Will U.S. get hooked on ocean fish farms? Some hope not

WASHINGTON -- The way Mark Vinsel sees it; ocean fishermen are the last of a dying breed in a hunting-gathering tradition that stretches back into history.

But Vinsel fears the days are not long before fishermen go the way of America's small farmers, who are being squeezed off lands by the growth of agribusiness and commercial farming operations.

"The oceans belong to everybody _ they should not be fenced off and sold off to the highest bidder," says Vinsel, a Juneau artist and the executive director of United Fishermen of Alaska. Fish-farm technologies can't improve upon nature, or produce fish any cheaper, Vinsel noted: "The way I look at it, a healthy ocean system is natural and cannot be improved upon."

Vinsel and others are alarmed by Bush administration moves to open up areas off the United States to fish farms, where fish are raised in huge underwater nets.

Source: Scripps Howard News Service