The Gulf of Mexico is now open for commercial fish farming.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced last month that, for the first time in the U.S., companies can apply to set up fish farms in federal waters.

The idea is to compete with hard-to-regulate foreign imports. But opening the Gulf to aquaculture won’t be cheap, and it could pose environmental problems.

Harlon Pearce, the owner of Harlon’s Louisiana Fish, which supplies restaurants and groceries across the South, says he welcomes the change. Around this time of year, his refrigerated warehouse outside New Orleans is stocked with catch.

“You’ve got 30,000 pounds of fish right here, or more,” he says.

He’s freezing a lot of it to keep up with year-round demand. He says he’d like to sell nationwide, to big chains like Red Lobster, but “we never have enough fish to supply the markets. Never,” he says.

That’s true for a couple of reasons. For one thing, the seafood industry in the Gulf still hasn’t bounced back from the 2010 BP oil spill. Secondly, the industry has always fluctuated, because of hurricanes and pollution.

Pearce, who is on the board of the Gulf Seafood Institute, says aquaculture could solve that.

The rest of the world is already heavily invested in farming fish. According to NOAA, 90 percent of fish in the U.S. comes from abroad and half of this is farmed. While fish farms exist in the U.S., the industry has yet to really take off. And, until now, federal waters had been off limits. The U.S. government says that opening up the Gulf to fish farms would reduce American dependence on foreign food and improve security.

“We see it as another important step in building the resiliency of our oceans and fishing communities,” says NOAA Administrator Kathryn Sullivan. “This starts with the Gulf but actually opens the door for other regions to follow suit.”

In the coming years, NOAA will issue 10-year permits to companies that want to set up shop in federal waters, generally 3 miles offshore. The farms, which look like giant floating pens, are allowed to raise fish native to the area only. In the Gulf, that means species like red drum and cobia — not salmon or tilapia.

Some say the farms will hurt struggling fishermen.

“These systems will take up real space in the ocean and displace fishermen. In fact, there are going to be buffer zones around these facilities where fishermen can’t go,” says Marianne Cufone, an adjunct professor at the environmental law clinic at Loyola University.

And she says the farms run the risk of large fish escapes, which might wreak havoc on the local ecology.

“There have been millions of fish that have escaped all over the world and are causing problems — not just genetic problems, but things like spreading diseases between captive fish and wild fish,” Cufone says. Fish food and waste could also fall out of the pens and affect other marine life.

NOAA officials say they took all of this into account already by weighing thousands of public comments and enforcing certain environmental safeguards, like constant monitoring of cages.

Raising fish in the ocean won’t be quick or easy, says Rusty Gaude, a fisheries expert with Louisiana State University. He notes that NOAA is setting a lot of environmental rules, which can be burdensome. And then there’s the threat that hurricanes pose to floating fish farms.

“These initial efforts may go through some rather painful growing pains,” he says.

But he thinks the plan will become a reality.

“Eventually, the world and the Gulf of Mexico and Louisiana will see aquaculture here in the Gulf of Mexico,” he says.

NOAA and other federal agencies say the first permits could be approved in two years.

Iran and Boeing go way back. Boeing was the largest supplier of civilian aircraft to Iran before the country’s 1979 Islamic revolution. And despite the fraught relations between the U.S. and Iran since then, Iran has kept flying those planes for decades.

As part of the recent Iranian nuclear deal and the lifting of sanctions, Boeing is once again permitted to sell planes to the Islamic Republic. And Iran desperately wants to start replacing its fleet of aging, worn-out commercial aircraft.

But don’t expect any deals anytime soon. Just last week, Iran announced preliminary plans to buy 118 planes from France-based Airbus in a deal worth roughly $27 billion.

Boeing, which is based in Chicago, says it isn’t rushing to get back into Iran, says spokesman Gordon Johndroe.

“There are many steps that need to be taken should we decide to sell airplanes to approved Iranian airlines. But for now, we continue to assess the situation,” he says.

Dr. Adam Pilarski, vice president of Avitas, an aviation consultancy group, says Boeing is wise to be cautious in any deal with Iran.

The nuclear sanctions have been lifted, and the sale of commercial aircraft are allowed. But the U.S. is keeping some sanctions against Iran in place that are linked to human rights issues and terrrorism. Pilarski says Boeing would need to clarify a number of things before working out a deal.

“There are various complicated legal issues that many lawyers have to go through,” he says, adding “For example, could any of the technology on the new aircraft be used for military purposes?”

Boeing and Airbus compete fiercely around the world for airplane sales. But Pilarski says there’s no need for Boeing to panic about getting beat to the punch in Iran. He says it’s normal for a country buying aircraft to play two companies off each other for better price leverage in negotiations. Pilarski says it’s likely Boeing is already quietly exploring a deal.

“I would be very surprised if Iran only buys airplanes from Airbus and none from Boeing. That would be a huge surprise to me. It doesn’t make sense,” he says.

Rescue workers look through the wreckage of an Iran Air Boeing 727 plane that crashed in northwest Iran as it was making an emergency landing in 2011. More than 70 of the 106 on board were killed. Iran’s aging airline fleet has had a poor safety record. Esfandiar Asgharkhani/AP hide caption

toggle caption Esfandiar Asgharkhani/AP

Ardavan Amir-Aslani, a French-Iranian lawyer who is negotiating deals with Tehran for French companies says the Airbus deal isn’t set in stone.

“The agreements that have been signed are not definite, final documents,” he says.

Amir-Aslani says financing the Airbus deal is a challenge because it has to be done without using the U.S. financial system. U.S. banks are still barred from doing business in Iran, and most foreign banks have partnerships with U.S. banks. Amir-Aslani says there’s a difference between announcing a deal with Airbus and having an actual contract in hand.

“We’re talking about memorandums of understanding or letters of intent. So the actual implementation of these contracts is going to happen over time,” he says.

Iran may have other more pressing needs for its money – from rebuilding its infrastructure to modernizing its oilfields. Richard Aboulafia, an analyst with the Teal Group, an aerospace consultancy, says Iran may decide to lease new planes, not buy them. He says losing a deal wouldn’t affect Boeing too much.

“I don’t think this matters a whole heck of a lot. I mean you’re talking about an industry that pumps out 1,400 jets a year,” he says.

Even if it doesn’t sell planes, Boeing could make a lot of money another way. Many of those old jets that Iran is still flying are in desperate need of Boeing parts and maintenance, Aboulafia says