Protecting Maine's Fishing Heritage

This was originally published Nov. 07, 2024 in ​Quoddy Tides

Did you know that a squirrel may chatter for several reasons, including protecting its territory? Sebastian Belle recently signed an article in the Quoddy Tides, attacking everything from the mission of Protect Maine to the people involved. As you read his commentary, Belle doesn’t mention he is the executive director of the Maine Aquaculture Association (MAA). Not once did he mention that he was paid by the very organization that is funded by large scale industrialaquaculture, which in turn pays his salary. The Quoddy Tides added his title at the end if you read the piece in its entirety.

Cooke Aquaculture leases more than 600 acres of the Maine coast. It is no surprise that The MAA defends Cooke Aquaculture with protective legislation, and little interest in transparency about how Cooke does business – calling many requests for information “proprietary to the company.” Meanwhile, in Washington State, Cooke has had several leases denied after a massive salmon escape and pending lawsuitsaround shell companies..

BREAKING NEWS: Maine’s Largest Industrial Fish Farm Targeted for Potential Lawsuit.

On November 14, 2024, Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) has filed suit against Maine’s largest industrial scale aquaculture farm. . Protect Maine’s Fishing Heritage Foundation (PMFHF) stands with CLF on this potential violation of industrial scale aquaculture.  

You can read the lawsuit here.

Media coverage can be found here.

Maine-based non-profits supporting CLF’s work.

Letter to the Editor: Details and the devilish way the state is playing with numbers

As a generational lobsterman and a board director for Protect Maine’s Fishing Heritage for several years, I saw the rebuttal from the Maine Department of Marine Resources (MDMR) defending the department’s work around industrial scale aquaculture.  

Like so many things the devil is in the details – and in this case MDMR is cherry picking lease numbers to make a case for the department doing its job. 

Dirty, Unregulated Industrial Salmon Farms Put Our Waters at Risk

This past summer, around 50,000 industrially farmed salmon wriggled free through holes in their pens into the waters of Machias Bay, Maine. It’s possible the farmed fish survived their prison break to spread diseases that thrive in captivity to critically endangered wild salmon out at sea and upstream in the nearby Machias River. Despite this, the escaped fish were not tracked, and Maine did not hold the industry responsible.  

With millions of salmon being raised on industrial farms in Maine, we cannot risk another incident like this one. To avoid this and a host of other environmental impacts from these farms, CLF is calling for changes to how state regulators oversee salmon farming. 

Revealed: Aquaculture’s wild fish use far higher than previously estimated

A new study published in Science Advances has found that the global aquaculture industry, including salmon farming, may rely on significantly more wild-caught fish than previously estimated.

Led by scientists from the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science, the study challenges long-held assumptions about the sustainability of fish farming and suggests a substantial impact on wild fish populations.

October Update

Protect Maine’s Fishing Heritage Foundation continues to work with towns to prevent the sale of the Maine coast for private gain. Our efforts aim to preserve public access for marine harvesters and the public at large, maintaining water quality, and ensuring proper regulation of the state’s public trust. Protect Maine continues to advocate for small owner-operated aquaculture. We believe that with appropriate siting and community input small owner-operated aquaculture is an ideal way to diversify the commercial fishery.

Selling our waters to industrial scale aquaculture

This was originally published in The Boothbay Register.

Written by Camden Reiss

As a marine harvester in the Midcoast and Downeast, part time sternman and advocate for keeping our waters clean and open to everyone, I urge you to look at what is happening along the Maine coast.

We are selling our waters without doing any research about the impacts of industrial scale aquaculture. The Department of Marine Resources (DMR) is granting leases for exclusive use in areas all along the coast. Those areas are getting bigger—pushing out other marine harvesters without proper oversight or scientific study regarding the impact on the wild harvest or the environment.

Lawsuit alleges fraud, demands $2 billion fine for seafood giant Cooke Inc.

This article was originally published in the New Bedford Light. Written by Will Sennott.

The lawsuit focuses on Cooke’s Virginia-based subsidiary, Omega Protein, which processes menhaden for fish-oil supplements, fish meal, animal feed and other commercial products.

Cooke Inc., one of the world’s largest seafood conglomerates, and its U.S. subsidiaries could face fines of up to $2 billion after government watchdogs filed a lawsuit alleging that the company has violated foreign ownership laws for at least seven years. 

The Canadian-based seafood giant has a large presence in the U.S. fishing industry, including on the Port of New Bedford. 

Camden Reiss on Industrial Aquaculture

To the Editor,

As a marine harvester in the Midcoast and Downeast, part-time sternman, and an advocate for keeping our waters clean and open to everyone, I urge you to look at what is happening along the Maine coast.

We are selling our waters without doing any research about the impacts of industrial-scale aquaculture. The Department of Marine Resources (DMR) is granting leases for exclusive use in areas all along the coast. Those areas are getting bigger—pushing out other marine harvesters without proper oversight or scientific study regarding the impact on the wild harvest or the environment.

Video: Visiting an Industrial Aquaculture Discharge Site in Maine

Recently we wrote to you about the troubling news of farmed salmon fish die offs and the lack of transparency by the state regarding what happened.  

 Since Cooke is planning on renewing and expanding its facilities with a lumpfish facility in Downeast Maine, Protect Maine decided to check out what was happening at the discharge area of Cooke’s Machiasport plant, where they process fish and discharge into the water. The video we captured provides a glimpse into what the water feels like to two different people.