The first applicant to propose an offshore finfish aquaculture operation in the Gulf of Mexico EEZ was Seafish Mariculture L.L.C. (SeaFish Mariculture), which received final approval from the Corps, Galveston District, on July 3, 1997 (Waldemar Nelson International Inc.; 2001). A week later, NMFS published in the Federal Register a notice of receipt of SeaFish Mariculture’s application for an exempted fishing permit (EFP) and a request for public comments (62 FR 132). In its application for an EFP, SeaFish Mariculture stated its purpose was to study over a 26-month period whether it is feasible to grow commercial quantities of native fish species in the offshore environment of the Gulf of Mexico using aquaculture techniques. To do so, it would place hatchery-raised juvenile fish in 3 cages attached to working oil and gas platforms located approximately 48 nautical miles south-southwest of Freeport, Texas; feed them; allow them to grow for approximately 12 months; harvest them from the cages; land them in Texas; and sell them.
SeaFish Mariculture received the first EFP for a marine finfish aquaculture project in the Gulf of Mexico EEZ in October 1997.