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The New National Aquatic Animal Health Plan: What Does It Mean for Fish Farmers?
June 03, 2010 -- At the Federal level, the responsibility for protecting the health of farmed and wild fish is split between the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), the Department of the Interior U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, (FWS) and the Commerce Department’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). When a disease problem arises, all of these agencies must work together to respond. In the past, these collaborations have been fairly difficult because the agencies have different goals and responsibilities.
The USDA-APHIS focuses on aquaculture and import/export, the FWS on wild fish and NOAA on ocean aquaculture and coastal fisheries. In times of crisis, there were no emergency plans and no prior agreement describing what each agency would do. This situation has led to delayed emergency responses, problems with international trading partners and serious financial impacts for farmers.
In 2001, the aquaculture industry worked through the Joint Subcommittee on Aquaculture (JSA) and asked the three federal agencies to work together on a National Aquatic Animal Health Plan (NAAHP) that would detail how the agencies would coordinate their efforts. Read the full story to get the details.
"The good news for the aquaculture industry is that the plan is well thought out, comprehensive and sensitive to the needs of fish and shellfish farmers. This is the direct result of the three agencies’ diligent effort to seek stakeholder input and to place the responsibility for drafting the plan into the hands of agency representatives that were knowledgeable about the practices and importance of commercial aquaculture."
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