JUNE 22, 2022 - View article
by Sarah Craighead Dedmon
At their town meetings on June 27, residents of Machiasport and Cutler will consider placing a 180-day moratorium on industrial-scale aquaculture developments, in order to then consider the creation of municipal aquaculture ordinances.
Crystal Canney of Protect Maine’s Fishing Heritage Foundation spoke to Machiasport residents at their June 16 public hearing, which was moderated by Betsy Fitzgerald.
“A moratorium gives towns a chance to take a breath and consider, what do we want the remaining waters of our town to look like?” said Canney, whose organization has suggested the moratoriums to several Downeast towns, including Machiasport, Cutler, Addison, and Winter Harbor. Beals passed a moratorium last month, and Jonesport will consider one this summer.
Machiasport is today the U.S. footprint of the Canadian fish farming company Cooke Aquaculture, which processes salmon in its Bucks Harbor factory and locally employs 110 people who work in and around the Machias Bay.
Cooke previously also operated sites in Washington until 2018, when salmon farming was banned in Washington state waters.
Neither a moratorium nor any resulting ordinances would be retroactive, which means the existing salmon farm sites of Cooke Aquaculture would not be impacted.
Machiasport’s public hearing lasted 30 minutes and was also attended by members of the aquaculture industry, including Cooke representatives and Sebastian Belle of the Maine Aquaculture Association. As discussion canvassed the impacts of fish fecal matter accumulations on the ocean floor, Belle said there are no recorded cases of finfish aquaculture causing bacterial closures for other fisheries.
“What we have learned in Maine over the years is that the trick to farming, whether finfish or seaweed or shellfish, is to farm in the carrying capacity of the local system,” said Belle. “When you do that, you’re putting nutrients into the environment.”
Cooke Aquaculture is currently the only salmon aquaculture farm in Maine. A Norwegian firm, American Aquafarms, recently filed an appeal against the rejection of its application for two 60-acre sites in Frenchman’s Bay near Acadia National Park, which was denied by the Maine Department of Marine Resources.
Smaller-scale aquaculture leases, such as those issued for seaweed or shellfish, would not be impacted by the proposed moratorium or subsequent ordinance.