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INDIANAPOLIS — The federal government is moving to open up large swaths of coastal waters to fish farming for the first time in an effort to decrease Americans’ dependence on imports and satisfy their growing appetite for seafood.
Federal officials and fish farmers say the new push will create jobs and help allay concerns about importing seafood from countries with weak environmental regulations, but conservationists worry that expanding fish farms far offshore will threaten the oceans’ health.
More than four-fifths of the fish, clams, oysters and other seafood that Americans ate in 2009 was imported, according to the latest figures from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
