Aquafarm company files complaint against DMR over Frenchman Bay application
COURTESY / AMERICAN AQUAFARMS
American Aquafarms filed a complaint against the Maine Department of Marine Resources’ termination of applications to install salmon pens in Frenchman Bay.
Following the state's recent nixing of two regulatory applications for salmon-raising pens in Frenchman Bay, Norwegian firm American Aquafarms has filed a complaint against the Department of Marine Resources and is requesting a review of its action.
The complaint, filed last week in Cumberland County Superior Court, calls the DMR’s decision “arbitrary and capricious” and “unsupported by the evidence.”
American Aquafarms applied to the DMR last year to lease two 60-acre sites between Bar Harbor and Schoodic Peninsula to install 15 “closed pens” plus an operations barge at each site, with the goal of eventually producing 66 million pounds of salmon annually.
Last September, the DMR sent a letter to American Aquafarms informing it that its identified source of Atlantic salmon eggs, a Canadian business called AquaBounty, was not considered a “qualified source/hatchery.”
The DMR told American Aquafarms that a review of AquaBounty would be required before the DMR could take further action on the applications. In a separate letter, the DMR required American to initiate the review process within 30 days. And the review required American to provide the DMR with information about AquaBounty’s testing protocols along with genetic information showing that the salmon did not originate in Iceland or Europe.
American initiated the review within the 30 days, and American and its technical consultants began to assemble information regarding AquaBounty’s testing protocols, according to the complaint.
However, the complaint says, AquaBounty’s testing schedule and protocols didn’t line up with the conditions outlined by the DMR.
American said it worked to reconcile the testing data.
But in January, American Aquafarms received another letter from the DMR saying that American “had so far failed to provide the information requested” for the review process, the complaint says.
The DMR indicated that, if American didn’t meet a new deadline of March 25, the DMR would terminate the aquaculture applications.
In February, American Aquafarms, through counsel, sent a letter to the DMR explaining the work that American was doing to reconcile the testing data so the protocols matched those required by the DMR.
American also identified the U. S. Department of Agriculture’s National Cold Water Agricultural Center as an alternate egg source in the event the testing data from AquaBounty couldn’t be coordinated to the DMR’s satisfaction, the complaint says.
American Aquafarms' February letter requested an extension of the DMR’s March 25 deadline.
The DMR refused the extension and told American that the USDA was not an approved egg source because American “could only receive eggs from the USDA ‘if certain conditions are met,’” the complaint ays. The DMR “did not specify which conditions it found to be unacceptable.”
After further communications, the complaint says, American Aquafarms submitted the necessary AquaBounty pathogen testing information on March 22.
On April 19, the DMR sent a final decision to American indicating the information was insufficient and issued its termination
The complaint also says that personnel with the DMR and the USDA had a conversation about American’s application that American Aquafarms wasn’t privy to.
The DMR “arbitrarily decided that the timeframe from Nov. 15, 2021, to March 25, 2022, was sufficient time” for American to act in good faith to compile data to support the review of AquaBounty, the complaint says.
The DMR also “arbitrarily” rejected the USDA as a source of eggs, the complaint says.
The complaint asks the court to issue an order reversing the DMR’s termination and remanding the matter back to the DMR for further proceedings.
In an email Thursday to Mainebiz, DMR spokesperson Jeff Nichols said, “We stand by our decision to terminate American Aquafarms’ lease applications. That decision was based in regulation and law designed to protect the marine environment.
"American Aquafarms’ failure to demonstrate that its proposed source of salmon could meet criteria in regulation for a 'Qualified Source Hatchery' and to provide documentation demonstrating that the proposed source of salmon could meet genetic requirements in law was a major omission that compelled our decision.”
Washington, D.C.-based conservation group Oceana said American’s proposal, if approved, would bring water, air, noise and light pollution to Frenchman Bay.
“Despite the opposition of two-thirds of Hancock County voters and the rejection of their permit by Maine’s Department of Marine Resources, American Aquafarms is apparently doubling their efforts to build a 66-million-pound-per-year — the largest ocean-pen salmon farm in North America — less than 2,000 feet from the shores of Acadia National Park,” Oceana’s campaign director, Matt Dundas, said in a separate email.
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The hubris of this company is incredible as they are showing a constant unwillingness to listen to everyone, from neighbors, local townships/governments, local chamber of commerce, local fisherman, let alone scientific analysis and the federal Acadia National Park. It is their money they are wasting as no amount of fighting will push this through. The people are united and American Aquafarms (ironic as they are not American run/owned) is NOT welcome.
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