Hawaiian-Environmental Alliance and Washington, D.C.-based Food & Water Watch against a federal agency that issued an unusual "fishing" permit to Kona Blue Water Farms in July.
Kona Blue received the permit from the National Marine Fisheries Service to tow a submerged cage stocked with 2,000 young amberjack in a loop roughly five to 150 miles off the Kona coast over 10 months using an 80-foot sailing ship.
The exercise was devised to test whether it would be possible to let cages, containing automated feeding systems and tethered to surface buoys, drift freely on a 60- to 90-mile diameter circular ocean current that exists off Hawaii island’s western face.
At present, Hawaii’s two existing ocean fish farms use stationary submerged cages in state waters within three miles of shore to produce fish. Kona Blue is one, and Hukilau Foods on Oahu is the other. Both companies have had production troubles and are not producing fish.
Kona Blue sought approval for the drifting-cage test in federal waters under a fishing permit that categorizes the cage as a type of fishing gear.
The lawsuit by KAHEA and Food & Water Watch claims that the Fisheries Service lacked the authority to grant the permit. The suit also said fishing permits for aquaculture activities are prohibited under a fishery ecosystem plan of the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council and that the permit given to Kona Blue violates federal fishery conservation and management law.
KAHEA and Food & Water Watch also contended in the suit that the Fisheries Service conducted an inadequate environmental review of the project. The groups said a more rigorous Environmental Impact Statement should have been produced instead of an Environmental Assessment. The groups also criticized the agency for giving the public only 10 days to comment on Kona Blue’s permit application.
Food & Water Watch made some of the same arguments in its testimony to the Fisheries Service through the public comment process.
Fisheries Services spokeswoman Wende Goo said as a matter of policy, the agency does not comment on pending litigation.
Kona Blue spokeswoman Kelly Coleman said the company believes the Fisheries Service, which is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, issued a valid permit.
"We’ve done everything by the book, and NOAA has very carefully considered this over a 10-month period," she said.
The lawsuit seeks to disallow the permit and stop the research test.
Kona Blue recently began testing. The company initially had sought to tow two cages, but the permit was revised for one cage after a second cage was lost at sea during a test run with both in rough weather in March.
Kona Blue has said the research could lead to a better, more sustainable and environmentally friendly model for ocean aquaculture.
Cages that float freely in more pristine waters would improve water circulation, fish health and waste distribution, Kona Blue said in its permit application.
Food & Water Watch, a critic of open-ocean fish breeding, fears the test will lead to industry expansion by opening the door to commercial fish operations in federal waters.
"The aquaculture industry, the state and now the federal government are determined to bring industrial-scale ocean factory fish farming to Hawaii, environmental risks be damned!" Wenonah Hauter, Food & Water Watch’s executive director, said in a written statement.
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Star-Advertiser reporter Gary Kubota contributed to this story.
