A Hawaiian company that specializes in fish farms took a major step toward placing one off the coast of Sarasota County after receiving a permit from the federal government.

The Environmental Protection Agency approved a permit application by Ocean Era to harvest 20,000 red drum fish in an area roughly 40 miles into the Gulf.

Ocean Era founder, Neil Anthony Sims, described it as a demonstration he hopes will show the aquaculture project is a safe and viable way to harvest fish.

"It's only going to be for 20,000 fish and that's only about 1 percent the size of a commercial fish farm and so this really is just intended as a demonstration," Sims told FOX 13 on Friday. "If this works in terms of being able to demonstrate to the Florida fishing and boating community that we can indeed do this in an environmentally responsible manner and that it is going to be a spectacular fishing spot, then we'd want to be able to go and scale this up."

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Ocean Era's aquaculture process uses net pens to harvest fish.

Sims said red drum fish are native to the Tampa Bay area but often imported and this could help make the fish more accessible.

"This is a fish that is iconic in the cuisine of the southeast," he said. "We think this is a tremendous opportunity for producing a new industry that could grow and be providing employment, be providing nutritious fish, a real great growth opportunity."

Ocean Era began the permit application process in 2018 and has faced protests and backlash from several local environmental groups.

Marianne Cufone, with the organization Recirculating Farms, believes this type of project could contribute to issues including red tide algae blooms that can devastate marine life.

"Offshore aquaculture has been associated with a number of concerns, things like water pollution, fish escapement, challenges with sharing the marine environment," Cufone said, adding she'd rather see fishing continue in a more conventional way. "We have lots of coastal communities and fishing communities in Florida who are already doing that, many of them very carefully and sustainably and thoughtfully."

Sims said his project, which is similar to one Ocean Era is conducting in Hawaii, has received support from other national environmental organizations.

He added it will be some time before any net pens are ready to be placed in the water.

Source - https://www.fox13news.com