First offshore fish farm in the Gulf near Florida gets federal approval

In 2018, a massive red tide bloom brought piles of algae to the Gulf Coast, killing marine life and chasing away tourists. A NOAA study found the event caused $2.7 billion in losses. "Absolutely devastating. I mean it shut down the community for months," said Matt DePaolis, the environmental policy director for the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation, or SCCF. DePaolis worries that future red tide blooms could be made worse by offshore fish farms. The EPA just gave final approval to a pilot project in the gulf, the first of its kind there. "What this project is talking about is taking a massive nutrient source and sticking it right where we think that red tide initiates — right where that bloom forms," DePaolis said. While the fish farm is planned for a spot about 40 miles off the coast of Sarasota, those pushing back against the project worry about impacts to Lee County as well. "When we have a red tide on Sanibel, or there's a red tide up in Tampa, those don't tend to be different events," DePaolis said. "Those are one large event that is shifting around the Gulf." Neil Sims is the founder of Hawaii-based Ocean Era, the company behind the project. "They're scared — without being informed," he said of the project’s critics. Sims said it’s a demonstration project – just 1% the size of a full fish farm. One net pen will raise up 20,000 red drum over a 12-month period. "When we're 40 miles offshore, you cannot tell the difference in nitrogen or phosphorus loading from up current of the net pens and down current of the net pens," Sims said. He said the project still needs to be fully funded, but hopes it's in the water by February. And Sims said they will encourage visitors to the site. They’re required to monitor water quality, and he said that information will be available to the public. He’s confident they can change people’s minds about the work. "We want people to be able to see this data. Because we think the data will be greatly reassuring," he said. Ocean Era initially applied for permits with the EPA in 2018, but it took eight years to receive final approval. While Sims acknowledged that pushback against the project led to delays, he criticized the permitting process. "There is a deeply flawed federal permitting process," Sims said. "The system is broken." Experts from NOAA estimate that of the seafood Americans ate in 2023, 80% came from foreign imports. Sims wants to change that. "We're essentially exporting seafood jobs to other countries,” he said. "And we don't have any control over the environmental standards or the food quality standards." Meanwhile, DePaolis said legislative action could still stop the project from happening. He believes there are too many unknowns, making the fish farm too big of a risk for the Gulf Coast. "We don't know the impacts from what this project is going to be doing," DePaolis said. "Proponents of the project say, 'Well, that's why we need a pilot project. That's why we should get the thing in the water, see what it does.' Our viewpoint is that this is too dangerous a situation to mess up." DOWNLOAD the free Gulf Coast News app for your latest news and alerts on breaking news, weather, sports, entertainment, and more on your phone or tablet. And check out the Very Local Gulf Coast app to stream news, entertainment and original programming on your TV.