August 14, 2023 — A seal attack is being blamed for the loss of 50,000 juvenile Atlantic salmon at two fish farming sites near Cutler, Maine.
Cooke Aquaculture spokesperson Joel Richardson said that divers discovered on Aug. 7 that seals had chewed through two cage nets near Cross Island. Each normally holds about 25,000 juvenile salmon, but were empty when workers found them.
The company said that the “unusually aggressive seal behavior” is result of a significant increase in the seal population across the Gulf of Maine, and particularly in Machias Bay.
“This is actually the first time that we’ve ever experienced such an attack by seals, who quite voraciously went after two of our salmon cages to feed,” Richardson said.