SARASOTA — After mounting pressure from environmentalists, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced this week that it will hold a public notice and comment period on a construction permit for the first finfish farm ever authorized in federal waters.
The Corps, which had previously not committed to accept public comment on the project, changed course after local community members expressed strong concerns with Hawaii-based Ocean Era’s offshore demonstration farm.
The project would raise 20,000 almaco jack, a species common in the Gulf, in an anchored chain-link mesh pen 45 miles southwest of Sarasota.
To read the rest of the story, please go to: Sarasota Herald-Tribune
