Frenchman Bay residents to salmon farmers: ‘You’re not welcome here’

Courtesy / Department of Marine Resources Eirik Jors, American Aquafarms vice president, top left, and other company reps, including founder and CEO Mikael Roenes, bottom right, discussed the application for salmon pens in Frenchman Bay.

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By Laurie Schreiber

A salmon farm proposed for Frenchman Bay drew fire from about a dozen local residents at an information meeting held Wednesday night by the Department of Marine Resources.

The meeting, called a scoping session, is part of the department’s application process and is designed to get public input on the application.

“Why should we be your guinea pigs?” asked Teri Gerson, a resident of Prospect Harbor, where a processing plant and hatchery associated with the salmon farm are proposed to be built.

“We have one Frenchman Bay and Acadia National Park, which are the premier tourist attractions on the Eastern seaboard. You don’t introduce an industrial-scale project into that kind of environment,” said Ann Hirschhorn, a Hancock Point resident.

The proposal by American Aquafarms, a business based in Norway, is to lease 120 acres in order to install 30 “closed net” pens for raising salmon. The 120 acres would be split between two 60-acre sites of 15 pens each. At each site, 10 acres would be taken up by pens and the rest by mooring systems to hold the pens in place. The company has said its goal is to scale up to grow 66 million pounds of salmon per year.

Hatchery and processing facilities would be located in Prospect Harbor, a village of Gouldsboro. Support vessels would travel between the pens and facilities

In their presentation, company representatives, including its founder and CEO, Mikael Roenes, said closed pens are a “proven and robust” technology. The equipment is sourced from “industry leading solutions developed and utilized for a number of years and are considered best available technology in the industry," according to the the executives.

The capital and operational costs to develop each site until the point of first harvest are projected to be $147 million, for a combined total of about $250 million.

The American Aquafarms representatives said they selected Maine as their location because the ocean environment was suitable for the operation and because it was closer to their intended U.S. market than Norway.

Eirik Jors, the company’s vice president, said the company has consulted with local lobstermen and studied the area to find sites that would have least impact on lobster fishing.

But residents brought up a number of concerns, including the potential for harmful wastewater discharge from the pens.

A consultant on the project, Elizabeth Ransom of Ransom Consulting, said the company would be required to conform with stringent water quality standards outlined by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, which would include continuous monitoring of discharge through the life of the project. The process, she said, is designed to make sure there would be no net change in the water quality in Frenchman Bay.

Other concerns included visual impacts as well as noise and exhaust from the operation of generators at the pen sites.

“I want to make sure we convey to you that this project is not welcome here in this bay,” said Jeri Bowers, who said her family has lived in the area for over 200 years.

Gerson said she and others chose to live in small villages like Prospect Harbor because of their quiet nature.

“You are not welcome here. We don’t want you here,” she said. “We’re a quiet, serene fishing village. That’s why we’re here. That’s not by accident.”

Jors said the company is working to understand and accommodate the concerns of the communities around the bay.

But Gerson asked the company to hold a referendum among the communities.

“If you really care what the communities feel, let us have an open vote to tell you whether or not we want you to do business in this area,” she said. “We are horrified, absolutely horrified, at the idea that you will go through with this.”

Hirschhorn said that, despite the sophisticated technology promised by the company, she was concerned about the potential for accidents such as fish escapes, die-offs and disease.

“You claim to be taking every precaution,” she said. “But accidents happen. Humans err.”

Jors responded that nothing can be 100% guaranteed. However, he continued, the planned operations would include several layers of redundancies, so that if something were to go wrong, there would be a back-up system and, if the back-up system were to fail, another back-up system would kick in.

He said aquaculture has been developed in Norway off similar coastal areas populated by small communities that have “embraced and adapted to the introduction of aquaculture as a part of the environment.”

“None of are willing to take the risk as far as Frenchman Bay,” responded Hirschhorn.

American Aquafarms’ application is in the preliminary stage. Provided the applicant submits final applications, one or more public hearings would eventually be held.

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