State needs balanced approach to salmon farming

The review of two current salmon farming permit applications in Blue Hill Bay challenges state regulators with the extraordinarily important task of considering the total long term impacts of fish farming on all Maine people and their uses and enjoyment of precious public waters. Acadia Aquaculture, LLC has proposed a new 54-acre facility immediately off the northeastern shore of Tinker Island, as well as a renewed and expanded facility off nearby Hardwood Island.

Maine’s coastline and islands, and its public waters, are a national treasure and a driving force for two of the State’s largest and sustainable industries: tourism and recreation. Consider that $4 billion is spent by tourists on the coast of Maine each year; this represents 80 percent of Maine’s tourism dollars. (Maine State Planning Office, 2000). Maine’s aquaculture siting laws do not currently provide adequate safeguards to minimize impacts on these important industries. Granting an industrial salmon farming lease immediately adjacent to conserved lands with important natural resource and recreational values would conflict with the public interest and set a very bad precedent.

Land use regulations and zoning generally take into account a variety of possible impacts on adjacent private and public property. Maine’s submerged lands licensing laws must be modernized to afford the same level of consideration to neighboring land. In addition, it would be appropriate for licensing to defer to local zoning designations. This would, for example, prevent industrial development next to resource protection zones.

In 2002, the state’s Land For Maine’s Future (LMF) Program recognized the significance of the northern half of Tinker Island as a scenic and recreational treasure for the people of Maine when it invested $600,000 to assure that this property will never be developed and will always be available for traditional public outdoor recreation. The LMF program funded more than half of the acquisition cost for this 230 acre preserve, now under the ownership and management of Maine Coast Heritage Trust (MCHT), a state wide land conservation organization. To assure protection of the taxpayers’ investment, the Maine Department of Conservation recorded a project agreement with MCHT that calls for the State to take title to the preserve if MCHT fails to, “preserve the opportunity for the general public to enjoy traditional opportunities for low-impact outdoor recreation” and to “preserve the wild, scenic, and undeveloped character of the northern half of the island as viewed from public vantage points on and around Blue Hill Bay.”

Now the Department of Marine Resources (DMR) is being asked to permit the siting of an industrial salmon aquaculture farm near the shores of this spectacular, wild, recreational preserve designated for public use by the people of Maine. This kind of development on public submerged lands is in direct conflict with the stated goals of the management agreement between the state and Maine Coast Heritage Trust. In fact, to honor its agreement with the Department of Conservation, MCHT chose to formally intervene in the Tinker Island aquaculture application proceeding. MCHT opposes the Tinker aquaculture site because it will clearly destroy “the wild, scenic and undeveloped character of the northern half of the island” as well as the “traditional” wild island experience that the public enjoys.

Recently the Maine Legislature has taken encouraging steps to assure that the State takes a more balanced approach to the aquaculture industry, passing legislation to require consideration of the impacts of fish farming on nearby coastal lands. In addition, the legislature has directed a 12-member aquaculture task force to find ways to balance the range of potential uses for Maine’s priceless marine and coastal natural assets, including recreation and tourism. We encourage the various state agencies, including the DMR, the Office of Tourism, the Department of Conservation, and the Department of Environmental Protection to formally provide for a coordinated approach to balance the various state interests in siting development on state submerged lands.

The waters belong to everyone, and state ownership of submerged lands is charged with the obligation to protect the public trust inherent in our coastal waters. Concerning the immediate decision before the DMR, we ask that this kind of analysis be made to assure that the benefits of salmon farming not be outweighed by its costs to the broader general public, and in particular the investments the State has made on behalf of all Maine people.

Jay Espy is president of Maine Coast Heritage Trust, a statewide land conservation organization.