A group of opponents to American Aquafarms’ proposed salmon farm in Gouldsboro, Maine, U.S.A – have sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland seeking intervention on the project.
The letter to Haaland requests either her opposition to the project, or “at the very least” a push for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to require an environmental impact statement on the project. The letter was signed by the Friends of Frenchman Bay, Friends of Schoodic Peninsula, Friends of Eastern Bay, Protect Maine’s Fishing Heritage Foundation, Save the Bay, and Frenchman Bay United.
The letter was sent soon after Haaland visited the nearby Acadia National Park, which is located on Mount Desert Island – across a stretch of water from the aquafarm’s proposed location in Frenchman Bay.
“We were proud to have Secretary Haaland visit our community,” Jacqueline Weaver, who signed the letter on behalf of Friends of Schoodic Peninsula, said in a release. “Now that she has seen for herself how inappropriate Frenchman Bay is for an industrial project like this, we hope that she will use her considerable influence in Washington to help us.”
Organized opposition to the American Aquafarms farm emerged just months after the project was made public. American Aquafarms President and CEO Mikael Rones told SeafoodSource soon after the project was announced that community support would be important to its progress.
“We’ve been pretty clear we’re trying to work with and not against the locals and that we want to respect their wishes [and earn] support from them,” he said. “We are working closely with them so the build-up is done in a way that doesn’t harm any other industries over there.”
Despite those promises by Rones, multiple community organizations have continued to express opposition to the proposal.
“What we have seen so far from American Aquafarms is a complete lack of scientifically validated information to justify placing these experimental salmon pens in Frenchman Bay. No project using this technology has ever been attempted on such a large scale, and our research indicates that it would not even be allowed in American Aquafarms home country of Norway,” Henry Sharpe of Frenchman Bay United said in a release.
Recently, the nearby town of Bar Harbor filed to seek intervenor status with the Maine State Department of Marine Resources to have input on the permit process for the farm, and 26 fishermen based in the area filed a letter of opposition to the project.
Photo coutesy of Romie Miller/Shutterstock
