State bill would tackle development pressures along Maine coast
Courtesy / American Aquafarms
An emergency bill would tackle issues around coastal water development at the baywide level. A Norwegian firm proposes installing a large salmon farm operation in Frenchman Bay, partially represented in this image.
Divisive opinions around Maine's growing aquaculture industry, particularly a proposed salmon farming operation in Frenchman Bay, are driving lawmakers to consider studying coastal development in general.
The Legislature’s Marine Resource Committee held a public hearing Tuesday on LD 1211, “Resolve, To Create the Study Group To Research Balancing Development and Conservation in Maine's Coastal Waters and Submerged Lands,” introduced by state Rep. Lynne Williams, D-District 135.
A goal of the bill is to establish regional units functioning in individual bay areas, composed of municipal representatives and consultants, that would be able to provide input into how each bay is used.
The resolve would establish the group “to address current system deficiencies in the regulation of the state's coastal waters and submerged lands.”
The group would consist of 25 members that include five state legislators who represent coastal districts; five representatives from a municipality on Casco Bay, Penobscot Bay, Blue Hill Bay, Frenchman Bay and Cobscook Bay; a representative of the Department of Marine Resources’ coastal program; five representatives of coastal waters conservation organizations, including one promoting the conservation of Frenchman Bay; two representatives of coastal-related research organizations; one representative of Acadia National Park; three representative sof marine harvesters; and three representatives of marine industries such as shipbuilding, tour boats and marinas.
Duties would include:
• Review shoreland zone and coastal waters legislation in the laws of other states
• Review Maine laws governing coastal and lake watershed districts, river corridor commissions, mandatory shoreland zoning and the Maine Coastal Program of the Department of Marine Resources
• Research and review case histories of failures of the current coastal waters and submerged land management system;
• Review models for local representation, participation and empowerment in regional planning and watchdog authority in coordination with already established state entities;
• Recommend solutions to current coastal waters and submerged land management deficiencies;
• Consider amending current laws versus enacting new laws;
• Consider mandating the creation of regional units functioning in individual bay areas that are composed of municipally elected representatives of the surrounding communities and expert advisor consultants.
The bill sets Dec. 1 as the deadline for the group to submit a report to the Legislature.
Support
Supporters said the bill would allow development pressures — including aquaculture and cruise ships — to be addressed at the regional level with input from municipalities and other entities around each affected region.
“Frenchman Bay is an amazingly varied place with many different aspects affecting the surrounding communities, and so many people and groups and businesses competing for use of it,” said Ann Hoffner, a Sorrento resident and supporter of the bill.
“In recent years the bay has been facing the escalation of a number of demands, some new, some old and some, like aquaculture, changing, specifically with the addition of the push to farm salmon.”
The bay’s beauty, she said, “is a combination of its unparalleled beauty and its workaday character. To lose either to poor management or no management would be a tragedy.”
The waters of Frenchman Bay are surrounded by at least seven different municipalities, said Carol Chappell, a Bar Harbor resident.
“Each has different governing authority over different parts of the bay,” she continued. “But the waters of the bay do not stop at municipal boundaries. One town’s choices of water use affects all the rest of the bay and it is important to have some kind of regulatory oversight for the whole bay into which each municipality has decision making input.”
Chappell and others referred to a proposal by Norway-based American Aquafarms to install an Atlantic salmon farm on two leased areas in Frenchman Bay, with the goal of producing 66 million pounds of fish per year.
Jerilyn Bowers, a resident of Hancock, said development pressures on public waters have grown in recent years.
“One only need look at Maine’s aquaculture industry as a clear example of the increase in marine-based activity,” she said. “In 2010 the Department of Marine Resources approved 34 aquaculture leases. In 2020, they approved 216 – a five-fold increase. As Maine’s coastal waters become more of a focus of our economic strategies, we must ensure that find the right balance.”
“It’s meant to deal with and plan around conflict,” said Lamoine select board member Kathleen Rybarz. The goal, she said, is to preserve current aquaculture, fishing and lobster activities and also preserve coastal areas.
“It’s about sitting around a virtual dining room table and discussing plans for the future,” Rybarz said.
Opposition
Numerous members of the aquaculture industry opposed the bill.
In written testimony, Sebastian Belle, executive director of the Maine Aquaculture Association, said the bill “is yet another attempt to attack the state’s working waterfronts.”
The group’s makeup, he said, ensures that commercial working waterfront interests, including commercial fishing and aquaculture, would be “in the minority and intentionally marginalized.”
He added, “The establishment of regional management bodies that structurally discriminate against working waterfront interests will effectively allow wealthy coastal communities to establish ‘gated communities’ where working waterfronts are not welcome.”
The establishment of regional management authorities would be onerous, adding significant layers to permitting and leasing procedure, he said.
Regionalization, he said, will decrease the Department of Marine Resources’ “ability to ensure consistent and fair management of all the state’s waters and resources and place a tremendous strain on DMR staff time as they engage with multiple ‘bay management’ groups.”
He concluded, “State agency and the legislature resources should be focused on the real challenges working waterfronts face such as lack of wild stock population surveys, right whales, climate change, gentrification and offshore wind.”
James Balano, co-owner of Wheeler’s Bay Oyster Co. in St. George, said the bill was less about working waterfront and more about real estate investment.
“It’s about gated communities, McMansions, golf courses and gentrification — the premium people are willing to pay for exclusivity,” he said.
Opponents said the department’s aquaculture leasing procedures are sufficient.
“These laws have carefully been put in place over the years and a top-down review is simply not necessary,” said Hugh Cowperthwaite, senior program director of the fisheries and aquaculture program at Coastal Enterprises Inc. in Brunswick and a Falmouth resident.
"If implemented, he said, the bill “will create major hurdles to an industry that is already operating in an extremely restrictive environment. At this fragile time for many of our natural fisheries resources, the state of Maine should be supporting and preserving aquaculture’s growth — not building up more barriers to its success.”
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