A22-Lancasfer Farming, Saturday, November 7, 1998
(Continued from last
week.)
VERNON ACHENBACH JR,
Lancaster Farming Staff
HARRISBURG (Dauphin
Co.) When Pennsylvania’s
new Aquaculture Development
Law goes into effect mid-
December it is expected to help
one of the stale’s fastest growing
enterprises blossom.
With the stroke of a pen, Gov.
Tom Ridge recently signed into
law wording that both officially
recognizes aquaculture as a branch
of agriculture, and also provides
directives for slate agencies to
work cooperatively toward foster
ing the growth of the industry.
The staled purposes of the law,
are;
• “To encourage aquacultural
operators to make a long-term
commitment to aquaculture by
offering them the same protections
afforded other agricultural
practices.
• To reduce lire amount of gov
ernmental agencies with jurisdic
tion over aquaculture, by transfer
ring authority over commercial
aquacultural operations to the
Department of Agriculture.
•To encourage further develop-
ment of the aquacultural industry
by including aquaculture in any
and all promotional and other eco
nomic developmental programs
which are made available to other
industry sectors.”
The law directs the state Depart
ment of Agriculture to develop a
plan to promote and develop the
aquaculture industry, and imple
ment the plan as regulations of the
department.
A2l -member advisory commit
tee is also to be formed with the
responsibility of drafting a plan for
the development of aquaculture
prior to Dec. 31, 1999.
The chairman of lire committee
is to be the secretary of agriculture,
or a designee.
Other ex officio members (or
designees representing such offi
cials) are to be the secretaries of
the state departments of Environ
mental Protection, and Communi
ty and Economic Development;
the executive director of the state
Fish and Boat Commission; the
chairmen and minority chairmen
of the House and Senate Ag and
Rural Affairs committees, and the
chairmen and minority chairmen
of the House and Senate Game and
Fisheries committees.
Nine appointed members are all
to be active producers in their
respective industries, as well as
stale residents.
There are to be three producers
of cold water fishes; one producer
of warm water fishes; one produc
er working with an indoor facility
(die other two fish production
industries are currently practiced
as primarily outdoor activities); a
person who supplies products or
provides services for the aquacul
ture industry; an aquacullural
wholesaler, food broker or food
merchant; an aquanum or oma
mental species aquacullural mer
chant, and a representative of the
sport fishing industry
The law also directs die Pen
nsylvania Agricultural Statistics
Service (PASS a joint federal
state service) to conduct a survey
of aquacullural activity in the state
every two years
The new law defines “aquacul
ture” as, “A form of agriculture
which Is the controlled cultivation
of aquatic plants, animals and
microogranisms.”
While Pennsylvania is already
fourth in the nation in commercial
Aquaculture Is Agriculture In Pennsylvania
trout production, it has a variety of
other aquacultural operations
ranging from goldfish and related
ornamental koi, to types of baitfish
and foodfishes.
There are closed-system facili
ties (whereby water is recirculated
and kept isolated from common
wealth waters), and open-ended
facilities (where water is diverted
from springs, wells or surface
sources, and empty into common
wealth surface waters).
A number of high school agri
cultural projects involving the rais
ing of tilapia, also known as St.
John’s fish, already exist in some
school districts where such hands
on agricultural science education
is still being used (as a practical
lab) in coordination with class
room instruction.
Those school facilities are
among some of the more common
examples of closed-system
facilities.
The new law provides some
grandfathering of existing facili
ties around the slate, recognizing
the low-environmental impact of
aquacultural facilities, and pro
vides for general permits for oper
ation under the National Pollution
Discharge Elimination System
(NPDES).
It also limits the fees, and
changes an annual permit to a five
year permit.
The law also addresses some
interstate commerce and biosccur-
ity concerns.
While the law restricts the
import of fish from sources that
have not been approved as testing
free of diseases of concern, there
are no specific diseases of concern
yet established. The Advisory
Committee is to determine what
they are.
Supporters and framers of the
law take the position that while the
law allows Pennsylvania to restrict
some imports based upon poten
tially dangerous diseases, it docs
not attempt to impose a disease
free status for aquaculture.
In real life, attempting to create
a disease-free animal population is
a certainty for failure. Except for
perhaps some specialized colonies
of animals raised for scientific
research, the chances of finding,
much less maintaining a stock of
completely disease-free food ani
mals is most likely impossible, and
certainly not profitable.
However, the law does allow for
biosecurily of the state’s aquacul
tural industry.
It outlines a system for the pre
vention of aquacullural imports
carrying diseases that are not wide
ly found in Pennsylvania.
According to the law, “Sources
may be preapproved by (the Pen
nsylvania Department of Agricul
ture) for an entire calendar year.
Denials shall be restricted to those
sources where diseases are nonen
dcmic to tliis commonwealth...” as
well as for any disease associated
with the source that are of concern,
based upon the recommendation of
the Aquaculture Advisory
Committee
The law is clear about who can
and who can not propagate fish
“Except lor hobby breeders,
artificial propagation of any spe
cies of fish is limited to those who
have registered ... .
“Artificial propagation by any
one, whether or not registered, is
limited to those species of fish
approved ..." by law or by regula
tion of PDA.
Penalties for selling, offering to
sell, or purchasing prohibited fish
with a market or sale value of $5O
or more is guilty of a misdemeanor
of the third degree. For values of
less than $5O, the offense if a mis
demeanor of the first degree.
Somewhat related to the regular
business of aquaculture, the law
also includes a section that consid
ers the fate of two federal fish
research stations in Pennsylvania
The federal research stations are
considered to be state-of-the art
facilities, but are largely unused,
for lack of federal funds to staff the
facilities, as well as a lack of feder
al research projects to cany out.
According to some in the aqua
cultural community, allowing the
federal research stations to deter
iorate is frustrating, as well as
wasteful of millions of tax dollars.
The law states, “The Depart
ment of Agriculture is directed to
analyze needs for aquacultural
research to determine the desira
bility and feasibility of acquiring
via a public or private consortium
one or both of the federal fish
research stations ... should either
or both ... become available.”
Overall, the law is expected to
provide aquaculture with a helping
hand, instead of a halting hand.
According to Leo Dunn, aqua
culture coordinator for PDA, “We
receive several requests every
week for information about how to
start an aquaculture facility. This
legislation shows Pennsylvania’s
commitment to encourage further
aquaculture development."
As past president of the National
Association of State Aquaculture
Coordinators, Dunn said Pennsyl
vania gets high marks for enacting
a law that targets development of
the industry.
It is the fastest growing sector of
United State’s agriculture, and in
Pennsylvania has been growing at
a rate of 5 percent every year. The
state is the 11 largest aquaculture
slate in the nation based on value
of products.
State Secretary of Agriculture
Samuel E. Hayes Jr. said aquacul
ture is part of Pennsylvania’s
heritage.
“Records dating back to the time
of Benjamin Franklin show that
aquaculture was one of Pennsylva
nia’s first agricultural practices.
Pennsylvania is the fourth largest
trout-producing state in the nation.
“Most people don’t realize that
Pennsylvania is home for two of
the nation's largest goldfish and
koi farms most of which are
exported to Europe for garden
ponds,” Hayes said.
Further, he noted that the slate is
home for two internationally rec
ognized aquaculture feed
companies.
Renee (Swank) Ecklcy, presi
dent of the United Slates Trout
Fanners Association, the oldest
aquaculture association in the
nation, and president of Limestone
Spring Trout Hatchery in Rich
land, Lebanon County, has been
involved with the Issue for some
lime.
Ecklcy became involved with
aquaculture in 1981, taking a labor
position at Limestone Springs
starling out by picking out the dead
or near dead fish in rearing
raceways.
The facility had been a family
owned and operated fee fishing
and live stocking business that was
abandoned in the mid-19705. It
was restarted by another group of
investor* in 1980, during a job
crunch in the region.
With many people out of high-
From the left, state Aquaculture Coordinator Leo Dura
seating the state Aquaculture Association, say they are [i
Aquaculture Development Law. The two are standing in fro
ium display in the lobby of the state Department of Agriculti
Blauch commercially raises hybrid striped bass at a facilt
River.
paying, low-tech unionized found
ary and mining jobs, the few labor
jobs created with the restart of
Limestone Springs were
welcomed.
After a year and a half, the oper
ation expanded into a fish process
ing operation, and Eckley was sent
there to work and manage it. After
three years of managing the pro
cessing operation, she returned to
the main operation where she
learned the administration, and is
now serving as president of the
business.
During that lime, she also
earned a law degree and passed the
Pennsylvania Bar examination.
She said the new aquaculture
law is very welcome to the aqua
culture industry for a number of
reasons, especially being defined
as agriculture and having the state
Department of Agriculture oversee
the industry, instead of many state
and federal agencies having their
various and confusing concerns
forced upon the aquaculture
industry.
“Being under one department,
and that being tht Department of
Agriculture, that defines what our
industry is, which is farming,” she
said. “And now that we have
become part of agriculture, that
will help to protect and conserve
and help our industry grow.”
In addition to consolidating
oversight of the industry into one
state department, aquaculture is
also expected to receive great
relief ftom government legal con
tradictions and wrangling.
For government to work with a
real industry, it must have a legally
defined or construed responsibility
and obligation to do so. Agencies
can and arc bound to pursue
actions within a legal framework.
Unlcss it is legally authorized or
justifiable, an agency can not
spend whatever funds it wanks to
help just any individual or organi
zation. The authority for an agency
to act, allocate resources or consid
er Issues concerning an organiza
tion or industry arc ideally spelled
out in law.
For aquaculture in Pcnnsylvani
a, it has for many years been in a
state of uncertainly depending
on the lime and the political arena,
there have been discussions over
the years as to how fish manure
; s
Hi'M
1 $1
i -ws
I v ?
was to be considered (as a harm
less manure acceptable as a soil
amendment, or as an industrial
waste subject to expense tests and
dumpted at specialized landfills),
how the industry was to deal with
labor issues, taxing issues, envir
onmental issues, etc.,
The new legal clarificadon of
aquaculture as agriculture is of
great legal and operational
importance.
“We have a legal definition of
what agriculture is, in our state, so
that any regulation in the future, it
will be clear what aquaculture is
and what we do,” Ecklcy said.
Some of the ongoing problems
that have been facing some aqua
culture sectors, such as trout farm
ing, have to deal with wildlife
predation.
For land-based agriculturalists,
it has been clear for years that the
state Game Commission Code
allows for farmers to kill certain
wildlife causing damage to crops
or livestock.
Years ago, the stale Game Code
included fish rearing ponds as
operations with the authority to kill
wildlife breaking into facilities and
helping themselves to large and
frequent meals.
Just as what happens when a
wild Pennsylvania black bear dis
covers an open municipal dump,
once most individual wildlife dis
covers easy pickings, it is difficult
if not impossible to dissuade the
wildlife from returning for more.
Pennsylvania trout and fish
farming operations occasionally
have problems with individual
birds, such as great blue herons,
green herons, and other fish-eating
birds killing and eating large quan
tities of fish, especially fingerlings
and fry.
In recent years, while the federal
government provided Pennsylva
nia trout farmers with permits to
kill specific problem birds, the
stale Game Commission refused to
co-aulhori/e the permits, render
ing them invalid.
The Game Commission refused
10 do so, because aquaculture was
not specifically defined as agricul
ture and the modem Game Code
only authorized jdlling wildlife to
protect agricultural crops.
(Turn to Page A 23)