Comment from craig walker

Dear Secretary Locke: Ignoring overwhelming public opposition, the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council has submitted its proposed offshore aquaculture management plan for your final approval. The plan lacks the standards needed to protect Gulf ecosystems and their associated fishing communities from the many risks of open ocean aquaculture. In addition, the plan would directly undercut the efforts of Congress to establish a national framework for managing any future development of aquaculture in federal waters. In the absence of strong national standards that ensure the protection of our oceans and fishing communities, you should oppose all efforts to site fish farms in U.S. waters. The Gulf Council's offshore aquaculture plan would be administered under the nation's fisheries law, the Magnuson-Stevens Act. Congress never contemplated aquaculture as part of the 'fisheries' managed by U.S. fisheries managers. Offshore fish farms are not equivalent to fishing vessels. The responsibilities envisioned by the Gulf Council's aquaculture plan would only add to the demands on the Fisheries Service and the Gulf Council at a time when they should be focusing all of their limited resources on the implementation of the ambitious new provisions and requirements of the reauthorized Magnuson Stevens Act of 2006. We urge you to reject this ill-conceived plan.