As the creditor banks&rsquo bailout plan for Pescanova is said to have received backing from almost 70% of creditors, the future for the company&rsquo s aquaculture businesses is looking uncertain.

New Pescanova, the company that will result from the restructuring plan should creditors back it, will continue focusing on fishing and processing, but will have to pull a damper on  the aquaculture adventure started more than a decade ago by the company&rsquo s former chairman Manuel Fernandez de Sousa Faro, reported the local newspaper,  La Voz de Galicia.

According to the newspaper, the  Spanish multinational will not be allowed to spend the &euro 125 million capital injection proposed in new restructuring plan on its aquaculture businesses.

The National Organic Standards Board' s (NOSB) spring meeting concluded on Friday with zero progress on establishing approved substances for organic aquaculture standards.

The only organic  aquaculture issue up for discussion on the  agenda  was a vote on 10 substances  to approve as usable under the USDA organic standard, but the board voted to delay any vote on the substances until the final rule on aquaculture standards &mdash which is currently in the midst of a multi-step government process &mdash become final, Jim Pierce, who attended the meeting as representation for organic certification company Oregon Tilth, told  Undercurrent News.

George Lockwood, chairman of the Aquaculture Working Group (AWG) assigned initially as an advisor to the NOSB, called the meeting " discouraging" in an update he sent out to stakeholders.

Questions over the use of carbon dioxide for use in growing aquatic plants  caused confusion, and the AWG was not there to defend its position on its use, which contributed to the NOSB' s decision to  delay its vote, he said. He calls out the leadership of Miles McEvoy,   deputy administrator for the National Organic Program (NOP), as a major stumbling block.

" In my mind, all of this is due to the unwillingness of Miles McEvoy to allow the AWG to do its job of providing expert advice to NOSB on aquaculture matters," said Lockwood, who  had expected problems at the meeting  due to the AWG not being given funding to travel to the meeting, as it has in the past.  The AWG worked closely with the NOP from 2006 to 2010, he said but the USDA toldUndercurrent  AWG' s official advisory role is no longer official.

" AWG was assigned by NOP in 2009 the task of preparing petitions for essential materials, and then when NOSB began their work, we were deliberately prohibited from interacting with them," contends Lockwood. 

Glimmer of hope slashed as delay pattern re-ignites

The USDA expected progress to come this year, and for USDA standards for organic aquaculture to be finalized by the end of the year, a USDA representative told conference-goers at the Aquaculture Americas conference in Seattle in January.

Yet with this recent delay &mdash a sign that a pattern of past delays is continuing &mdash are signs that the pattern of delays is continuing, say  Lockwood and Pierce.

Pierce said the process for establishing a proposed rule on organic aquaculture standards is likely to take at least two years. He and members of the Aquaculture Working Group (AWG), which served as an advisory group to the NOSB on organic aquaculture for the first few years of the process, are far less optimistic on the timeline than the USDA, which says it aims to have the draft rule out and available for public comment by the end of the year.

As a result of the lack of vote on approved substances, once the aquaculture standards do come out, they will not be usable because no substances have been approved as allowed under the standards, barring any working aquaculture operation from qualifying for certification.

This setback sits on top of a stack of grievances aquaculture stakeholders have come to carry through this organic standards process, considering the timeline is continually pushed back by the board,  George Lockwood, chair of the Aquaculture Working Group, told  Undercurrent.

In a letter to interested stakeholders, Lockwood said that the lack of decision comes as a result of the AWG being shut out of discussions. While the USDA maintains that the AWG was welcome to come to the meeting, USDA spokesperson Samuel Jones-Ellard told  Undercurrent  the group' s official advisory role to the NOSB has ended.

" This decision by [McEvoy]  has two serious consequences," Lockwood wrote. " The first is that NOSB members are left to their imaginations to speculate how our petitioned materials are used in aquaculture rather than to actually know how they are used."

" The second consequence is that by completely eliminating AWG from discussions, we are viewed in a very negative and hostile light. We have not been allowed to build credibility. During the period from 2005 and 2010 when we worked closely with NOSB members in developing the recommended rules, we were able to build considerable confidence and credibility. Without our participation whatsoever, this good working relationship is missing and has caused considerable damage."

On top of a seeming lack of political will to move forward with pieces of the approval process is the time-consuming structure that is already in place for processes like theses.

" The materials have not even begun the government process," Tilth notes, adding that once they do enter the process, a lot of time will have already passed simply getting the organic standards for aquaculture approved. " In my estimation it will b five to six years at minimum before ehtere are aquacutlure standards."

Aquaculture Working Group chairman George Lockwood said he does not believe the NOSB' s promises on its timeline anymore.

The NOSB said at the meeting that it expects to have aquaculture standards done by the end of the year.

" I have considerable doubts if that will happen." Lockwood said. " It is unclear what will happen next within NOSB and NOP relative to both our petitions and the content of the Final Rule. Clearly our absence at this NOSB  meeting worked against us."

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