Aquaculture NegativeSLUDL / NAUDL 2014-15
Aquaculture Negative
Special thanks to Jason Peterson and the Michigan National Debate Institute and Dan Bagwell and the Wake Forest Early Bird Institute who did the initial research for these arguments and made them available to the NAUDL Core File project.
Summary
Glossary
Inherency Answers
Aquaculture Strong-5
Reform Now-7
Overfishing Advantage Answers
Aquaculture causes overfishing-9
Aquaculture Harms the Environment-1
No Fishery Collapse-3
Aquaculture doesn’t feed more people-15
Other Causes Kill Fish-19
Economy Advantage Answers
Diseases destroy aquaculture industry-22
Fishing Industry DA-4
Fishing Industry strong- Extensions
Aquaculture destroys fishhing industry- extensions-7
Answers to: Aquaculture helps coastal economies-29
Answers to : Seafood Trade Deficit
Solvency Answers
Answer to: Affirmative creates sustainable aquaculture-2
Number of Barriers for Aquaculture-4
Agency consolidation fails
Solvency Global Model fails
Off Case (JV & V Only)
Social Services Trade Off Links
1NC Urban Aquaculture CP
Urban Aquaculture Solvency
Urban Aquaculture- multiple benefits
Best Available Technology Solvency
Summary
Answers to theOverfishing Advantage
Aquaculture actually causes overfishing. Two factors would drive more fishing. First, most fish raised for markets are predators (tuna, mackerel, etc.) that eat other fish. In order to grow healthy farmed fish, wild fish lower in the food chain need to be caught and made into fish meal. Next, by increasing the availability of fish and lowering the price at the market aquaculture would result in a larger demand for fish from consumers. In order to meet this demand, more fish will need to be harvested and wild fish will fill in wherever aquaculture cannot provide it.
Aquaculture can harm the environment. Large farming operations will introduce foreign fish to fisheries. Fish escapes can upset local food chains and damage ecosystems. In addition, large farming operations produce excessive amounts of waste that can pollute nearby waters.
Finally, overfishing may not be the biggest threat to the health of the oceans. Systemic problems like global warming will wreak havoc on fish populations around the world as they try to adapt to warmer and more acidic water.
Answers to the Economy Advantage
Aquaculture operations are vulnerable to disease. It is dangerous to invest heavily in an industry where entire operations can be wiped out by disease in a few days. The close quarters the cages keep the fish in ensure rapid disease spread.
Aquaculture will hurt existing fishing industry largely made up of small businesses and local fishing operations. The corporate farms of expanded aquaculture will lower the price for fish at stores meaning small fishing operations will be forced to close down and there will be few new jobs created by aquaculture that newly unemployed will be qualified for.
Answers to Solvency
Multiple Barrier lie between creating and a framework for open ocean aquaculture and successful fish farming. Sites that can support growing conditions, are out of shipping lanes, and near enough to ports to deliver product must be selected.
Consolidating control in the NOAA will help with regulations but will not solve all issues. Aquaculture startups will still need to apply for permits and pass inspections like now, they will simply have one government agency to bother them and slow down the process instead of many.
Even if the US adopts sustainable fishing and aquaculture standard the rest of the world has no incentive or requirement to follow our lead. Millions of pounds of fish are farmed outside of the United States every year BECAUSE of our high environmental standards.
Urban Aquaculture Counterplan
This counterplan would create sustainable on land aquaculture projects located in urban areas. It solves most of the affirmative but avoids the ocean based arguments like pollution and the fishing industry,
Glossary
What is aquaculture?
The FAO has defined aquaculture as “the farming of aquatic organisms, including fish, mollusks, crustaceans and aquatic plants. Farming implies some form of intervention in the rearing process to enhance production as well as ownership of the stock being cultivated” (FAO 2000).
Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)- area of the ocean where the United States has the right to economically develop
The U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) extends no more than 200 nautical miles from the territorial sea baseline and is adjacent to the 12 nautical mile territorial sea of the U.S., including the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and any other territory or possession over which the United States exercises sovereignty. Within the EEZ, the U.S. has: Sovereign rights for the purpose of exploring, exploiting, conserving and managing natural resources, whether living and nonliving, of the seabed and subsoil and the superjacent waters and with regard to other activities for the economic exploitation and exploration of the zone, such as the production of energy from the water, currents and winds; Jurisdiction as provided for in international and domestic laws with regard to the establishment and use of artificial islands, installations, and structures, marine scientific research, and the protection and preservation of the marine environment; and Other rights and duties provided for under international and domestic laws.
Fisheries - area where fish are caught in the wild as opposed to those raised in aquaculture
Fish stocks- number of fish living in a fishery or geographic area
Litigation-
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is a US federal agency that deals with (you guessed it) issues surrounding the oceans and atmosphere.
Sustainable- able to be maintained at a certain rate or level. Usually used to refer to practices that take into account their environmental impact
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Aquaculture NegativeNAUDL 2014-15
Inherency Answers
Aquaculture Strong
Federal government policy already supports expanding aquaculture.
Luening, reporter focusing on aquaculture issues, 2013
(1/2/2013, Erich, “Obama's First Term Aquaculture Successes,”
“There was a fair number of the sort of nots in bolts things that happened too,” he said. “Certainly when Jane Lubchenco was appointed as NOAA director they asked us to look at everything we are doing, stakeholders and all, on aquaculture.”
The NOAA went around the country and got input at several public meetings as well.
“The federal government hadn’t done that in 10 years, and we got a broad economic view. NOAA policy was addressed on the kind of things we do as far as marine stewardship and engagement,” Rubino said. “Going back 40 years, there have been several commissions, all the way up to the establishment of the National Oceans Council in 2004, and others in between. They all have had aquaculture components, all saying the same thing. Aquaculture has to be done sustainably, with trade policy and good science behind it.”
It’s fair to say that the adoption of the NAP came out of all of those commissions over the years enhanced by the efforts under Lubchenco to get NOAA officials out to different regions of the country to add their voices and interests to the dialogue around framing the new policy.
In the summer of 2011, the United States National Aquaculture Policy was announced, making headlines as the first of its kind in a country that has 95,471 statute miles of tidal shoreline and 200 nautical miles from those coasts out to sea as part of the Exclusive Economic Zone, according to NOAA.
The new aquaculture policy and its components, which reflect the public comments received after draft policies were released on February 9, focus on:
encouraging and fostering sustainable aquaculture that increases the value of domestic aquaculture production and creates American business, jobs, and trade opportunities;
making timely management decisions based on the best scientific information available;
advancing sustainable aquaculture science;
ensuring aquaculture decisions protect wild species and healthy coastal and ocean ecosystems;
developing sustainable aquaculture compatible with other uses;
working with partners domestically and internationally; and,
promoting a level playing field for U.S. aquaculture businesses engaged in international trade, working to remove foreign trade barriers, and enforcing our rights under U.S. trade agreements.
Aquaculture Strong- Extensions
[___]
[___] Current policy is expanding sustainable aquaculture
Environment News Service, 2011
(6/13/2011, , “Obama Administration Promotes Aquaculture in U.S. Waters,”
The new aquaculture policies, which reflect the public comments received after draft policies were released on February 9, focus on:
encouraging and fostering sustainable aquaculture that increases the value of domestic aquaculture production and creates American business, jobs, and trade opportunities
making timely management decisions based on the best scientific information available
advancing sustainable aquaculture science
ensuring aquaculture decisions protect wild species and healthy coastal and ocean ecosystems
developing sustainable aquaculture compatible with other uses;
working with partners domestically and internationally
promoting a level playing field for U.S. aquaculture businesses engaged in international trade, working to remove foreign trade barriers, and enforcing our rights under U.S. trade agreements
Along with the Obama administration’s new policy, the Commerce Department and NOAA announced additional steps in the future to support the development of the aquaculture industry through:
Developing a National Shellfish Initiative in partnership with the shellfish industry to increase commercial production of shellfish, which would create jobs, provide locally-produced food, restore shellfish populations and habitats, and improve water quality.
Implementing the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Plan for Aquaculture, which includes the regulatory infrastructure needed for offshore aquaculture development in the Gulf.
The domestic aquaculture industry – both freshwater and marine – currently supplies about five percent of the seafood consumed in the United States.
The cultivation of shellfish, such as oysters, clams, and mussels, comprises about two-thirds of U.S. marine aquaculture production.
Salmon and shrimp aquaculture contribute about 25 percent and 10 percent, respectively. Current production takes place mainly on land, in ponds, and in states’ coastal waters.
“This new focus on helping us develop and expand sustainable aquaculture is welcomed,” said Bill Dewey, a shellfish biologist and clam farmer of more than 27 years based in Shelton, Washington. “When done right, aquaculture can improve the environment, provide jobs and reclaim American dollars that are being spent on imported aquaculture products.”
Reform Now
Regulatory concerns being resolved in a systemic manner
Luening, reporter focusing on aquaculture issues, 2013
(1/2/2013, Erich, “Obama's First Term Aquaculture Successes,” ***Note --- Dr. Michael Rubino is the Director of Aquaculture at the NOAA
The third initiative, under the National Ocean Policy, is to improve the regulatory environment for aquaculture without hurting environmental stewardship, he added. “We are starting to do work on that specifically on shellfish, which is way ahead of finfish aquaculture here in the U.S.,” he explained. “Setting out with ‘who does what when,’ with permitting and applying that at the core district areas. We also want to set up one-stop-permit shops. Once we get our work done on shellfish, same people will work on fin fish, using Washington State, Hawaii and Maine as examples.”
Reform Now- Extensions
[___]
[___] U.S. already has strict aquaculture standards
Conathan and Kroh, Director of Ocean Policy at American Progress and Co-Editor of ClimateProgress, 2012
[Michael and Kiley,“The Foundations of a Blue Economy,” June 27,
Aquaculture, or fish farming, is increasingly playing a greater role in putting fish on our plates. Fully half the fish imported in 2010 was a farmed product. Given the escalating dietary needs of a booming world population, aquaculture will have to be a part of the future of fish. Yet aquaculture, which can be carried out either in the ocean or at land-based fresh or salt water facilities, comes with its own set of environmental concerns, including high concentrations of waste, the need to catch wild fish to feed farmed fish, and potential for corruption of wild populations’ gene pools. But in this sector, too, the United States has far more stringent environmental and human health regulations than virtually any of our trade partners.
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Aquaculture NegativeNAUDL 2014-15
Overfishing Answers
Aquaculture causes overfishing
Turn - Aquaculture increases overfishing --- doesn’t solve food security
McCutcheon, contributor Eluxe magazine. 2014
(3/27/2014, Jody, “Something Fishy? Aquaculture and the Environment,” Eluxe JMP)
What We’ve Learned
In a nutshell:
–Farmed fish isn’t as healthy as wild, and doesn’t deliver as many nutrients either
–There’s a danger of farmed or even genetically modified fish escaping into the wild and contaminating wild stock
–Farms don’t solve issues of increased demand. The Jevons Paradox states that as production methods grow more efficient, demand for resources actually increases – so as aquaculture makes fish production increasingly efficient, and fish become more widely available and less expensive, demand increases across the board. This drives more fishing, which hurts wild populations. Thus, despite what fish farmers claim, fish farming cranks up the pressure on already-depleted populations of wild fish around the world.
Aquaculture causes overfishing - Extensions
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[___] Turn - Aquaculture causes overfising- need to catch fish to feed farmed fish.
Pauly, professor at the Fisheries Centre of the University of British Columbia , 2009 (9/28/2009, Daniel, “Aquacalypse Now,” JMP)
Some Pollyannas believe that aquaculture, or fish farming, can ensure the health of stocks without government action--a notion supposedly buttressed by FAO statistics showing such rapid growth in aquaculture that more than 40 percent of all “seafood” consumed now comes from farms. The problem with this argument is that China reports about 68 percent of the world’s aquaculture production, and the FAO, which has been burned by inflated Chinese statistics before, expresses doubt about its stated production and growth rates. Outside of China--where most farmed fish are freshwater vegetarians, such as carp--aquaculture produces predominately carnivorous marine fish, like salmon, which are fed not only vegetal ingredients, but also fishmeal and fish oil, which are obtained by grinding up herring, mackerel, and sardines caught by “reduction fisheries.” Carnivore farming, which requires three to four pounds of smaller fish to produce one pound of a larger one, thus robs Peter to pay Paul. Aquaculture in the West produces a luxury product in global terms. To expect aquaculture to ensure that fish remain available--or, at least, to expect carnivore farming to solve the problem posed by diminishing catches from fisheries--would be akin to expecting that Enzo Ferrari’s cars can solve gridlock in Los Angeles.
[___] Aquaculture relies on fish feed from wild fish creating overfishing of fisheries that the developing world depends on for food. People will starve to feed the farmed fish.
Food and Water Watch, 2010
(June, “Expansion of Factory Fish Farms in the Ocean May Lead to Food Insecurity in Developing Countries,”
Ocean-farmed fish are fed pellets that contain wild fish, lipids and cellulose, among other ingredients.2 The wild fish are mostly converted to the fishmeal and fish oil that make up approximately 40 percent of the pellets fed to farmed fish.3 In 2006, the aquaculture sector alone consumed nearly 90 percent of small “pelagic” fish captured worldwide.4 This category of fish, which larger fish, marine mammals, birds and people alike depend on for food, includes anchovies, herring, mackerel, sardines and more. Turning these fish into aquaculture feed is a questionable use of resources, because many developing countries rely on these types of fish to feed people and provide employment in traditional fisheries.
Aquaculture Harms the Environment
Turn - Expansion of marine aquaculture undermines ocean ecosystem and wild fisheries several ways
Naylor, Fellow at the Center for Environmental Science and Policy at Stanford, 2006
(Rosamond L , “Environmental Safeguards for Open-Ocean Aquaculture,” Spring 2006)
Opening far-offshore waters to aquaculture could lead to substantial commercial benefits, but it also poses significant ecological risks to the ocean—a place many U.S. citizens consider to be our last frontier.
Some of the species now farmed in open-ocean cages, such as bluefin tuna, Atlantic cod, and Atlantic halibut, are becoming increasingly depleted in the wild. Proponents of offshore aquaculture often claim that the expansion of farming into federal waters far from shore will help protect or even revive wild populations. However, there are serious ecological risks associated with farming fish in marine waters that could make this claim untenable.The ecological effects of marine aquaculture have been well documented, particularly for near-shore systems, and are summarized in the 2005 volumes of the Annual Review of Environment and Resources, Frontiers in Ecology (February), and BioScience (May). They include the escape of farmed fish from ocean cages, which can have detrimental effects on wild fish populations through competition and interbreeding; the spread of parasites and diseases between wild and farmed fish; nutrient and chemical effluent discharge from farms, which pollutes the marine environment; and the use of wild pelagic fish for feeds, which can diminish or deplete the low end of the marine food web in certain locations.