US chief executive named for Norwegian company proposing Maine salmon farm
Courtesy / American Aquafarms
Keith Decker was appointed as American Aquafarms' new CEO.
American Aquafarms, a Norwegian company that proposes to install a $300 million salmon farm in Frenchman Bay, yesterday announced the appointment of a new CEO based in the U.S.
The new chief, Keith Decker, is a 30-year industry veteran with experience in seafood production and processing. He has held leadership roles some of the largest North American seafood companies, according to a news release.
Decker replaced the company’s founder, Mikael Roenes, whose plans from the start included transitioning away from the CEO role to that of founder and advisor, according to a separate statement.
“By leveraging the state’s deep-water assets with next-generation, eco-friendly technology to sustainably produce food close to its market, we have the opportunity to set a new standard in the United States,” Decker said in the release.
American Aquafarms has engaged in a permitting process to lease two sites in Frenchman Bay, between Bar Harbor and Schoodic Peninsula, of about 60 acres each.
The company wants to install 15 “closed pens” plus an operations barge at each site, with the goal of eventually producing 30,000 metric tons, or 66 million pounds, of salmon annually. The salmon would be processed at a facility in Gouldsboro, currently owned and operated by Maine Fair Trade Lobster. American has an option to buy the property. The company has said the operation would create hundreds of jobs.
Decker said the operation would produce healthy fish without impacting the seabed.
“This is a game-changer for how North American seafood is produced and transported along the entire eastern seaboard,” he said. “I’m eager to get to work and confident that Maine is the ideal location to lead the way in what’s next for our waterfront industries.”
Decker most recently, he served as CEO of Blue Harvest Fisheries, a vertically integrated fishing and processing company headquartered in New Bedford, Mass. Previously, he was the CEO of High Liner Foods, the largest North American processor and marketer of value-added frozen seafood. He is a board member and investor in an Oslo, Norway, company that plans to build and operate an industrial scale land-based Atlantic salmon operation outside of Reno, Nev., according to his LinkedIn profile.
The change in leadership comes eight months after Roenes and his team submitted their applications for the project to the Department of Marine Resources.
Roenes established the company in 2019.
Divisive opinions
The project has generated strong reactions from residents who live around the bay and from organizations that include Acadia National Park and Friends of Acadia.
Although American Aquafarms representatives have called the closed-pen system “proven and robust” technology, opponents have cited what they say are potential threats to local jobs in fishing and tourism, to the natural environment and to quality of life.
“This is no place for 30 massive salmon pens, using unproven technology and pumping 4.1 billion gallons of effluent into the bay each day while running huge diesel generators all day and night,” Jacqueline Weaver of Friends of Schoodic Peninsula, a member of Frenchman Bay United, said in a separate release issued earlier this month.
Frenchman Bay United is a coalition of groups and individuals working to stop the project.
Acadia National Park and Friends of Acadia have issued separate statements in recent months.
In a statement issued in June, Acadia’s superintendent, Kevin Schneider wrote that the park’s interest is grounded in management policies of monitoring proposed changes outside the park for potential impacts on its resources and values.
“Our natural resources cross park boundaries, and many of the scenic vistas enjoyed by Acadia’s visitors include lands not owned by the National Park Service,” he wrote.
While many other commercial fishing and aquaculture activities take place within Frenchman Bay, and exist in harmony with Acadia, he said, the American Aquafarms proposal “is totally different than existing aquaculture activities near the park. The scale of this development — the equivalent of 16 football fields — is unprecedented in Maine and incongruous with the existing nature and setting of Frenchman Bay and its surrounding lands.”
Potentially significant impacts to the park’s resources and values include visitor experience, the park’s scenic and historic resources, dark night sky, natural soundscape, intertidal zone, wildlife, and air and water quality, he said.
Friends of Acadia’s president and CEO, David MacDonald, wrote that the organization would be working alongside the National Park Service, the National Parks and Conservation Association, Frenchman Bay United, and the other local stakeholders in urging regulatory agencies to deny American Aquafarms the permits needed to operate in Frenchman Bay.
“The nationally significant gift of Acadia will be tarnished if American Aquafarms’ salmon farms are permitted,” he wrote. “The pens and associated barges and infrastructure would be highly visible from Acadia’s hiking trails, carriage roads, and Park Loop Road, as well as from the Cadillac Summit Road, which are all on the National Register of Historic Places. The world-class recreational experience enjoyed by kayakers and boaters on the waters and conserved islands in Frenchman Bay would be greatly diminished.”
Salmon source
In a related development, the Department of Marine Resources issued a memo last month that said American Aquafarms’ proposed source of Atlantic salmon smolts, or baby fish, from a Canadian supplier was unsuitable.
In American’s lease application, AquaBounty of Newfoundland, Canada, was listed as the proposed source of smolts.
“AquaBounty is not currently considered a ‘qualified source/hatchery’” in accordance with department standards, wrote Marcy Nelson, director of the department’s aquaculture division.
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments