Aquaculture’s future

Maine salmon farmers should receive a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination Systems (NPDES) permit when the Board of Environmental Protection meets Thursday. The permitting process has been a marathon, even in the realm of environmental regulation, where bureaucratic time is often spoken of in the same sentence as geologic time.

This has got to be a record – our company’s first application for a NPDES permit was submitted in December 1990. The anticipated issuance of permits is cause for celebration, and I was pleased to read Andy Goode’s column (BDN, June 10), which expressed a desire for all parties in the salmon wars to move forward. There are still plenty of obstacles to overcome on our path to perfecting sustainable aquaculture, but I have found farmers to be a tenacious lot. The people I work with are dreamers of a future where ocean farming is a respected source of quality food, but they are also men and women who have survived challenges familiar to all farmers.

The fish farmers I work with look forward to the day when salmon run wild in the rivers again. We would like to help make this happen. Salmon farmers and salmon anglers share a love and respect for the species that borders on an emotional bond. We look forward to the day when Maine’s acidic rivers are limed and when restoration salmon hatcheries are river specific. In the past, salmon farmers have had fruitful cooperation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Maine Atlantic Salmon Commission raising adult salmon to release for spawning in the rivers, and we look forward to renewing this successful cooperative effort. We hope there is a day when wildlife biologists come to grips with the fact that predators must be managed and something be done about the population explosion in seals and shags that decimate the wild salmon run.

I am confident that a day will come when fish farms in Maine will produce not only salmon, but also cod, haddock, halibut and flounder; a day when mussels, oysters, scallops and seaweed are farmed in polyculture with fish. We would like to work with the state Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife to raise trout and other game fish to maturity in ocean pens, to be released in Maine streams, rivers and lakes so anglers can experience the thrill of catching big fish. I look forward to the day when schooners sailing from midcoast harbors stop by fish farms to pick up fresh fish for shore dinners. Perhaps an adventurous sport on the cruise will cast a line into a pen and realize the fight that makes salmon the king of sport fish. Already, kayakers visit our farms and thrill at the sight of the silver fish jumping. There is no reason that fish farms could not be outposts on the Maine Island Trail.

As an organic farmer for the past 30 years, I look forward to the day when we harvest our first crop of organic salmon. The question is not if, but when, and whether Maine will continue to be the leader in sustainable food production.

The recently concluded lawsuit against two companies has been a travesty. The citizen suit provision of the Clean Water Act, the “sword” of this essential legislation, is a legal right. The ultimate publicly stated goal of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group’s lawsuit – to put hundreds of Down East families out of work – is a moral wrong. I am confident that the recent ruling by the District Court will be vacated on appeal, for the judge stepped far outside his jurisdictional authority in trying to usurp the regulatory system.

The permit that has been diligently drafted by the Department of Environmental Protection is strict, and will set the standard for marine aquaculture in the nation. We in the industry look forward to having the permit that was applied for 12 years ago. This young industry will finally have the “shield” of the Clean Water Act, and can move forward, permits in hand, to keep Maine in the forefront of this vital source of seafood. Given the opportunity, I know the aquaculture farms of Maine can evolve through this transitional phase to be a vital asset to the Maine economy and way of life.

Steve Page is an environmental compliance officer with Fjord Seafood USA LLC and Atlantic Salmon of Maine LLC.