Tag Archives: Friends of Schoodic Peninsula
Maine: Fishermen oppose large salmon farm
Alley, Backman, Briggs, Coombs, Dunbar, Faulkingham, Knowles, Perry, Torrey and Whalen are among the surnames of multi-generation fishing families on the Schoodic Peninsula, whose working fishermen and women signed a petition opposing American Aquafarms’ proposed salmon farm comprising two 15-pen sites in Frenchman Bay. The 100 petitioners’ “Statement of Opposition” to the project to raise 66 million fish annually in their historic fishing grounds was delivered last week to the Gouldsboro Select Board. “This is going to take away more of our lobster fishing ground,” 75-year-old South Gouldsboro fisherman Jerry Potter said. Potter has fished in Frenchman Bay throughout his working life. “We’re worried about disease. And I’m very concerned it would pollute the bay and destroy the bay’s entire ecosystem.” >click to read< 13:26
Local Group invites Salmon Farm Developer to Engage in “Real Community Conversation”
Prospect Harbor, Maine – A local citizens’ group today delivered a letter to American Aquafarms inviting the company to participate in an open meeting to hear area residents ’concerns about the company’s proposal to build a massive industrial salmon farm in Frenchman Bay next to Acadia National Park. In their letter, Friends of Schoodic Peninsula called out the company for pledging months ago to meet with area residents but instead releasing a video recently of CEO Keith Decker and project manager Tom Brennan being interviewed by the company’s lawyer and calling it a “community conversation.” >click to read< 12:14
Anti-salmon farming activist Alexandra Morton to give special presentation for Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory
Alexandra Morton has been called “the Jane Goodall of Canada” because of her passionate thirty-year fight to save British Columbia’s wild salmon from salmon farms. Her account of that fight is both inspiring and a roadmap for resistance to industrial-scale aquaculture. Morton has agreed to give a special lecture virtually from her home in British Columbia on December 06, 2021, at 5:00 p.m. (EST) as part of the MDIBL Science Café series. This event is free and open to the public, but attendees must register in advance. A question-and-answer session will follow. “This important conversation comes at a critical time for Frenchman Bay and Maine as we face the rising challenge of industrial-scale aquaculture,”,,,, >click to read<, and register! 10:55
Overwhelming Majority Approve 6 Month Moratorium in Gouldsboro on Large Finfish Aquaculture Proposals
The moratorium gives the Planning Board time to shore up its ordinances to address projects as large as the 120-acre salmon farm proposed by American Aquafarms, which is largely made up of Norwegian investors. Veteran lobster fisherman Jerry Potter said that although this vote does not kill the project, it does send a strong message to the company that the majority of residents do not back the salmon farm project. American Aquafarms has said it needs the support of the community. “I have been opposed to this project since the first time I heard about it,” said Potter, 75, who has been fishing in Frenchman Bay since he was a teenager. >click to read< 11:59
Gouldsboro Special Town Meeting on instituting a moratorium halting all major finfish aquaculture projects
What: Gouldsboro Special Town Meeting on instituting a moratorium halting all major finfish aquaculture projects until related ordinances can be updated. Why: American Aquafarms is proposing to build a 120-acre salmon farm in Frenchman Bay and a hatchery, processing plant and sludge handling operation in the village of Prospect Harbor. When: Monday, Nov. 15, at 6 p.m. Where: Gouldsboro Rec Center, Pond Road. Contact: Jacqueline Weaver, Friends of Schoodic Peninsula, 207-546-0826 14:33
Proposed salmon farm highlights competing visions – Groups Oppose Industrial Aquaculture in Frenchman Bay
American Aquafarms wants to put 30 salmon pens in Frenchman Bay at the foot of Acadia National Park While the company said the proposed aquafarm will be good for Maine, people who currently make their living on the water aren’t convinced, and oppose the project. “These are the wrong people with the wrong project and the wrong technology in absolutely the wrong place,” >video, click to read< – Groups Oppose Applications for Industrial Aquaculture Leases at the foot of Acadia National Park in Frenchman Bay – The pens in Frenchman Bay would grow 66 million pounds of farmed raised salmon and compete with lobstermen who have also expressed their concerns. Protect Maine’s Fishing Heritage Foundation Executive Director Crystal Canney said, “There are many things wrong with this project, especially as it relates to the deleterious effects it may have on the environment. On a statewide level, these conflicts continue to grow. PMFHF has heard from more than 30 lobstermen who fish in Frenchman Bay. They are concerned about the loss of bottom but also concerned that the rules and regulations at the Department of Marine Resources are risking the livelihood of a $1.6 billion industry.” >click to read< 14:53
