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Ecosystem and Public Health Risks from Nearshore and Offshore Finfish Aquaculture

According to a report by researchers at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Department of Environmental Health and Engineering, expanding nearshore finfish aquaculture or establishing an offshore industry in the US carries significant risks to aquatic ecosystems and public health. The major issues they found were: large numbers of recent farmed fish escapes; infectious disease outbreaks on farms; development of drug resistant parasites and bacteria; persistence of veterinary drugs in the environment; fish waste causing local and regional ecosystem impacts; and dangers that could cause elevated rates of injury and death among workers.