skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Tuesday, June 17, 2025

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

American Bar Association sues Trump administration over executive orders targeting law firms; Florida universities face budget scrutiny as part of 'anti-woke' push; After Hortman assassination, MN civic trainers dig deeper for bipartisanship.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Political tensions rise after Minnesota assassinations. Trump's DOJ demands sweeping election data from Colorado. Advocates mark LGBTQIA+ pay inequity, and U.S. and U.K. reach a new trade deal.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

EV charging stations are harder to find in rural America, improving the mental health of children and teachers is the goal of a new partnership in seven rural states, and a once segregated Mississippi movie theater is born again.

Industrial aquaculture poised to grow under second Trump administration

play audio
Play

Monday, February 10, 2025   

The Trump administration aims to increase domestic seafood production through industrial aquaculture but opponents said it puts Maine's coastal communities at risk.

Floating cages holding thousands of fish can harm native ecosystems by releasing pathogens and parasites into the ocean, harming the wild stocks on which local fisheries depend.

George Kimbrell, legal director at the Center for Food Safety, said aquaculture permits could be fast-tracked as proposed during Trump's first term.

"What we saw then and what we anticipate now is mirroring what the Trump administration has done in other areas, which is unfettered deregulation of industry," Kimbrell observed.

Supporters of large-scale aquaculture said it can help meet the growing demand for seafood while easing pressure on depleted fisheries but Kimbrell countered wild forage stocks are being overharvested
to ensure fish farms have enough fish food.

Small-scale aquaculture, including shellfish and marine plant farms, is boosting local Maine economies and creating jobs. Conservation groups argued large fin fish farms are similar to land-based concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, which create harmful amounts of waste and reduce jobs through automation.

Kimbrell explained the Trump administration wants more of them in federal waters.

"Establishing CAFOs of the sea is going to be very similar to what we've seen in Iowa and all across the U.S. in terms of its dramatic environmental impacts and its failure to provide an economic support for those communities," Kimbrell contended. "Instead of farmers, it will be fishers that will be displaced."

Kimbrell encouraged people to make informed decisions about their seafood and to support sustainably managed wild fisheries along with the nonprofits working to protect the ocean.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has already identified so-called "aquaculture opportunity areas" starting in the Gulf of Mexico. Public comments on the permits are being accepted through Feb. 20.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
The California Civil Rights Department website includes tips on how to file a complaint under state LGBTQ+ antidiscrimination laws. (Leonidkos/Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

Today is LGBTQIA+ Equal Pay Awareness Day and California advocates are speaking out against federal attacks on workplace protections. On his first …


Environment

play sound

Ohio food banks are urging state lawmakers to approve what they said is a modest budget increase needed to get more fresh, local produce into the …

play sound

By Michael Vasquez for The Hechinger Report.Broadcast version by Trimmel Gomes for Florida News Connection reporting for The Hechinger Report-Public N…


Christina Eastman, a fifth-generation farmer who is a co-founder of Farmers Against Foster Farms. Her farm is located next to a proposed CAFO site which has now been blocked. (Kendra Kimbirauskas)

Environment

play sound

By Nina B. Elkadi for Sentient Climate.Broadcast version by Isobel Charle for Oregon News Service reporting for the Sentient-Public News Service …

Social Issues

play sound

Some 7,000 people are expected to attend this week's Psychedelic Science conference in Denver and public health activists are spotlighting the potenti…

Humanities experts said facts are important but when a person starts a political conversation armed with bravado instead of curiosity, they are already losing in their attempt to be civically engaged. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

As Minnesotans process this weekend's shooting attacks on lawmakers, they are surrounded by talking points about turning down the political …

Social Issues

play sound

The weekend assassination of Minnesota lawmaker Melissa Hortman is seen by many as a setback in recruiting future civic leaders who seek out bipartisa…

play sound

The mayor of a rural Utah town said the clean energy investments and tax credits created by the Inflation Reduction Act are helping drive economic gro…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021