New legislation has been introduced in the Michigan House of Representatives by Rep. Jon Bumstead (R-Newago) to ban commercial net-pen fish farms in the Great Lakes, which poses disease, escapement and effluent risks to Great Lakes fisheries. House Bill 5255 would ban commercial cage culture operations from Michigan-controlled waters of the Great Lakes
“This is just common sense,” said Bumstead. “The Great Lakes support a $7 billion sport fishery. Why would the state authorize an unnecessary risk to the Great Lakes economy? This legislation will ensure that it doesn’t.”
This legislation comes in the midst of competing legislation to specifically authorize commercial net-pen fish farms – also called cage culture – in the Great Lakes following two proposals for siting in Lake Huron and Lake Michigan.
“Commercial cage culture poses serious risks to wild fisheries,” said Dr. Bryan Burroughs, executive director of the Michigan Council of Trout Unlimited. “These risks include escapement and breeding with wild fish, making them less genetically fit to survive in the wild, passing disease from immune domestic fish to wild fish which are not immune to the diseases, and, especially, the effluent deposited by concentrated populations of domestic fish into lakes.”
A panel assembled by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and Michigan Department of Natural Resources reviewed the possibility of commercial cage culture in the Great Lakes and determined, among other findings, that it is not technologically possible for the commercial net pens to capture the concentrated fish waste that would be emitted into the lakes.
“The $7 billion sport-fishing industry supports more than 600 direct charter fishing jobs in Michigan, in addition to the thousands in tourism, service and retail which rely upon it,” said Dennis Eade of the Michigan Steelhead and Salmon Fishermen’s Association.
“Our members are rightfully concerned about this,” said Dan Eichinger, executive director of Michigan United Conservation Clubs. “It is our responsibility to protect the fisheries of the Great Lakes.”
The House Committee on Natural Resources will hold a committee meeting on House Bill 5255 on Tuesday, Feb. 2 at 9:00 a.m. A press conference on a new Epic-MRA poll on commercial net-pen fish farms in the Great Lakes will be held the same day at noon in the Capitol Room 402/403.
