Saving Seafood

Belfast, Maine plans to use eminent domain to end Nordic Aquafarms land dispute

August 6, 2021 — City councilors in Belfast, Maine, U.S.A. are considering the use of eminent domain to seize a piece of disputed property and end a protracted land dispute that has held up progress on a project planned by Nordic Aquafarms.

On 3 August, the council voted unanimously to pursue the takeover of an intertidal area that has been the subject of a court battle over ownership, Maine Public reported. The lawsuit over the intertidal area was first filed in 2019 by Jeffrey R. Mabee and Judith B. Grace, who allege that they are the true owners of intertidal land that Nordic plans to run inflow and outflow pipes through.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

An uptick in industrial aquaculture in Maine has some lobster – and fishermen hot under the collar

August 6, 2021 — With international and domestic corporations aiming to set up in its waters, the state of Maine is bullish on aquaculture’s potential.

And no wonder, considering that it’s managed to triple its annual aquaculture sales revenue between 2007 and 2017, to almost $138 million.

High-profile privately funded ventures have lately been converging on this corner of the North Atlantic. Millions in Shopify dollars and venture capital are backing Running Tide, a Portland, Maine-based oyster operation, in its bid to figure out how to use kelp as a carbon offset. Norwegian-owned American Aquafarms wants to raise 120 acres of salmon in Frenchman Bay, and other large Canadian and Dutch finfish aquaculture companies are moving into the region. Maine is collaborating with several states to build a national seaweed hub and, with $1.2 million from a 2019 NOAA Sea Grant, is opening its own aquaculture hub to support various sea-based farming industries.

This bustle, though, has raised the hackles of lobstermen and -women represented by grassroots Protect Maine’s Fishing Heritage Foundation (PMFHF) organization. They say large-scale aquaculture corporations are intent on “privatizing” the public ocean, in the process displacing locals who’ve fished these waters for years and endangering their livelihoods. They feel considerably less optimistic about the burst of interest in aquafarming in their local waters—and in particular, about the expanded terms of the leases that accommodate these operations; a single entity can now hold 1,000 acres, up from a limit of 300 in 2006, and the duration of those leases doubled, from a decade to 20 years, in 2017.

Read the full story at The Counter

MAINE: Waldoboro eel farm wants to raise at least 2 million eels a year for American tables

August 5, 2021 — Ground has been broken on Maine’s first land-based eel aquaculture operation in Waldoboro.

Sara Rademaker, founder and president of American Unagi, said when it’s complete, the 27,000-square-foot facility will be able to grow and process at least 2 million eels and perhaps take back a tiny portion of an industry that’s been dominated by Asian markets.

“Right now, we have this really valuable glass eel fishery. The entirety of that fishery is being exported mostly to China, they’re grown on farms there, and then we’re importing them back into the US,” Rademaker said.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

Pacific Council News, Summer 2021

August 4, 2021 — The following was released by the Pacific Fishery Management Council:

The Council has formed a new advisory body, the ad hoc Marine Planning Committee (MPC), focused on marine planning, which includes offshore wind, aquaculture, and other offshore development activities. The Council formed the group after hearing strong support from its advisory bodies for improving the Council’s capacity to address the effects of offshore activities on fisheries, coastal communities, and habitat. The Council intends for the MPC to provide an open and transparent process to gather industry and stakeholder input and advice on marine planning, and a mechanism to funnel constructive recommendations to the Council.

The MPC met with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and members of the Pacific Fishery Management Council and the public on July 22-23 to discuss offshore wind considerations for each Council-managed fishery. The MPC itself will meet in late August or early September to discuss and potentially develop a report for Council consideration.  Members of the MPC are Darus Peake for the Salmon Advisory Subpanel; Mike Okoniewski for the Coastal Pelagic Species Advisory Subpanel; Mike Conroy for the Highly Migratory Species Advisory Subpanel; Susan Chambers for the Groundfish Advisory Subpanel; Steven Scheiblauer for the Habitat Committee; Scott McMullen for the Ecosystem Advisory Subpanel; Megan Waters in the conservation seat; Chris Potter for California Dept. of Fish and Wildlife; Delia Kelly for Oregon Dept. of Fish and Wildlife;  Corey Niles for Washington Dept. of Fish and Wildlife, and Yvonne DeReynier for National Marine Fisheries Service. The appointment for a Tribal seat is pending.

Read the full release here

MAINE: In Acadia’s Shadow: Latest Flashpoint in Conflict Over Industrial Fish Farms

August 2, 2021 — A Norwegian investor wants to bring a new kind of fish farm to a stunning, island-studded bay at the base of Acadia’s famous Cadillac Mountain. The project is uniting broad opposition in and around tourist-dependent Mt. Desert Island.

The “American Aquafarms” project is the latest in a series of industrial-scale fish farms proposed for Maine, highlighting how the nation’s demand for seafood is putting pressure on local marine economies.

Frenchman Bay reaches from the eastern side of Mt. Desert Island to the Schoodic peninsula. Through the 20th century, sardine canneries dotted the bay. But the last of them, in Gouldsboro, shut down more than a decade ago.

“Sardines, and the herring fishery was the biggest fishery for 50 or 60 years and then that declined. But now the only thing left is small fisheries – scallops and all of that. Lobster’s the only viable industry,” says Dana Rice, Gouldbsoro’s selectman.

Here at Gouldbsoro’s town office, Rice is also the harbormaster and a lobster dealer. He says even the lobster processing company that took over the old harbor sardine plant has had a hard time making it, and waterfront jobs have dwindled. So when a Norwegian investor started sounding out local officials about converting it into a fish hatchery and processing facility for an at-sea salmon farm, Rice was interested.

“I would like to see some good paying jobs for the younger generation… this intrigued me. Hey, they’re talking somewhere between $150 million and $350 million investment, you can’t turn your back on that. You can not,” Rice says.

American Aquafarms optioned the property two years ago, and since has been laying groundwork for what its backers say will be a state-of-the-art “closed-pen” system: an array of enclosed, floating capsules, full of fish, that ostensibly would avoid most of the negative impacts of traditional open-pen salmon farms, such as escapes, disease and pollution.

Read the full story at Maine Public

New tool to improve ‘cleaner fish’ welfare in salmon farming

July 30, 2021 — Researchers at the University of Stirling have developed a new tool that fish farmers can use to improve the welfare of lumpfish—a species crucial to tackling the problem of sea lice in salmon.

Lumpfish are increasingly being used by the  industry as a ‘cleaner fish’ to remove parasitic sea lice, which cost the Scottish salmon industry alone an estimated £40m per year.

Because they are a relatively new fish to aquaculture, researchers are still establishing the optimum conditions for lumpfish .

In a new study, a team led by Dr. Sonia Rey Planellas at the University of Stirling’s Institute of Aquaculture has established the correlation between lumpfish growth weights and welfare, and turned it into a tool farmers can use to assess the health of the fish and take remedial action if required.

Dr. Rey Planellas says that “at the moment, in the UK we use Operational Welfare Indicators (OWIs) for fish welfare, but lumpfish are a different shape to many other fish, so it’s about identifying the best indicators for each species.”

“Fin damage is typically the indicator that is used, but in this study we found a more useful indicator was the correlation between growth weight relative to size and welfare.”

Read the full story at PHYS.org

MAINE: Selectmen to request environmental review of proposed salmon project

July 30, 2021 — Selectmen unanimously voted last week to request that American Aquafarms finance an independent environmental review to determine the impact on the town of its proposed $330 million venture to raise and process 66 million pounds of salmon annually in Frenchman Bay. The Norwegian-backed company’s operation would be based at the closed Maine Fair Trade complex in Prospect Harbor.

At their July 22 meeting, where Friends of Schoodic Peninsula had requested to speak, selectmen took the action after hearing from roughly 90 citizens in person and via Zoom. The initiative for an independent environmental assessment, which falls under the 1969 National Environmental Policy Act, came from the audience, who largely included seasonal and year-round Gouldsboro residents and local fishermen. Many of them had signed a 92-signature letter registering their opposition to American Aquafarms’ entire project in Gouldsboro and Frenchman Bay.

“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.

Gouldsboro interim Town Manager Eve Wilkinson offered to assist the project’s opponents in possibly putting a referendum question to voters about American Aquafarms’ project. Company officials say the project would create 60 full-time, salaried jobs ranging widely in skill sets from boat captains to electronic system technicians. Her offer to spell out the referendum process, requiring a written petition with signatures totaling at least 10 percent of votes cast in town in the last gubernatorial election, came in response to a citizen’s suggestion of a referendum vote to truly gauge local support for and opposition to the proposed project.

“Get off the sidelines and speak for us,” Thomas Mckeag told selectmen. “I am asking you guys if you are for or against it.”

Read the full story at the Ellsworth American

‘We want our fish to be wild’: Alaska congressman floats new bill to block offshore aquaculture

July 30, 2021 — Alaska’s longtime Republican Congressman Don Young has yet again introduced the Keep Fin Fish Free Act, legislation prohibiting the Secretary of Interior and the Secretary of Commerce from authorizing commercial finfish aquaculture operations in the Federal Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) unless specifically authorized by Congress.

Young said the state’s residents are opposed to what he described as “hatchery fisheries” in the state.

“We don’t want that. We want our fish to be wild,” he said Thursday during a hearing held by the US House Subcommittee on Water, Oceans, and Wildlife.

Young said the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) should be focusing on issues with Alaska’s ocean, and why fishermen are seeing fewer kings and other salmon during summer fishing seasons.

Read the full story at IntraFish

Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation Aims To Expand Mariculture In The Aleutians

July 27, 2021 — Representatives from the Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation visited Unalaska last week as part of its push to expand the state’s mariculture industry.

Gov. Bill Walker created the Alaska Mariculture Task Force in 2016. Since then, the organization has been focused on developing the state’s mariculture industry to meet its long-term goal of $100 million by 2038.

Mariculture refers specifically to farming and enhancing shellfish and seaweeds, and does not include farming finfish like salmon, which is illegal in Alaska. The state’s mariculture industry was valued at approximately $1 million in 2018.

Julie Decker, executive director of the Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation, sees opportunities in the shorelines and beaches of the Aleutian coast.

“You have lots of water, so you have lots of space. Relatively little population which means relatively little conflict,” Decker said. “The people that do live here are used to working on the water. There’s North America’s largest processing port. These are some pretty significant assets.”

Read the full story at KUCB

Your love for fresh oysters can help the planet

July 27, 2021 — We drop anchor and I learn the trick to the perfect shuck—gently work the knife into the back hinge—and slurp the freshest oyster I’ve ever tasted. The mollusk was harvested minutes earlier from the lineup of floating cages beside our boat in this secluded section of Maine’s Casco Bay.

“There’s a freshwater spring off Upper Goose Island that drains out right into the farm and cuts the salinity, so our oyster is much more bright and balanced, with a light cucumber finish,” says Cameron Barner, an oyster farm owner with an advanced degree in aquaculture, and my tour guide for the afternoon. “If you go upriver or eat bottom-planted oysters, you get a more minerally umami flavor.”

Oyster farm tours, like this one led by Love Point Oysters, and self-guided bi-valve trails are cropping up throughout the United States. COVID-19 stalled the trend but with travel restrictions loosening, oyster enthusiasts are once again back on track. Along the Maine Oyster Trail, which re-launched in June, tasting tourists can earn swag by “checking in” at various experiences and sites along the trail, including Love Point. Other trails can be found in Louisiana, Virginia, North Carolina, and Washington, the country’s largest producer of aquaculture.

Read the full story at National Geographic