For immediate release

Mainers criticize Snowe, Collins support of federal plan to bail out foreign fishpen companies that caused Cobscook Bay eco-disaster.
Pork for foreign corporations? ...WHAT YOU CAN DO

Contact: Penobscot Bay Watch (207) 594-5717 penbay@justice.com

ROCKLAND. Mainers are reacting with dismay at the announcement by US Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of their support for a plan to provide tens of millions of dollars in American tax money to three foreign corporations that were found to have caused a disastrous fish disease epidemic in Maine's Cobscook Bay.

Conservationists are drafting letters to President Bush and the Office of Management and Budget and the US Department of Agriculture, calling on the Administration to suspend consideration of an emergency funding package to fight the spread of Infectious Salmon Anemia, saying that 23 million of of the 24 million dollars would go to go compensate two Norwegian companies and one Canadian firm involved in failed aquaculture ventures in Cobscook Bay.

We should not be rewarding industry incompetence", said Ron Huber of Penobscot Bay Watch. "These companies brought this problem upon themselves."

Senator Olympia Snowe has written to the White House Office of Management and Budget, calling for the bailout. Both Snowe and Senator Susan Collins have written to US Department of Agriculture chief Ann Veneman assuring her of support for the bailout of the foreign companies.

"Senators Snowe & Collins may believe that those three foreign companies are the "Maine aquaculture industry", Huber said. "We can assure you that they are not American businesses, let along Maine businesses. They don't qualify for the so-called "Commodity Credit Corporation" funds they are seeking from the American Treasury."

The three companies asking for the bailout are Stolt Sea Farm and Fjord Seafoods, of Norway, and Heritage Salmon, of Canada. They want millions of dollars to remove their disease-ridden operations from Cobscook Bay.

Conservationists are also calling on the state of Maine and federal agencies to order the companies to surrender their licenses and permits to operate fishpens in Maine waters, and to re-apply under strict federal and public supervision for any future licenses or permits. Some are also asking that John Sowles, the head of the state Marine Ecology Division of the Department of Marine Resources be removed from the fishpen licensing review, charging him with "an overtly pro-fishpen industry bias that threatens Maine's natural marine ecology."

Sowles was roundly criticized at a recent public meeting on aquaculture for making false statements about the amount of damage that the Maine seafloor has received from the aquaculture industry. Sowles is also in hot water with Maine lobstermen for ignoring warnings that a state trawl survey along the downeast Maine in November would kill thousands of softshelled lobsters undergoing their fall shedding process.

"He's a bad apple," said Huber, reflecting the position of many in Maine's lobstering industry and conservationists. He said many believe that if Sowles "delivers Penobscot Bay to the fishpen companies", he will do a revolving door shift to that industry, like former DMR aquaculture official Sebastion Belle, who now heads an aquaculture industry public relations organization.

Critics of the bailout plan says that the companies should not be rewarded for shoddy business practices. "They knew, and Maine DMR knew, they were raising at least double the number of fish per fishpen that they are legally allowed to in their home countries." said Ron Huber of Penobscot Bay Watch . "Like hogfarmers, marine feedlot operators pay allegiance to their investors' bottom line, not to the ecology of the waters they foul."

Huber noted that the industry is now eyeing Maine's Penobscot Bay for fishpens. "With such a terrible track record, we don't want them anywhere near Penobscot Bay", he said. "This is the home of the last big wild salmon school in Maine. ISA from fishpen operations here would wipe out this school when it passes through the bay on the way to spawning sites in Penobscot River and Ducktrap River."

Others are concerned that the chemicals used to control fishlice infestations in the caged salmon will percolate into the Penobscot Bay, impacting and even killing juvenile lobsters. "Penobscot Bay is the USA's most productive lobstering area." said retired fisherman Herb Hoche of Union, Maine. " We aim to keep it that way,"

Criticism has risen that Senators Snowe and Collins are also out of touch with Maine coastal fishermen.

" Why don't they spend the money on Maine-owned aquaculture and fishing businesses instead? " Huber said.

Penobscot Bay Watch People that care about Penobscot Bay

end

BACKGROUND:

Under a Downeast Maine fishpen, a wasteland of bacteria and manure

Letter from Olympia Snowe to the White House Office of Management & Budget

Letter From Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins to the US Department of Agriculture

END

Penobscot bay Watch - People that care about Penobscot Bay