MACHIAS – A Norwegian company’s proposal to put two salmon farms in Passamaquoddy Bay is generating controversy among some local landowners and area fishermen.

The proposal by NorWestFish Inc. of Norway for two 16.5-acre lease sites off Lewis and Loring coves in Perry will be the subject of a public meeting this week.

Maine Sea Grant is sponsoring the session, which will include presentations by the Maine Department of Marine Resources, University of Maine Cooperative Extension and the applicant.

Chris Bartlett, the extension associate for Maine Sea Grant in Washington County, said the purpose of the session is to generate constructive conversation among members of the public, the applicant and DMR.

Maine Sea Grant has sponsored nine similar sessions on shellfish and fin fish aquaculture applications over the past year, but this is the first in Washington County, Bartlett said.

Walter Loring, who lives on the cove that bears his family’s name, said a group of area landowners and fishermen met last Wednesday with representatives of the Conservation Law Foundation, Friends of Blue Hill Bay and the East Penobscot Bay Environmental Alliance.

The purpose of that meeting was to gather information on how the Perry groups could make their concerns known to DMR, he said.

The Perry group has decided to ask DMR to delay a scheduled April 22 public hearing on the applications, Loring said.

“These are two leases on 10 to 12 miles of shoreline in an area where there have never been leases before,” Loring said. “We haven’t been given much time to get data together and we want to see if we can substantiate our concerns.”

Loring said the group is not opposed to salmon aquaculture, which has provided jobs and some economic stability to Washington County.

What the group is questioning is the proposed location, he said.

The area under consideration has a strong, traditional fishery and is exposed to storms and easterly winds, he said.

“There’s a very big risk if we have a storm like the Groundhog Day gale 15 or 20 years ago that all of this equipment will end up on the shore,” he said. “And even if it doesn’t, a storm like that could cause a lot of fish to escape.”

Loring said there are 60 to 70 fishermen, including lobstermen, draggers and weir fishermen, who make a living in Passamaquoddy Bay. He said many of them are concerned about the proposed leases.

This proposal is for two leases, but if they are granted, there could be additional applications and six or seven salmon farms in Passamaquoddy Bay would mean the end for local fishermen, Loring said.

Jorn Vad, the Pittsfield aquaculture consultant who is the local contact for NorWestFish, said he chose the proposed sites for several reasons, including water depth.

The lease sites are 80 feet deep – providing room for deep nets, which can hold up to 50,000 fish, Vad said. The nets will be 50 feet deep, rather than the traditional 40-foot nets that hold somewhere around 15,000 fish, he said.

In addition to cutting production costs because one person can feed 50,000 rather than just 15,000 fish, deeper nets mean less surface area is taken up by the pens, he said.

The pens will cover just about a third of a 16.5-acre site, Vad said.

NorWestFish is applying for two sites so that fish can grow out in single-year classes and the site can lay fallow for a period after the fish are harvested, he said.

Each of the sites would employ four to six workers who would earn somewhere around $30,000 a year plus benefits – the aquaculture industry’s average for cage site workers, he said.

Vad, the former production manager for Atlantic Salmon of Maine and a consultant to Maine’s three largest farmed salmon companies, said he expects to eventually raise halibut and cod on the sites.

He would buy salmon smolts from existing hatcheries owned by Atlantic Salmon of Maine, Stolt SeaFarms and Connors Bros., he said. Those companies have 15 years of experience in fresh water hatcheries, and expanding those facilities will be more cost-effective than constructing a new hatchery, he said.

Lobstering would be permitted around the salmon cages within the lease boundaries, but draggers will not because drags can pull up the pen moorings, he said.

Vad, who will explain the proposal during Wednesday night’s meeting, said NorWestFish is a group of investors who came together in 2001 and have had the experience of watching Norway’s salmon aquaculture industry develop over the past 30 years.

The company understands the importance of using state-of-the-art equipment for aquaculture operations and is looking at a number of potential sites throughout the world, he said.

The public meeting explaining the proposal will be at 6 p.m. Wednesday, March 27, at the Perry Municipal Building.