March 26, 2023 — A legislative committee voted Thursday to kill a bill that sought to establish additional regulations on Maine’s industrial aquaculture sector.
The Sierra Club-backed measure sought to require the Department of Marine Resources to ensure that new land-based aquaculture facilities would not degrade water or air quality or increase carbon emissions.
It also would have put in place strict new standards for feed sources.
March 1, 2023 — A national animal rights group is suing the state, alleging that it has failed to adequately protect fish raised in aquaculture facilities and that it does not have rules in place to regulate large-scale fish farms.
Animal Outlook, an animal advocacy organization based in Washington DC and California, filed suit Feb. 22 in Kennebec County Superior Court to challenge the state’s decision to reject its citizen petition.
The petition, signed by 152 registered Maine voters, calls on the state agriculture department to adopt new rules regarding inspections and enforcement of animal cruelty laws for fish raised by commercial companies.
But the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry rejected the petition in September, calling it “incomplete and defective,” primarily because Animal Outlook didn’t provide text for the rule it wants the state to adopt.
In the February lawsuit, Animal Outlook accuses the state of refusing to adopt standards for aquaculture facilities, failing to investigate the facilities and failing to enforce existing animal cruelty laws.
The agriculture department did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
February 21, 2023 — Researchers at Virginia Tech are researching consumer market data to aid the survival of aquaculture businesses in the wake of the economic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The study, based on surveys completed in 2022, is examining a wide array of consumer data to analyze the “abrupt changes” in the food supply chain, and how that impacted consumer purchasing of food. In turn, the researchers said they hope to provide information to guide aquaculture businesses in marketing efforts to respond to the changes.
December 16, 2022 — The following was released by the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe:
Today the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe took legal action to protect our Sovereign rights in response to the recent ill-informed and overreaching decision by Commissioner Hillary Franz and the Department of Natural Resources to ban sustainable marine net-pen aquaculture in Puget Sound waters.
“As a Tribe, we have always been conscientious stewards of our natural environment and look seven generations ahead in all that we do,” said W. Ron Allen, CEO and Tribal Chairman of the Jamestown S’Klallam. “Modern, well-regulated aquaculture is the environmentally responsible solution for producing seafood and exercising our Tribal treaty rights – now and into the future.”
“Tragically, population growth, pollution, poor environmental protections and development activities in the Pacific Northwest have negatively impacted our wild fish stocks,” said Allen. “We must have options available to take pressure off wild fish stocks through sustainable aquaculture which will aid listed stocks to regain sustainable levels and prevent their extinction.”
A vast array of scientific studies have repeatedly shown that well-regulated aquaculture is not an ecological threat to the Puget Sound marine environment. In March 2022, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Marine Fisheries Service released an extensively researched biological opinion that studied marine finfish aquaculture in Puget Sound and found little to no negative impact on Puget Sound marine ecosystems, including native species such as endangered salmon, Orcas, or their habitat.
Farmed seafood requires the lowest energy demand of any sourced protein, a fraction of what is required to farm chicken, pork, or beef and produces far less greenhouse gas emissions than land-based agriculture. It seems only natural that Washington would embrace aquaculture as an industry that complements its own natural stock fisheries and allows our State to be a global leader in feeding the planet, and sourcing locally grown seafood in the most climate friendly way possible.
In addition to refusing to respect the science about marine net-pen aquaculture, this decision was highly undemocratic. Commissioner Franz has mistakenly usurped the authority of our Washington State Legislature to make public policy decisions, like the bipartisan bill passed in 2018 which allows native species marine net-pen farming in Washington waters.
Fish and shellfish have always been an integral part of S’Klallam culture as subsistence, as well as for the traditions associated with harvest, preparation, and celebration. For millennia, S’Klallam people fed their families with fish and shellfish, and traded their abundant harvest with other Tribes, devising methods for holding fresh catch, and preserving the harvest for future consumption. Our Tribe is desiring to take advantage of 21st century technology to advance this industry.
Food sovereignty, the ability to grow and provide one’s own food sources, builds self-reliance, independence, and confidence in our youth and community. That is all in jeopardy now due to Commissioner Franz’s announcement to end marine net-pen aquaculture in Puget Sound.
By taking legal action today, the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe is strongly defending its sovereign right of self-governance and self-reliance by utilizing marine net-pen aquaculture to provide traditional sustenance and guarantee Tribal food security from our established fishery in our Usual and Accustomed Treaty Area in Puget Sound and the Salish Sea.
November 7, 2022 — According to the Maine Aquaculture Association, the state’s aquaculture has enjoyed responsible growth over the last 20 years at an average rate of 2 percent, but less than 1 percent of Maine’s coastal waters are used for aquaculture. A group of organizations in Maine has opened registration for a training program designed for fishermen to learn how to farm seafood.
Hosted by Coastal Enterprises Inc., Maine Aquaculture Association, Maine Aquaculture Innovation Center and Maine Sea Grant, the Aquaculture in Shared Waters program focuses on the cultivation of commercially valuable species including oysters, mussels, scallops and kelp. Students learn from leading industry, regulatory and scientific experts on topics like site selection, permitting, animal husbandry, equipment, business planning, financing, marketing and community relations.
“For the past 10 years, the Aquaculture in Shared Waters course has served as a vital tool to help fishermen learn to farm the sea, diversify their income and pioneer a new industry on Maine’s working waterfront,” said Sebastian Belle, executive director of the Maine Aquaculture Association.
Since the program began in 2013, over 400 students have completed the course, 30 new aquaculture businesses have been established and 60 businesses have been expanded or retained through economic diversification.
“Having fished in Penobscot Bay and southeast Alaska for many years, this training course was a great fit for me, and I’m now in the early stages of starting a scallop farm,” said Michael Scott from Isle au Haut.
The Shared Waters program received national recognition in 2020 as the recipient of the Superior Outreach Programming Award from the National Sea Grant Program.
The 2023 course will begin on Jan. 3 on Tuesday evenings from 6-8 p.m. each week for 14 sessions, concluding in early April with optional field trip opportunities in the spring. It will be offered in person at the University of Maine Hutchinson Center in Belfast, with a virtual option available. It’s free of charge and applications are open to all based in Maine. Applications will be accepted at www.aquacultureinsharedwaters.org until Dec.1.
The 2023 course is made possible with funding from the Consolidated Appropriations Act, administered through the Maine Department of Marine Resources.
October 25, 2022 — Four projects that advance research into aquaculture, including sustainable aquaculture, in Maine will receive $2.1 million from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Sea Grant, the agency announced in a press release. The projects are part of a larger $14 million NOAA Sea Grant investment to strengthen aquaculture across the United States.
Investigators from the University of Maine Aquaculture Research Institute, Maine Aquaculture Innovation Center, UMaine Center for Cooperative Aquaculture Research and Maine Sea Grant will lead projects to develop feed for finfish, improve Atlantic sea scallop hatchery techniques, diversify lumpfish broodstock and advance the work of the Maine Aquaculture Hub.
The finfish feed project at UMaine Aquaculture Research Institute will focus on food for farm-raised finfish larvae, which require microscopic feeds that are challenging to produce as zooplankton, which the larvae eat in the wild, is not economically feasible in finfish farms. So researchers will work with industry partners to produce and refine microparticulate larval feeds and evaluate the effects of diets on the growth and survival of California yellowtail and yellowtail amberjack.
“We are trying to get away from living organisms as feeds and move toward formulated diets, as we do in other fields of agriculture, Matt Hawkyard, of UMaine Aquaculture Research Institute, said. “This project will allow us to develop feeding technologies that are practical and adaptable to industry use.”
October 20, 2022 — Minorities in Aquaculture (MIA) was founded in October 2020 by Imani Black, a former oyster farmer from the U.S. state of Maryland. After experiencing a lack of diversity in oyster farming and aquaculture overall, Black decided to create the nonprofit, which now works on diversification efforts throughout the seafood industry.
September 6, 2022 — As a sea farmer, I am asked, almost daily, about aquaculture and its rapid growth in the state of Maine. I take the time to answer because it means that other people also care about our shared ocean and the future of this coastline.
I don’t see the sector of aquaculture as expanding rapidly. It took us almost three years to complete our application and receive our 22-acre lease in Mt. Desert Narrows. We also have 3,200 square feet of limited purpose sites in the Skillings River, which allow us to run an upweller for our small seed in the spring and to harvest through the ice year-round. The leasing process is long, rigorous and full of scrutiny, as it should be. I understand that, to some, 22 acres may seem like a lot of space for one company. Some would even consider this “industrial.” I’m willing to offer some transparency about my company so that everyone who is interested can understand what we do, how small we are and why I don’t think aquaculture is growing fast enough.
August 29, 2022 — Last week, the PBS Newshour featured a segment on salmon farming, addressing the challenges and innovations that have accompanied the industry’s growth. Newshour science correspondent Miles O’Brien talked to salmon farming industry members about the state of the industry and improvements being implemented. As demand for seafood increases each year, aquaculture is likely to play a major role in keeping Americans well-fed and healthy.
Below is an excerpt from the transcript of the segment. Watch the full video here.
Miles O’Brien:
Off of Swan’s Island, we boarded the ship where they monitor and feed their crop of nearly a half-million salmon. They’re kept in 16 flexible floating nets made with stainless steel fiber to guard against escapes.
We watched as they fed some of the fish using a network of submerged cameras.
Andrew Lively, Cooke Aquaculture:
He’s seeing the fish, and there’s no feed coming down through the water column.
Miles O’Brien:
The trick is releasing the feed at just the right rate. Too fast, and it falls to the bottom of the sea, impacting the bottom line. But it also can cause an environmental problem. As the feed decomposes, it generates nitrogen, as does the fish poop.
High nitrogen levels are a persistent problem for salmon farmers.
Do you feel like you have met those challenges?
Andrew Lively:
One of the big ways to deal with that challenge is proper site location and proper density. We’re in an area that gets about a 12-foot rise and fall of water twice a day, so lots of current, lots of freshwater going through here.
Miles O’Brien:
Even at the perfect location, fish farmers must closely monitor a myriad of factors to keep their crops healthy.
Farmed salmon are frequently beset with serious infestations of sea lice. To combat the problem, Cooke deploys custom designed boats equipped with warm freshwater showers to clean the fish. It’s an expensive solution that might soon have an unlikely replacement.
Marine biologist Steve Eddy is director of the Center for Cooperative Aquaculture Research at the University of Maine.
These fish are lumpfish. Tell me about them.
Steve Eddy:
So these are used as a cleaner fish to remove sea lice off of farmed salmon, a form of biological control.
Miles O’Brien:
Researchers here believe one or two lumpfish per 10 salmon in a pen should be enough to delouse the whole school.
It takes about three years for a salmon to grow from egg to market. As complex and resource-intensive as aquaculture is, its sustainability compares favorably to some land-based agriculture.
August 22, 2022 — Vietnam has rolled out a plan to significantly increase its aquaculture production.
Under the plan, by 2025, Vietnam hopes to produce 5.6 million metric tons (MT) of farmed seafood per year – up 16.7 percent from the 4.8 million MT the country produced in 2021.