April 17, 2023 — NOAA Fisheries released a scoping report on potential aquaculture sites off the coast of Southern California as part of an ongoing federal process to identify aquaculture sites, and was then faced with a small protest against fish farms.
Protesters converged on NOAA’s offices in Long Beach, California following the 29 March release of a scoping report on an environmental impact statement (EIS) covering potential aquaculture sites in Southern California’s Santa Barbara Channel and Santa Monica Bay. Protestors, the Santa Barbara Independent reported, had gravestones reading “RIP humpback whales” in protest of establishing any aquaculture sites in the region.