Machiasport Officials to Review and Amend Previously Rejected Aquaculture Ordinance

By Paul Sylvain

This story originally appeared in the Machias Valley News Observer.

Machiasport residents, who on June 24 voted down a commercial aquaculture ordinance, will get to vote on an amended, less restrictive version of that ordinance sometime this fall.

That's following a plea to reconsider the ordinance by Protect Maine's Fishing Heritage Executive Director Crystal Canney at the July 22 selectboard meeting.

Newly elected selectboard member Sarah Craighead Dedmon opened the discussion saying, Canney "reached out to me in my new role and shared that she feels a sense of urgency for the town to reconsider the ordinance that was narrowly defeated at the town meeting. I said that I would be happy to help her come and speak to the town again and see what the town's wishes are."

As Canney explained, Protect Maine approached the town nearly two years ago with a model aquaculture ordinance for consideration. The selectboard reviewed the ordinance and presented it to the town's voters.

Bob Mercer, who was on the planning board at the time, explained how his board got involved, "It wasn't a question of the planning board wanting a chance to review it," opined Mercer. The selectboard reviewed it and approved it for a presentation to the town. The planning board never even got a look at it. We were totally and completely blind-sided at an earlier] town meeting."

The planning board "is supposed to be the ones leading the effort on ordinances," stressed Mercer. "We needed to have a chance to look at this. We did take a look at it, and we felt there were things we didn't like in it as it pertained to Cooke. Cooke provides a lot of jobs in town. So, for various reasons, we chose to go down a path we thought would be less threatening to Cooke." Mercer said of the June 24 town meeting,

"I believe that the vast majority of the objection was because the ordinance was too restrictive as it relates to small aquaculture businesses. We had said that this relates to commercial (aquaculture).

The intent was to only have one big commercial aquaculture business in town because we didn't want another Cooke. So, we went ahead and defined 'commercial' as being those who employ more than two employees."

Mercer said the planning board picked that number "out of the air" and would have readily amended the ordinance to change the number.

"If we'd have had any of that input while we were putting together the ordinance." He added, "We couldn't have cared less, but I think that's what actually sunk the ordinance was because it was deemed to be too restrictive to a small-time aquaculturist."

Machiasport has a sort of love-hate relationship with Cooke Aquaculture. While Cooke provides many jobs and undoubtedly helps Machiasport's tax base, it doesn't erase concerns about impacts on prime fishing grounds. With Canney at the selectboard meeting was Penobscot Shellfish Conservation Committee member Bailey Bowden.

Bowden suggested the town's lobster fishermen have good reason to be concerned.

"We were faced a few years ago with a proposal for an aquaculture lease, and all the town people and fishermen came forward," said Bowden, adding that the Maine Department of Marine Resources "really didn't care about what we had to say."

Said Bowden, "Some of our commercial lobstermen were going to be displaced by this lease. We were going to lose (ocean bottom that was significant to their fishery, and DMR ignored their own criteria and policies that you can't just displace an existing fishery. So that didn't really sit well with the people of Penobscot."

Interestingly enough, DMR "made the lease so restrictive that it wasn't profitable, so the oyster grower withdrew the lease and canceled the project on his own," Bowden said. "So we kind of floundered for several years, wondering what can we do, and we were listening to DMR say, "You can't really do anything, we rule the ocean.""

Protect Maine came along with an ordinance containing model language and pointed out that home rule applied in aquaculture. Said Bowden, "The town quickly formed an aquaculture committee and came up with an ordinance based on Protect Maine's ordinance."

"The Protect Maine ordinance defines industrial scale aquaculture as five acres or larger," Bowden said.

"In Penobscot, we limited it to half an acre. We're making sure that any aquaculture that goes in is Mom and Pop scale, which is exactly what we want - owner operated - and it's not going to be turned into a multi-international operation."

"Right or wrong, our agenda was not to damage Cooke," Mercer said.

"Lots of jobs. Lots of people depend on them. We just wanted to make sure we didn't get another Cooke in here, and we certainly wanted to increase the monitoring of Cooke.

But we didn't want to in any way stifle their ability to do business."

Canney pointed out that Protect Maine's model ordinance had undergone legal review at its expense, and, therefore, would stand by the language vetted in its ordinance. Towns can tweak the ordinance as they see fit, but Protect Maine will not defend legal questions involving any language that was changed by the town.

Penobscot Shellfish Conservation Committee member Bailey Bowden (left) on July 22 detailed his town's experience with commercial aquaculture and adoption of Protect Maine's model aquaculture ordinance. Protect Maine's Fishing Heritage Executive Director Crystal Canney (right) urged the Machiasport selectboard to revise and reconsider a commercial aquaculture ordinance rejected by voters at the June 24 annual town meeting. Photos courtesy Paul Sylvain.

Penobscot, Winter Harbor, Waldoboro, and Cutler have already adopted Protect Maine’s model ordinance in whole or in large part. Canney said Cutler’s voters actually approved a more restrictive version.

Canney said she was concerned with giving Cooke “exclusive use” of the waters in Machiasport. Mercer was quick to reply “Let’s be clear”, said Mercer, “We didn’t just give them [exclusive use of the water]. We stated that there can only be one. We didn’t say it had to be Cooke. The intent there was not to drive them out, but to be dog-gone sure we didn’t get another one.”

The planning board will review the ordinances and most likely revise the number of employees permitted by small, home-grown, aquaculture businesses in Machiasport. If the town cannot get it on the November 5 ballot, Machiasport voters can expect to see it come up for reconsideration at a special town meeting sometime this fall.