Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Wednesday 22 March 2017

Rare monk seal dies in fish farm off Hawaii

CALEB JONES es Chair Suzanne Case
HONOLULU (AP) — An en- said in a statement the
dangered Hawaiian monk death is a tragedy and the
seal has died after wan- state will work with federal
dering into a net pen and officials to prevent future
becoming trapped at a problems with aquaculture
fish farm that was partially operations.
funded by the National There are only about 1400
Oceanic and Atmospheric Hawaiian monks seals left
Administration in Hawaii. in the wild, according to
Officials with NOAA said official estimates.
Thursday the death of the Fish farming has been
10-year-old monk seal practiced for centuries in
happened at Blue Ocean Hawaii and around the
Mariculture, the same fish world.
farm that NOAA’s National But modern aquaculture,
Marine Fisheries Service has some environmentalists
been using for research in say, carries pollution risks
conjunction with a plan to and the potential for non-
expand aquaculture into native farmed fish to es-
federal waters around the cape and enter the natu-
Pacific. ral ecosystem.
Ann Garrett, the service’s Former NOAA chief scien-
assistant regional admin- In this undated photo provided by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, an endan- tist and founder of ocean
gered Hawaiian monk seal known as RB18 lies on the shore of Hawaii’s Big Island.
istrator for protected re- Associated Press advocacy group Mission
sources, confirmed the Blue Sylvia Earle told the AP
farm was the same one do more harm than good from 3 to 200 miles offshore, tional Marine Fisheries Ser- in an interview in Decem-
used for the NOAA-funded to overall fish stocks and around Hawaii and other vice’s David Schofield, the ber there are more envi-
research, but could not ocean health. Pacific islands. marine mammal response ronmentally sustainable
comment further on the The NOAA plan would The agency funded three coordinator for the region. and economically viable
agency’s involvement. create a regulatory and rounds of research at Blue “The seal, B18, had a stom- options than open-ocean
NOAA is working on a plan permitting scheme for the Ocean Mariculture opera- ach full of fish and other- aquaculture, which uses
to expand aquaculture industry. The plan includes tion. wise appeared in good floating net-pens or sub-
into federal waters despite federal permitting and NOAA officials said at a body condition so we can merged cages.
concerns by some environ- management of commer- news conference Thursday draw no other conclusion “We have to make a
mental groups who say the cial fish farms in federal that they believe the seal than that the animal did choice with aquaculture,”
industrial-scale farms could waters, the area of ocean drowned after the farm op- die in the fish pen likely due she said.
erators opened one panel to drowning or suffoca- “Is our goal to feed a large
of a net pen to release a tion.” number of people? Or is
shark that had gotten in- Schofield said it was un- our goal to create or to
side. clear if the fish that were serve a luxury market?”
The seal died on March 5. found in the monk seal’s New technologies are be-
“We did not see any signs of stomach were farmed fish ing developed for open-
trauma or entanglement or from the net pen, but fur- ocean aquaculture, and
any gashes or lacerations. ther testing should help de- many U.S. companies are
We also saw no gross signs, termine that. sending their crews over-
meaning obvious signs, of Hawaii Department of seas to farm, according to
disease,” said NOAA’s Na- Land and Natural Resourc- NOAA officials.q