Report: Best Practices For Sustainable Land-Based Aquaculture In Maine
We are pleased to have final results from a white paper that we commissioned several months ago. It is a study of best practices in the regulation of industrial aquaculture.
The report highlights what municipalities and states could be doing to attract and maintain high quality investments that give back to the communities in which they are located, help to achieve climate goals, and contribute to the domestic and the global food supply.
Not all such development will be perfect, and neither are the regulatory systems that have evolved to evaluate and sustain them. The report did not find any jurisdiction that had solved the problems presented by industrial development of large, land-based aquaculture systems, including those based on recirculating aquaculture.
But by laying the basis for best practices, it has also exposed the worst ones, several of which we have been faced with in Maine, and more specifically in Belfast.
Notably:
Not involving the community from the get-go, and not listening to their concerns.
Not giving the community an honest picture of the size and scope of the project and all of its features. How about sludge disposal, for instance, and real-time disruption to Rt. 1?
Not doing an environmental assessment that takes into effect the real risks to Belfast Bay and surrounding communities from large amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus effluent, and displaced mercury, and the risks to Penobscot Bay of multiple polluters.
Not siting a huge industrial facility on land zoned for industrial use, rather than pristine, forested river valley where the deeds actually contain restrictions on development.
Not enforcing laws and regulations already on the books to ensure that the project has actual title, right and interest as a precondition of permit application.
Not considering the climate implications of the project, and the size of electric transmission upgrades to the mid coast that would be required.
These are all significant negatives in Belfast and some are also in play in several of the other communities where industrial aquaculture has been proposed.
However, as this report lays out, we can and should be able to do better. Land-based aquaculture does have promise and it can be done right. Several facilities around the country and around the world are demonstrating that this is possible. Why should Maine settle for the polluters when it can attract facilities that provide employment without polluting coastal and inland waters and spoiling the fisheries?
In the coming months, we hope to be able to illustrate these points. For now, when you read the report and its recommendations; be aware that:
