An application to lease two sites in Frenchman Bay for a closed pen aquafarm could result in production of 66 million pounds of salmon annually. But Maine’s coast shouldn’t be “a guinea pig” for “unproven” technology, said one local group.
Several members of the Bar Harbor Town Council expressed reservations about a large salmon farm proposed on two lease sites off the town’s shore.
“The potential for something to go wrong is so great, it seems to me you’re suggesting we allow our bay to be a sacrifice zone for your experiment on the coast of Maine,” Councilor Gary Friedmann told American Aquafarms Vice President Eirik Jors during the council’s virtual meeting on Tuesday.
“This technology allows a new type of thinking in the aquaculture industry,” Jors responded, referring to the proposal’s use of a “closed-pen” system that he said is considered an emergent but also safe technology for fish-farming.
American Aquafarms, an aquaculture start-up headquartered in Portland, has filed two draft lease applications with the Department of Marine Resources to begin development of closed-pen, ocean-based salmon operation in Downeast Maine.
The two proposed sites would be in Frenchman Bay, off the town of Gouldsboro to the east and Bar Harbor to the west.
Each site would be 60.3 acres. The pens at each site would take up about 6.6 acres.
Image
Courtesy / American Aquafarms, Ransom Consulting Engineers and Scientists
The rectangle at center represents one of American Aquafarms’ proposed lease sites in the water between Bar Harbor and Gouldsboro. A mooring system, to hold the pens in place, consists of two grid systems, each with two rows of four cages. All together, the mooring grid contains 15 pens and a waste barge.
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