The local government in Gouldsboro, Maine, U.S.A. has asked American Aquafarms finance an independent environmental review on the company’s proposed aquaculture operation in Frenchman Bay, the Ellsworth American reported.
The company first announced plans to build a closed-pen salmon aquaculture facility in the town in October 2020, and the company’s CEO told SeafoodSource it aims to produce up to 30,000 metric tons (MT) of salmon a year at the farm. Since that time, opposition to the project has developed, with multiple opponent groups pushing for federal intervention in the project.
At a hearing in July, local residents pushed the Gouldsboro Select Board to push for an independent environmental assessment, along with a 92-signature letter expressing opposition to American Aquafarm’s project.
“It is our opinion that this would be a disaster for the environment (on land, sea, and air), the vital, local lobstering business, other fishing and small aquaculture businesses, residents and the health of the tourist trade, which supports thousands of local workers,” the letter to the selectmen reads.
Residents also floated the possibility of holding a referendum on the project by collecting enough signatures to put it on the ballot, according to the newspaper.
A recent article in Maine Public also highlighted local business opposition. Sarah Redmond, co-founder of Springtide Seaweed, told Maine Public the project isn’t suitable for the area. Frenchman’s Bay is within a short distance of Acadia National Park.
"We are right at the foot of Acadia National Park. It's just this amazing mountain range that rears up out of the ocean and it's a very, very unique feature on the eastern seaboard. With very little development in this bay, and for the coastline in America and especially in New England, this is very rare," Redmond told Maine Public.
American Aquafarms Project Development Director Thomas J. Brennan told SeafoodSource last month the company is open to “rational concerns” on the project, but that a lot of the opposition to the project isn’t based on the realities of its methods.
“There’s a lot of hyperbole involved, and I think it’s pretty apparent to me that regardless of what the facts are, the ‘opposition’ are just against the project,” he said. “This technology does not contribute waste to the environment, and in fact, the waste is by and large collected and brought to shore, and dried, and converted to a fuel to make energy.”
Request for comment from American Aquafarms on the latest decision by the select board had not been responded to as of deadline.
Elsewhere in Maine, a water discharge permit granted to The Kingfish Company for its land-based aquaculture facility being built in Jonesport is being challenged by the local chapter of environmental non-governmental organization The Sierra Club.
According to Maine Public, The Sierra Club is appealing a permit issued by Department of Environmental Protection, arguing the DEP did not give sufficient consideration to impacts on sensitive eelgrasses.
A Kingfish Company spokesperson issued a brief statement in response to a request for SeafoodSource for comment on the appeal.
“We are reviewing the appeal and awaiting further information from the DEP,” the spokesperson said.
The Kingfish Company received a separate permit critical to its plans in Maine in September 20020, when the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands approved the company’s submerged lands lease application. That approval gave the company permission to install discharge pipes on submerged lands in Chandler Bay.
Kingfish Company CEO Ohad Maiman told SeafoodSource at the time that the permitting for the intake and discharge pipes is critical for the operation of a successful land-based recirculating aquaculture facility like the one the company is proposing, which he expects to eventually produce up to 8,000 metric tons of yellowtail, also known as kingfish.
Photo courtesy of Jon Bilous/Shutterstock
