AQUACULTURE REBIRTH

Maine’s salmon aquaculture industry is undergoing a rebirth of sorts. After dwindling to less than one-third of its top output, because of court orders and disease outbreaks, the industry is now rebuilding itself. Whether it can grow to, or even surpass, its former size depends largely on one Canadian company and its relationship with U.S. regulators and environmental groups.

Salmon aquaculture in Maine is now basically a monopoly with Cooke Aquaculture, a family-owned New Brunswick company, having purchased all three of the state’s largest fish farm companies. The company has expressed a willingness and desire to work with state regulators and environmental groups to address concerns about escaped fish, diseases and protecting wild fish. If the company follows through with those pledges and state regulators ensure through independent reviews that recently developed fish farming rules are followed, the industry could have a good future here.

Although vehemently opposed by the state’s then new salmon farming industry, the federal government in 2000 listed wild Atlantic salmon in eight Maine rivers as endangered species. Four of the rivers are in Washington County, home to most of the state’s fish farms. At the time, Gov. Angus King predicted the demise of aquaculture in Maine.

He was nearly right but not for the reasons he foresaw.

The federal government identified water withdrawals, especially by blueberry growers, land use and fish farming as the biggest threats to wild salmon. Plans were drawn up to build water retention ponds and wells and to closely monitor when and how much water farmers took from Washington County rivers and streams. Millions of dollars, much of it from the federal government, were spent to buy conservation easements and land along some of the rivers, namely the Machias River. As for salmon farming, agreements were signed to bar the use of salmon from Europe, to prevent escapes and to investigate marking farmed fish so they could be identified if they did escape.

Meanwhile, a deadly disease, infectious salmon anemia, made its way south from Canada. Millions of pounds of salmon were killed to try to stop the spread of ISA.

The worst was yet to come. In 2003, a federal judge ruled that two of the state’s largest salmon farming companies were violating the federal Clean Water Act by not possessing permits to discharge pollution, such as feed, medication and feces, into the ocean. The companies were ordered to leave their salmon pens empty for two years.

The companies ultimately were put up for sale and Cooke bought them and a third that had earlier reached an agreement with the environmental groups that had sued. The company has already invested $25 million in Maine and will put 2.4 million salmon into the ocean in the next two years, an investment of $60 million.

Salmon is only a part of the aquaculture picture. Halibut and cod farming look promising and shellfish farming is growing at a rapid rate. This diversification makes for a more robust industry.

As salmon farming rebuilds and aquaculture expands into new areas, cooperation rather than disagreement and litigation can help to ensure that the industry that emerges works for Maine.