VENTURA SHELLFISH ENTERPRISE: AN OVERVIEW OF THE CHALLENGES TO SITING LONG LINE MUSSEL FARMS IN FEDERAL WATERS OFF CALIFORNIA

Increasing the supply of safe, sustainably produced domestic seafood is a priority for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Department of Commerce. The Ventura Shellfish Enterprise (VSE)  project is an initiative that seeks to permit commercial  mussel shellfish aquaculture operations c onsistent with this objective. The farms are to be located in federal waters outside Ventura Harbor, California.  The permits will be held by the Ventura Port District and leased to qualified companies, who must land all product within Ventura Harbor and follow Best Management Practices developed in concert with the US Army Corps of Engineers,  California  Coastal Commission, NOAA , and National Marine Fisheries. The current complexities and costs associated with the aquaculture permitting process represent a significant barrier to expansion of the industry.  The VSE project seeks to address several regulatory and planning challenges that effectively limit the development of domestic marine shellfish culture.  

The  key elements of this innovative project include :

• Developing a technically sound strategy to successfully obtain government entitlements necessary to establish twenty 100-acre aquaculture permits in federal waters of the Santa Barbara Channel, proximate to Ventura Harbor;
• Implement ing  this strategy and obtain the necessary permits and entitlements, and complete associated environmental review documents;
• Developing an effective monitoring and reporting program to monitor environmental impacts and evaluate project progress;
• Collaborating with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and NOAA's Seafood Inspection Program to ensure future landed product has a pathway for compliance with the National Shellfish Sanitation Program (NSSP) guidelines for shellfish grown in federal waters; and
• Preparing grower/producers for successful farming of the growing areas through business planning, training, and technology transfer.

When fully operational, the project is anticipated to provide up to 20 million pounds per year of Mediterranean mussels (Mytilus galloprovincialis)  that will be landed in Ventura Harbor.  This presentation will provide a  focused review  of  the significant permitting and operational  design challenges facing  the VSE project ,  and describe the  tools used to  date to  manage each  project element.