Final signature count: 8,109

8,109 signatures toward our 30,000 goal

The federal government is moving forward with plans to identify additional Aquaculture Opportunity Areas across U.S. waters — zones evaluated for their potential suitability for commercial aquaculture. NOAA has already designated 13 such areas in federal waters off Southern California and in the Gulf, and is now asking the public where it should search for future AOAs.³ The goal is more domestic seafood, less pressure on wild stocks, and greater food security. Those are real and worthy aims. But the environmental record of large-scale marine fish farming raises hard questions that demand independent answers before permits are issued.

What Goes Into the Water Doesn't Stay Put

Industrial net pens pack thousands of fish into a confined space. Waste, uneaten feed, antibiotics, and other treatments can enter the surrounding marine environment. NOAA's own scientific review found that excess feed and fish waste can accumulate beneath farms, alter sediment chemistry, and, at heavily impacted sites, contribute to anaerobic conditions extending hundreds of meters beyond the farm perimeter.⁵ These effects make careful siting, monitoring, and assessment essential.¹ ⁵

The same analysis raised concerns about antibiotic resistance spreading beyond the farms themselves into the wider marine environment.¹

Escapes Happen — and They Have Consequences

Farmed fish can breach net pens during storms, through equipment failures, and during routine handling. NOAA's current offshore aquaculture guidance specifically calls for gear that prevents escapes and withstands severe weather.⁶ These animals may be selectively bred and genetically distinct from wild populations. When escapees reproduce with native fish, they can alter wild populations genetically and compete for food and habitat.

The promise that aquaculture relieves pressure on wild fisheries also breaks down under scrutiny. Many farmed carnivorous species — including salmon and other marine finfish — rely to varying degrees on fish meal and fish oil derived from wild-caught fish. Harvesting forage fish for feed can add pressure to marine food webs that also support marine mammals, seabirds, and larger predators.²

Empty on a Map Doesn't Mean Empty

Offshore areas that appear open on a map may overlap with important habitat and areas used by protected species, fisheries, and coastal communities. NOAA itself is currently asking the public to identify locations where aquaculture gear could overlap with fishing operations, whales, dolphins, sea turtles, cultural resources, recreation, and areas important for conservation.³

The infrastructure matters as well. NOAA's Essential Fish Habitat guidance says offshore aquaculture assessments should consider direct and indirect effects from anchoring systems, including loss of benthic habitat, sediment resuspension, and deposition. It also calls for analysis of changes to the acoustic environment, hydrodynamics, water quality, and discharges including waste, feed, and medications.⁴

Coastal fishing communities — families who have worked these waters for generations — can also face conflicts when offshore facilities compete for ocean space. NOAA specifically identifies interactions with fishing operations and other ocean users as issues that should be considered when AOAs and individual farms are sited.³

Get the Science Right Before the Damage Is Done

NOAA is deciding now where it should begin evaluating future Aquaculture Opportunity Areas, and public comments on that search are being accepted through September 14, 2026.³ Those decisions could influence where offshore aquaculture expands for decades.

Designation as an AOA does not itself authorize a fish farm. Operations proposed inside an AOA still require applicable federal and state permits, and NOAA acknowledges that site-specific environmental surveys and additional environmental analysis may be required.⁶ That review should be rigorous, transparent, and based on independent science before industrial-scale operations are allowed to proceed.

New aquaculture projects must be sited only where environmental analysis shows they will not pose unacceptable risks to wild fish populations, marine mammals, water quality, sensitive habitat, or coastal communities tied to healthy oceans.

Sign the petition today and tell NOAA: rigorous, site-specific environmental review must come before permits are granted — not after the damage is done.