The California Coastal Commission on Wednesday approved the state’s first aquaculture farm to be located in federal waters about eight miles offshore of Long Beach.
Known as Catalina Sea Ranch, the facility by KZO Sea Farms will primarily grow Mediterranean mussels on 45 lines anchored in the sea floor and suspended horizontally by buoys from a depth of a few feet to 200 feet, in a 100-acre patch of ocean near two existing oil production platforms.
The willingness of KZO to agree to extensive monitoring for its first-of-a-kind project helped earn unanimous approval from commissioners.
Phillip Cruver, co-founder of Long Beach-based KZO, said the ranch, which was previously approved by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, will “put a small dent” in the nation’s $10-billion annual seafood importation deficit.
According to National Marine Fishery Service data, 33.7 million pounds of live farmed mussels were imported into the United States in 2012, most of it from Prince Edward Island in eastern Canada.
“We could grow our own (mussels) and save that 3,500 air miles of carbon footprint,” Cruver told the commission.
Organizations like Heal the Bay, though not opposed to the project, argued for frequent inspections and video reviews of the site.
“I think it’s imperative that we are monitoring almost every aspect of this project,” said Dana Murray, a Heal the Bay marine and coastal scientist.
She also was concerned about KZO’s plan to cultivate nonnative Pacific oysters, but Coastal Commission staff said the species, though not native, has already been introduced to California waters and is the No. 1 planted and harvested oyster in the state.
Concerns were ameliorated further when KZO said it would consent to monitoring at the facility beyond the five years outlined in its consistency certification.
Catalina Sea Ranch’s business plan calls for six years of operation to produce a good return for investors, though the life of the equipment is 10 years, according to Cruver.
He told the Los Angeles News Group last year that the farm could produce 774,000 pounds of mussels and 18,000 pounds of oysters in the first year of operation worth more than $1.5 million.
