Free Republic

Fishermen who offload at Shrimp Landing in Crystal River could share the Gulf of Mexico someday with huge cages growing what they now go out and catch. Robert Gill, owner of the fish house and commercial dock, said fishermen might fret about competition from fish farming if they weren't so worried about dwindling domestic stocks and rising imports that now account for 80 percent of seafood on American plates. About half those imports come from foreign fish farms. The United States shares less than 1 percent of a $70 billion global aquaculture business. To Gill that means the United States...

Thirty-three miles west-southwest of John's Pass, in a part of the Gulf of Mexico where the water is more than 100 feet deep, a Madeira Beach company wants to start a farm. The crop: fish. The company's plan calls for raising thousands of cobia, amberjack and other species in conical net cages anchored to the sandy bottom. Once the fish are big enough, they would be sold to seafood companies. If Florida Offshore Aquaculture gets federal permits for a two-year experiment, the company's founders will establish the first fish farm ever attempted off Florida's coast, and one of the first...