We are pleased to share some very big news! On August 6, 2025, Lubec residents enacted an ordinance that addresses industrial scale aquaculture in their waters. This is a significant victory for the people who love to fish, lobster, and recreate on the water.
The vote was 94-81. This brings the total number of towns that have enacted aquaculture ordinances or moratoriums to eight (Penobscot, Winter Harbor, Harpswell, Cutler, Waldoboro, Gouldsboro, Beals, Lubec) and we are working with towns all up and down the coast that want a say in their future. Each town has either used our ordinance in full, adapted it or chosen to develop their own completely. We applaud each town for doing what is best on their body of water.
While Lubec citizens made their voices heard, the governor chose this session to limit citizen input on aquaculture lease renewals. LD 1722 is a disastrous piece of legislation introduced by a member of the Marine Resources Committee who is also an aquaculturist.
This could directly impact the lives of lobsterman and women and communities in Downeast Maine several hundred miles away from southern Maine and Augusta. It eliminates public hearings on lease renewals. A nod goes to DMR for testifying against the bill as did Protect Maine’s Fishing Heritage Foundation.
We will have more on this later this month including an analysis of what it means and our efforts to combat it. This was an emergency bill signed into law by Governor Janet Mills. Mills has on several occasions publicly backed Cooke Aquaculture, a company that was chased out of Washington State and most recently is being sued by Conservation Law Foundation in Maine for allegations around environmental impacts on Maine waters at the farmed salmon pens. Cooke, headquartered in Canada now leases more than six hundred acres of the Maine water for farm raised salmon. Cooke has been sued by many entities including Wildfish.
Other communities around the world are choosing to eliminate farm raised salmon completely. If you want to see what can happen, this short piece of work from British Columbia is amazing. The work was provided free to us by Tavish Campbell and Deirdre Leoniwata & Moonfish Media.
https://www.protectmaine.com/videos
On a lighter note, Protect Maine’s Sammy the Salmon was in Bangor and Union educating about the effects of industrial scale aquaculture. In Union, Sammy was invited up on the stage to highlight the effort. For a chuckle go to this link.
Protect Maine supports small owner operator aquaculture but not foreign ownership of leases in our Maine waters. If you believe like we do that industrial scale aquaculture is bad for Maine, please consider supporting this work.
We can only do this work with your support and if you can donate, please go to this link.
We are a small but nimble crew of people with the good fortune of having three lobstermen, including Protect Maine’s board President.