Opponents of the American Aquafarms’ bid to build an enclosed net-pen salmon aquaculture project off the coast of Gouldsboro, Maine, U.S.A. – which failed to secure essential leases in April 2022 – say the recent ban of aquaculture net-pens in Washington state could increase pressure for new farms in Maine.
The opponents, named Frenchman Bay United after the bay that American Aquafarms was planning to use for its project, said news of the ban has them worried aquaculture operations will shift focus to Maine instead.
“While we are pleased to see Washington take this important step and join Alaska, California, and Oregon in banning net-pen fish farming, we are deeply concerned that not only will American Aquafarms return with a new proposal, as they have promised, but others will now see Maine as an even more-inviting place to build large ocean-based fish farms,” Frenchman Bay United President Henry Sharpe said in a release.
Part of that fear stems from the sole company involved in net-pen aquaculture in Washington, Cooke Aquaculture. The Canada-headquartered company is also the owner of numerous salmon aquaculture net-pens in Maine. Opponents of American Aquafarms' project previously clashed with Cooke Aquaculture after criticized a die-off of salmon at a Cooke farm off of Black Island in Frenchboro, Maine in August 2021.
Cooke Aquaculture told SeafoodSource at the time the mortalities were caused by abnormally low oxygen levels, and a low percentage of the overall salmon harvest from the net-pen was impacted.
Aquaculture opponents were quick to criticize Cooke, accusing it of not immediately reporting the incident to the Maine Department of Environmental Protection. In a 7 December statement, the groups once again said that the “die-off wasn’t reported to state regulators for almost two weeks.”
However, Cooke Aquaculture Vice President of Public Relations Joel Richardson previously told SeafoodSource in 2021 that Cooke Aquaculture doesn’t have to report unusual mortalities to the Maine DEP – the responsibility lies with the Maine Department of Marine Resources, who were informed immediately.
“DEP stated that they had started an ‘investigation’ even though DMR is the regulating authority for a fish health incident,” Richardson said at the time. “DMR already concluded that this event was, as Cooke indicated, an isolated issue of low dissolved oxygen, which is not a compliance issue as far as our lease is concerned.”
Regardless, Frenchman Bay United said it plans to continue opposing any aquaculture projects in the state.
“We hope Maine officials are paying close attention to what is happening in these places that went big for ocean-based salmon farming only to now ban it,” Sharpe said. “As the door is closed on net-pen salmon farming elsewhere, it would be a tragedy if American Aquafarms returns and other environmentally destructive, commercial-scale fish farms try to come to Maine because we are seen as a place with lax regulations and oversight and low-cost permits.”
Photo courtesy of Cooke Aquaculture
