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Blue Hill Bay Mussel Farm Proposal Is Well Received
By Aaron Porter
BLUE
HILL—Assembled aquaculture critics and supporters were in rare
accord Thursday night, Nov. 15, in support of a lease application
for a mussel farm between Bartlett and Long islands in Blue Hill
Bay.
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Above, mussel
farmer Paul Brayton discusses the shellfish aquaculture industry
with, from left, Chris Hamilton, Ellen Best and Ann Brayton at an
informational meeting in Blue Hill’s town hall last week. Right,
Evan Young demonstrates how his crop will be suspended from ropes
tied to a grid of metal and wood supports that make up an
aquaculture raft.
STAFF PHOTOS BY AARON PORTER |
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The informational
meeting, hosted by the University of Maine Cooperative Extension,
was intended to give mussel farmer Evan Young and those concerned
with his planned lease a chance to discuss their perspectives
prior to the rigid, formal, potentially adversarial Department of
Marine Resources hearing on the site.
Dana Morse,
extension associate, said the idea has been to have a discussion
before minds are made up and heels dug in on either side of the
issue.
Morse said the
public often has a number of concerns about aquaculture including
environmental impact, limits to navigation, aesthetic
considerations and conflicts with other fisheries or recreation.
Those all need to be addressed.
In a broader
sense, he suggested, “You might have concerns about privatization
of what is a public resource.”
Aquaculture
leases grant farmers use of state waters to grow their marine
crops for anywhere from three to 10 years.
Young, who lives
in Hancock, dives for urchins and currently operates three mussel
rafts off Hardwood Island.
He told the audience of 12 that his new proposal was specifically
designed to have as little impact on other users of Blue Hill Bay
as possible while still being in a good mussel-growing location.
The site would be
more than 1,000 feet from shore and in deep water, Young said.
Lobstermen wouldn’t want to fish in the immediate area of his
pens, and recreational users could come and go to beaches on Long
Island unhindered. The three rafts he is proposing to install on
the 1.8-acre lease would occupy a 40-by-150-foot area on the
surface. Hung from the rafts would be 400 40-foot ropes supporting
a crop of mussels that adhere to them, Young said.
He added that he
would also have to use a predator net hung around the ropes of
mussels, from January through March, to protect the growing
mollusks from hungry eider ducks.
Citing his
experience with three existing rafts, Young said, he would look to
have market-sized mussels in six to 12 months, depending on
conditions in the water and the market’s size demands.
The meeting was
also a chance for the department’s aquaculture coordinator, Andrew
Fisk, to review the permitting process and talk about the review
it is undergoing.
He reminded the
audience that all aquaculture leases are limited to 100 acres per
site and 250 acres total for any one grower. Such permanent leases
must be renewed every 10 years and are subject to regular
monitoring.
He explained that
the type of experimental lease Young is requesting, can entail a
maximum of two acres and is good for three years. But he assured
the audience that permitting, monitoring and financial
accountability are treated as seriously for the smaller leases as
for the larger farms.
“We’re conveying
something from the public to the individual,” he said. Before
doing so the department requires a performance bond of $5,000 to
clean up any mess a farmer might leave behind.
Ellen Best of
Blue Hill recalled the abandonment of a mussel farm in The Salt
Pond about 10 years ago when a farmer “walked away” from a lease
site leaving the gear there but no money to clean it up. Best and
mussel farmer Paul Brayton, who currently holds leases in the
pond, agreed that having a performance bond valid for a year
longer than the current operation would help prevent operators
from walking away and letting their bond drop at the same time,
leaving the state and town with nowhere to turn for cleanup costs.
“That’s a
reasonable suggestion,” Fisk said.
With
representatives from the Friends of Blue Hill Bay and the East
Penobscot Bay Environmental Alliance in attendance, concerns about
the broader role of aquaculture and its place in the state economy
were raised.
Sal McCloskey,
from the alliance, called for the state to come up with an overall
plan as to where to site aquaculture in state waters.
“We really don’t
know where aquaculture might be appropriate,” she said.
For that a master
plan would be needed.
“The DMR says
it’s working on one,” she said, “but we haven’t seen any yet.”
Later, she
commended the University of Maine Cooperative Extension
and department for holding the informational meeting. She
suggested a similar process could be used to gather public input
in forming an overall aquaculture plan.
“The dialogue
ought to be taking place outside of each particular application,”
she said.
Addressing the
particular application at hand, she added,” I’m not particularly
distressed by shellfish culture.”
Bob Slaven of the
Friends of Blue Hill Bay agreed that while he takes issue with
finfish aquaculture, Young’s small-scale mussel farm doesn’t raise
the same concerns.
Chris Hamilton of
Maine Coast Heritage Trust echoed the lack of concern but raised
the question of scale. He wondered aloud if the public would feel
differently if the application were for 100 mussel rafts owned by
a multinational aquaculture company.
Brayton said it
is unlikely the mussel industry will grow to the same size as
salmon farming.
Fisk said the
department could say no to such a large application. He reminded
Hamilton of the acreage limitations in the state regulations.
The formal public
hearing on Young’s application, and a similar proposal by Ron
Doane and Susan Waite, have been rescheduled. They will be held at
the Blue Hill Town Hall Jan. 15, 2002, at 1 p.m. and 6 p.m.,
respectively. |
