{"id":894,"date":"2025-01-14T20:58:27","date_gmt":"2025-01-14T20:58:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/farmstand.chee.studio\/aquacultures-big-catch-corporate-control\/"},"modified":"2026-09-21T18:37:36","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T18:37:36","slug":"aquacultures-big-catch-corporate-control","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/farmstand.org\/es\/aquacultures-big-catch-corporate-control\/","title":{"rendered":"Aquaculture\u2019s Big Catch: Corporate Control"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Skye Walker<\/strong><\/a>
Legal Fellow<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nothing better illustrates the grim transformation of U.S. aquaculture than Maine\u2019s Cobscook Bay. In the 1970s, local families in the bay employed local workers at smaller-scale salmon farms of 3-4 net pens each, and feed manufacturers harvested fewer wild fish by using leftover cuttings from local sardine canners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the late 1990s, three foreign companies had bought up the smaller ones and began overstocking the net pens, resulting in a disease outbreak and the culling of two million salmon. Shortly after, the foreign companies sold out to Canadian giant Cooke Aquaculture, a multinational business that leases Maine\u2019s public waters without contest. On November 14, 2024, Conservation Law Foundation notified Cooke of its intent to sue for Clean Water Act violations at 13 of its leased sites.
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While aquaculture has the potential to bring value to coastal communities, economies, and food systems, the industrial model is in dire need of an overhaul.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Fish and shellfish farms have become fewer in number and larger in size. Vertical integration, where companies control most or all aquaculture production phases, including processing, is not uncommon. Corporations have a particularly tight grip on salmon farming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ever heard of \u201cAquAdvantage\u201d? It\u2019s a genetically modified mix of Chinook salmon, Atlantic salmon, and ocean pout created by a company called AquaBounty. AquAdvantage salmon are raised indoors at AquaBounty\u2019s, land-based facilities, use 25 percent less feed than other farmed salmon, and reach harvest weight in 18 months instead of the standard three years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Stay engaged with the fight for a fair food system. Sign up for emails from FarmSTAND.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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Read More<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Sound familiar? Big Ag companies have done the same with poultry, swine, and cattle, using selective breeding or introducing hormones to rapidly maximize growth or product yield\u2014usually to the animals\u2019 detriment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the aquaculture space, a broad coalition including fishers, environmental groups, and indigenous groups such as the Quinault tribe and Muckleshoot Food Sovereignty Project have pushed back on AquaBounty\u2019s genetically engineered salmon<\/span><\/span>, with the Center for Food Safety leading the charge on <\/span><\/span><\/span>litigation<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/span> <\/span>
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\u201cSomeone now owns my ancestral foods\u2019 DNA\u201d said Valerie Segrest (Muckleshoot), a Native foods nutritionist and the Regional Director of Native Food and Knowledge Systems for the Native American Agriculture Fund. \u201c[W]e certainly do not benefit [from GE salmon]. The industrial food system benefits. Some corporation who does not actually care about human or environmental health benefits\u2014greatly.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

You can see Valerie\u2019s full interview here<\/a>. AquaBounty is not only privatizing a culturally significant public resource that tribes have successfully managed for thousands of years but is reconstructing<\/em> that resource for financial gain\u2014without regard for the impacts. Many underscore that AquAdvantage is not nutritionally equivalent to wild salmon and could threaten wild salmon more broadly in the event of escape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The corporatization of U.S. aquaculture is due, in part, to a leasehold system. Leases are common with \u201cnearshore aquaculture,\u201d in which fish and shellfish are grown along shorelines and in bays and estuaries. State governments grant leases of varying size and duration providing aquaculture producers, as de-facto owners, exclusive use of an area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes, leaseholders do not live near the location of their facility. Leaseholders can limit the ability of others to use the area and sell their access to other companies at a profit. This arrangement shifts wealth from a public resource into the hands of a few private players.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Aerial<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

That is also true of \u201coffshore aquaculture\u201d\u2014the cultivation of aquatic species in state waters (three nautical miles seaward from the coastline) and federal waters (beyond three nautical miles) using fancy tech. An emerging industry in the United States, there are currently six companies with proposed or active marine fish farms in state or federal waters. Far from local \u201cmom and pop\u201d producers, most are out-of-state or multinational entities backed by private equity or venture capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this system, benefits are often not distributed evenly and communities lose out. Larger, out-of-state companies are more likely to lack the cultural awareness and place-based knowledge of local anglers and producers. And both the leases themselves and the ensuing environmental impacts of industrial scale aquaculture can drive out local fishing communities and limit their catches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, in Washington\u2019s North Puget Sound region, Taylor Shellfish Farms has degraded eel grass beds upon which salmon and other species rely for habitat. This has limited the amount of salmon and wild shellfish that Swinomish tribal members can harvest from the eel grass beds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sadly, a second Trump Administration is likely to support aquaculture policies that favor corporate consolidation and expansion.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In his first term, Trump issued an executive order to fast-track development and permitting for offshore industrial aquaculture in federal waters. Couched as a path to a \u201cvibrant and competitive seafood industry,\u201d the order props up offshore fish farms that are only financially feasible for the biggest players and have a history of marine pollution. The administration issued a nationwide permit for offshore fish farms in furtherance of Trump\u2019s order. The administration also issued a nationwide permit for industrial shellfish farming and approved thousands of acres of leases along Washington\u2019s coast. These actions prompted a series of lawsuits by the Center for Food Safety, Coalition to Protect Puget Sound, and Swinomish tribe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington struck down <\/span>both<\/span><\/a> permits<\/span><\/a>, holding that the government failed to adequately assess the permits\u2019 environmental impacts and risks.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Decades of advocacy by the Wild Fish Conservancy, tribes, and others also led Washington state to finalize a ban on commercial net pen fish farms in state-owned waters in January of 2025, a move prompted by Cooke Aquaculture\u2019s 2017 net pen failure and the accidental release of 250,000 nonnative Atlantic salmon into the Puget Sound.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

FarmSTAND sees close parallels between industrial animal agriculture and industrial aquaculture and understands that a better food system is not possible without dismantling both<\/em>. We admire the work of groups like the North American Marine Alliance<\/a> and its partners and allies<\/a> that are currently pushing for positive change in the industry. Aquaculture that\u2019s sustainable, humane, and owned by independent fishers must be a part of the new food system we\u2019re all working to build.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nothing better illustrates the grim transformation of U.S. aquaculture than Maine\u2019s Cobscook Bay. In the 1970s, local families in the bay employed local workers at smaller-scale salmon farms of 3-4 net pens each, and feed manufacturers harvested fewer wild fish by using leftover cuttings from local sardine canners. By the late 1990s, three foreign companies had bought up the smaller ones and began overstocking the net pens, resulting in a disease outbreak and the culling of two million salmon.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":896,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[112],"tags":[92,26],"issue":[18,20],"class_list":["post-894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insights","tag-aquaculture","tag-clean-water","issue-animal-welfare","issue-climate-environmental-protection"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAquaculture\u2019s Big Catch: Corporate Control - Farmstand<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"While aquaculture has the potential to bring value to coastal communities, economies, and food systems, the industrial model is in dire need of an overhaul. 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Following in the footsteps of its close cousin, land-based animal agriculture, aquaculture has become heavily corporatized and consolidated. Multinational food and pharmaceutical businesses like Cargill (one of the \u201cbig four\u201d U.S. meatpackers), Merck, and Bayer dominate the market for fish feed, vaccines, antibiotics, and other drugs. Fish and shellfish farms have become fewer in number and larger in size. Vertical integration, where companies control most or all aquaculture production phases, including processing, is not uncommon. Corporations have a particularly tight grip on salmon farming.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/farmstand.org\/aquacultures-big-catch-corporate-control\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"es-ES","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/farmstand.org\/aquacultures-big-catch-corporate-control\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"es-ES","@id":"https:\/\/farmstand.org\/aquacultures-big-catch-corporate-control\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/farmstand.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Aquaculture-open-water-pens-e1736884852572.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/farmstand.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Aquaculture-open-water-pens-e1736884852572.jpg","width":520,"height":347,"caption":"Photo of several round aquaculture cages in a large, calm body of water."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/farmstand.org\/aquacultures-big-catch-corporate-control\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/farmstand.org\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Aquaculture\u2019s Big Catch: Corporate Control"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/farmstand.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/farmstand.org\/","name":"Puesto de granja","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/farmstand.org\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/farmstand.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"es-ES"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/farmstand.org\/#organization","name":"Puesto de granja","url":"https:\/\/farmstand.org\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"es-ES","@id":"https:\/\/farmstand.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/farmstand.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/farmstand-logo.svg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/farmstand.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/farmstand-logo.svg","width":150,"height":103,"caption":"Farmstand"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/farmstand.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/farmstandorg\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/farmstandorg\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/farmstandorg\/","https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/farmstand.bsky.social"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/farmstand.org\/#\/schema\/person\/b2f2edd5171bf2eac37095605d0e769c","name":"Sylvia Regan","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"es-ES","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7647674064e5e8ec949b6c728802cbccde2b94e226391531eece1f9cc6455f58?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7647674064e5e8ec949b6c728802cbccde2b94e226391531eece1f9cc6455f58?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7647674064e5e8ec949b6c728802cbccde2b94e226391531eece1f9cc6455f58?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Sylvia Regan"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/farmstand.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/farmstand.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/farmstand.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farmstand.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farmstand.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=894"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/farmstand.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3357,"href":"https:\/\/farmstand.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894\/revisions\/3357"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farmstand.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/farmstand.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farmstand.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farmstand.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=894"},{"taxonomy":"issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farmstand.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue?post=894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}