On July 10, 2024, the Maine Center for Disease Control notified the Department of Marine Resources of an outbreak of campylobactor illness related to the consumption of raw oysters. According to the World Health Organization, “Campylobacter infections are generally mild, but can be fatal among very young children, elderly, and immuno-suppressed individuals.” (who.int/ news-room/fact-sheets/detail/campylobacter)
Deer Isle select board hears from consultant on aquaculture
DEER ISLE—On August 8, the Deer Isle select board heard from Bailey Bowden, a Penobscot resident and consultant for the Portland-based Protect Maine’s Fishing Heritage Foundation (PMFHF).
Bowden said he wanted to present the board with information regarding aquaculture ordinances, and provided a draft ordinance created by PMFHF. Selectmen Ronald Eaton and Peter Perez were present.
Bowden said PMFHF believes that municipalities should have authority to implement aquaculture restrictions under “home rule,” in which Maine municipalities may govern themselves in any way that is not denied them by state or federal law. Maine has been considered a “home rule” state since November 1969, when an amendment to the state constitution granted broad “home rule” ordinance powers to municipalities.
What You Don't Know Can Make You Sick
Did you know that people recently became ill from eating farmed Maine oysters?
On July 10, 2024, the Maine Center for Disease Control notified the Department of Marine Resources of an outbreak of campylobactor illness related to the consumption of raw oysters. According to the World Health Organization, “Campylobacter infections are generally mild, but can be fatal among very young children, elderly, and immunosuppressed individuals.”
Opinion: The public must be notified about recall of Maine shellfish
Did you know that people recently became ill from eating farmed Maine oysters?
On July 10, 2024, the Maine Center for Disease Control notified the Department of Marine Resources of an outbreak of campylobactor illness related to the consumption of raw oysters. According to the World Health Organization, “Campylobacter infections are generally mild, but can be fatal among very young children, elderly, and immunosuppressed individuals.”
August Update: Communities Fight Back
We have some important information we want to share about what is happening in Maine waters.
You may have heard about the Cooke Aquaculture die off near Beals. State agencies are keeping much of the information close to the vest about what happened and what the impact will be. As you may know, Cooke leases over 600 acres of Maine waters along the coast to grow net pen salmon.
The leases involved in the latest die off are some of the leases up for renewal through DMR: https://www.maine.gov/dmr/aquaculture/maine-aquaculture-leases-and-lpas/pending-lease-applications
Coastal Communities are taking notice. In a unanimous vote in Beals on July 23, the town voted to institute an aquaculture moratorium and is beginning work on an aquaculture ordinance.
Beals Moratorium Vote
In Machiasport, headquarters for Cooke in the U.S., it’s been a longer road.
The town decided at the most recent selectboard meeting to send the last ordinance back for review to the planning board with a meeting in September. We will have more on that in the weeks to come.
Machiasport
Elected leaders like to say – “Maine, the way life should be” – How can we help them live up to that credo?
Below are two email addresses that will get you to the right people. Let them know you want better regulation of Maine waters and Industrial scale aquaculture shouldn’t have a home in Maine. Transparency in state government is important. As a concerned citizen, you would like accountability and answers.
Elected leaders work for you - not the lobbyists or the foreign corporations that are buying Maine waters.
Commissioner: Patrick.Keliher@maine.gov
Chief of Staff to the Governor: Jeremy.Kennedy@maine.gov
Protect Maine works hard to ensure the future of our waters. We do this work for people like Jason Faulkingham, the entire lobstering and marine harvesting communities, and those who work and recreate on the water. Industrial Scale Aquaculture has had a comfortable ride in Maine. It’s time to put on the breaks and figure out how to protect our natural resources before they are gone. Maine has a lot at stake.
To support our work: https://www.protectmaine.com/donate
AQUACULTURE ORDINANCES ENACTED IN TWO MORE MAINE COMMUNITIES
For Immediate Release
June 25, 2024
(The Maine Coast) - The towns of Penobscot and Winter Harbor have passed ordinances regulating aquaculture activities. In Penobscot, the vote was unanimous to support the ordinance. The town spent several months considering the appropriate language for their community.
Penobscot - June 10, 2024
On June 18, 2024, the town of Winter Harbor also voted in an ordinance, based entirely on the Protect Maine’s Fishing Heritage Foundation model. Again, it was a unanimous vote at the annual town meeting.
Winter Harbor – June 18, 2024
Four towns have passed ordinances regulating aquaculture – Cutler, Waldoboro, Penobscot, and Winter Harbor.
Protect Maine’s Fishing Heritage Foundation (PMFHF) is working with several more communities around a moratorium and an ordinance on aquaculture. The goal is that every community in Maine responds to the people of their community.
PMFHF Executive Director Crystal Canney said, “We are pleased to have provided the support these communities needed to design their own future as it relates to the heritage industries. We have leadership at the Department of Marine Resources (DMR) that is intent on selling the Maine Coast to the highest aquaculture bidders. Each community has chosen its own path. If you know Maine, you know that not every community is the same and a one size fits all approachdoes not work. If you understand this state, you also know that when the state pushes too hard, communities will push back if they feel they aren’t being heard or the agenda is not in a community’s best interest. Industrial scale aquaculture has had free reign, is loaded with lobbyists and money – but it will never outstrip the will of the people.”
Recently, home rule has been invoked, to create solar ordinances and manage the mining issue in Pembroke. A court case in Bar Harbor ruled that based on home rule, a community has the right to determine its own future. Protect Maine’s reasoning around the suggested language for an ordinance to address industrial scale aquaculture and the effectiveness of home rule can be found here.
To learn more about how home rule is being used in Maine:
Cruise Ship Court Ruling - Bar Harbor
Read Protect Maine's analysis of home rule.
Contact
Crystal Canney
Executive Director
Protect Maine’s Fishing Heritage Foundation
207 615 5968
$2 billion lawsuit alleges Cooke Inc. violated U.S. fishing laws
This story originally appeared in National Fisherman. Article & Image by Larry Chowning.
A $2 billion “False Claims Act” lawsuit alleging “figurehead fraud” against the Canadian seafood giant Cooke Inc. of St. John, New Brunswick, was unsealed in April in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan.
The suit alleges Cooke Inc., Omega Protein, Alpha VesselCo. Holdings, Inc., and others have been violating the American Fisheries Act (AFA) (1998) and Jones Act (1920), which allows only U.S. citizens to fish in U.S. waters.
The suit stems from an approximately $500 million purchase of Omega Protein of Reedville, Va., and all its assets in 2017 to Cooke Inc. The 57-page suit was filed by the New York law firm of Holwell, Shuster & Goldberg LLO (HS&G). Attorney Brendon DeMay of HS&G is requesting a jury trial.
The plaintiffs in the suit are Chris Manthey and W. Benson Chiles. Manthey is a professional investigator and researcher. In 1993, Manthey co-founded Back Track Report, a private investigation firm in New York focused on pre-deal background research on corporate executives.
Chiles is a consultant who has worked with environmental and conservation groups on issues relating to commercial and recreational fishing in U. S. waters. Chiles occasionally receives non-public information regarding corporations operating in the U. S. commercial fishing industry, including defendants Cooke Inc. and Omega, the suit states.
The plaintiffs say they are suing on behalf of the United States government, including the Maritime Administration (MARAD) of the United States Department of Transportation and the United States Coast Guard. MARAD determines whether applicants satisfy AFA vessel citizenship requirements.
Law Suit
As of Sept. 30, 2017, Omega Protein Inc. was a domestic, publicly traded company that owned a fleet of 37 commercial fishing vessels, 27 spotter aircraft to spot schools of fish, three fish-processing operations, and Omega Shipyard in Moss Point, Miss., where the companies’ vessels were built and repaired.
The suit alleges that since 2017, when Cooke Inc. purchased Omega, the firm has been violating the AFA/Jones Act by having “de facto control” over menhaden vessels working in the Chesapeake Bay, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Gulf of Mexico. Under the AFA/Jones Act, foreign citizens, like Cooke Inc., may not have control over vessels engaged in commercial fishing in United States waters.
The suit alleges that “as a result of a fraudulent scheme, defendants have illegally harvested from United States waters many millions of dollars worth of (menhaden) fish to which they are not entitled.”
The suit states that Cooke, Inc., a privately held Canadian firm controlled and beneficially owned by a single family, acquired Omega and its subsidies and assets, including all of Omega’s vessels. The vessels' homeports are Reedville, Va., on Chesapeake Bay, and Abbeville and Moss Point, Mississippi, on the Gulf of Mexico.
The suit alleges that Cooke Inc. was involved in a “figurehead fraud scheme,” creating a shell corporation to avoid violating the AFA citizenship requirement. It also alleges that “instead of simply acquiring Omega and owning its vessels (Cooke) restructured the entire acquisition to create an illusion of compliance with the AFA citizenship requirement.”
It further states that Omega transferred the Omega Vessels to a new subsidiary, with 20% belonging to Omega (now owned by Cooke Inc.) and 80% to a “Delaware shell” owned by Seth Dunlop, a U.S. citizen, nephew of Cooke CEO Glenn Cooke. The suit states Dunlop was “just a figurehead (and that) Cooke Inc. and Omega retained control.”
Aware early on of AFA issues
The suit alleges that during negotiations of the agreement on the sale of Omega, Cooke agreed to pay a $20 million payment if the acquisition failed to close because they could not obtain MARAD approval, recognizing the citizenship issue.
The suit alleges that “no later than June 2017, Cooke identified a potentially prohibitive obstacle to the acquisition (concerning) the AFA citizenship requirement. Cooke and Omega recognized that the acquisition as originally conceived . . . would render the Omega fishing fleet ineligible to operate in the U.S. commercial fisheries . . .,”
The suit further alleges that “conversely, neither Cooke nor Omega were willing to entertain an arrangement that complied with the AFA prohibition on foreign control. For example, neither Cooke nor Omega was willing to sell the Omega vessels to a bona fide third party in an arms-length transaction and purchase fish from that independent company at an arms-length transaction . . . and both companies viewed the Omega vessels and Omega’s tight control over its vertically integrated menhaden harvesting and processing operations, as major drivers of Omega’s value and as critical to its market dominance,” it alleges.
“Accordingly defendants entered into an agreement . . . to create a post acquisition ownership structure for the Omega vessels . . . while ensuring that Cooke and Omega would retain control via a figurehead,” it alleges.
Attorney’s comment
Attorney DeMay said in a letter announcing that the suit was unsealed, "Cooke’s scheme is illegal. Non-citizens Cooke and Omega are improperly exercising control over the vessels in a shameful violation of AFA.”
The letter alleges that Cooke Inc. concealed facts to MARAD, “flagrantly breaching” the AFA anti-fraud rule, which requires, under penalty of perjury, vessel owners to disclose to MARAD “all relevant facts regarding vessel ownership and control” and which imposes fines of up to $154,000 per vessel per day for concealing material facts or making false representations.
The suit calls for the government to revoke the fishery endorsement of all vessels whose owners do not comply with the AFA citizenship rule.
DeMay wrote that prosecuting Cooke and its “conspirators to the fullest extent of the law, and fining them billions of dollars, will serve as an important deterrent to future foreign prospectors and establish a key precedent for law enforcement.”
Response from defendant Ocean Harvesters
Vice President of public affairs of Ocean Harvesters Ben Landry said, "Ocean Harvesters believes the recently filed lawsuit is without merit and will vigorously defend against all allegations of wrongdoing.
“As this case proceeds, we look forward to establishing that accusations of failure to disclose appropriate information are inaccurate. Ocean Harvesters is committed to compliance with all applicable laws and to continuing to conduct responsible, sustainable fishing operations along the Atlantic coast and in the Gulf of Mexico,” said Landry.
Canadian court nixes BC salmon farm license renewal appeal
This article originally appeared in Seafood Source.
A Canadian federal court has ruled that a decision to not renew salmon farming licenses in the Discovery Islands, located in British Columbia, Canada, met necessary government standards.
In February 2023, Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) announced it would not renew licenses for 15 open net-pen Atlantic salmon farms in the Discovery Islands. Joyce Murray, who, at the time, was Canada’s minister of fisheries, oceans, and the Canadian Coast Guard, announced the decision following “extensive consultations with First Nations, industry, and others and after closely considering the submissions received.”
The Wei Wai Kum and We Wai Kai First Nations, as well as salmon farm operators such as Grieg Seafood, Cermaq Canada, and Mowi Canada West, applied for judicial review of the decision soon after. Now, Canadian Federal Judge Paul Favel has ruled that Murray’s decision met the “requirement of the duty to consult” and “did not breach the operators’ rights of procedural fairness,” the Canadian Press reported.
The saga stems from a December 2020 announcement that the DFO wanted to phase out all ocean-based salmon farming in the Discovery Islands – a move that B.C. communities and salmon farmers said they were “blindsided” by. An earlier court decision in 2022 initially overturned the DFO’s order, sending it back to the department for reconsideration. The 2023 decision to not renew licenses followed the second consultation process, meeting government standards, according to the latest court decision.
Opponents of salmon farming in the region, including Wild First and the First Nation Wild Salmon Alliance (FNWSA), welcomed the decision, calling it the beginning of a “meaningful transition plan” to protect wild Pacific salmon populations and reconcile with First Nations groups across B.C.
“This federal government is making the correct decision to honor the direction of the Supreme Court of Canada by consulting with First Nations across British Columbia, not just site-specific where the farms are,” FNWSA Chair Bob Chamberlin said. “What they’re learning is that the majority of First Nations across the province are calling for the removal of fish farms from the ocean.”
The DFO’s actions are in accordance with a mandate issued by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who has said he wants to phase out net-pen salmon farming in BC and transition to the industry to land-based aquaculture.
Salmon-farming companies in the region oppose that approach, saying a move to land-based aquaculture isn’t feasible for the companies or the industry.
In a webinar hosted by the Global Seafood Alliance covering the topic of salmon aquaculture in British Columbia, Amanda Luxton, the Tsulton site manager for Mowi Canada West, said building land-based recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) will cost more, require more energy, and take up lots of space on land.
“If you’re going to be growing big fish, due to densities, you’d have to have a lot of tanks – and a lot of big tanks – and all the components that go with it,” Luxton said. “You have pumps, you have UV, you have ozone, you have drum filters – there’s so many components that go into making a RAS successful.”
The energy needed to run a facility and heat or cool the water is immense, according to Luxton, and the farms require backup generators in case power is interrupted.
“You have to have every kind of plan to make sure if something goes wrong, you’re prepared,” Luxton said.
That equipment and planning all requires additional money, driving up the price.
“So, if you are trying to grow this product on land and you are spending so much money to grow, it’s going to have to be super expensive, and at the end of the day, that’s not what you want,” Luxton said. “You want to be able to grow happy, healthy fish that anybody can afford and eat.”
A report commissioned by the British Columbia Ministry of Agriculture and Food and conducted by Counterpoint Consulting also found that transitioning from net-pen salmon farms to land-based systems in BC isn’t economically feasible.
The 2023 report stated that the transition would require an investment of CAD 1.8 billion (USD 1.3 billion, EUR 1.2 billion) and would likely mean B.C. communities would miss out on the economic benefits, as RAS systems would be located closer to areas with higher populations.
Letter: Oyster farming is ruining Maquoit Bay
This Post was originally published in the Portland Press Herald.
Expansion of an oyster farm would continue the degradation of the serenity of Maquoit Bay.
Why are so many hell-bent on destroying what is beautiful and enjoyed by others?
I live in Brunswick, near Maquoit Bay, a shallow saltwater body, which is enjoyed by boaters, fishermen and appreciators of nature. The bay has been taken over, to a great extent, by a commercial oyster farm. I believe this farm is depositing sludge, produced as effluent from the oysters being raised, along the banks of this shallow, not-self-cleaning body of water. Now, our local government is reviewing the oyster company’s application for a 160-foot-long dock out into the near reaches of the bay, disrupting the quietude of neighbors and others who enjoy the serenity still present.
This water, which used to nourish shellfish and other spawning species, is now bereft of precious eel grass, which had been the critical component for the life of this bay. This loss is probably irreversible, damning the future of this precious resource to being a dead zone. Where have sensibility and forethought gone? As has been said often: Follow the money.
Prentiss Tubby
Brunswick
Attorney David Kallin on Home Rule in Maine
Listen to why communities in Maine have home rule authority concerning aquaculture. Attorney David Kallin explains.