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Report on the October 16, 2003 meeting of the Governor's Task Force on Marine Aquaculture in Maine, held in Rockland, Maine
by Jane McCloskey, East Penobscot Bay Environmental Alliance
Following introductions and a discussion of process, the first panel began its presentations
Municipal authority on Aquaculture.
Dave Schmanska, (St. George Harbormaster) representing municipalities, gave his recommendations for the role of harbormasters in the aquaculture lease application process. He recommended
"Firstly, award intervener status automatically to the municipality in which the permit is sought.Secondly, mandate a preapplication hearing for municipalities, riparian owners, the applicant, and the DMR representatives, to try to hammer out the details beforehand and to identify potential problems areas. Thirdly, conduct onsite review with the appropriate DMR staff and the municipal representative."
He advocated having a municipal officer to have input to the aquaculture application. This individual would offer input regarding local issues, and would reduce confrontations between growers and other users such as riparians.
Schmanska suggested that mooring fees for aquaculture sites be on a sliding scale from $20 to $80 a year, depending on acreage.
Presentation on the Public Trust
The aquaculture statute does not require consideration of loss of property values. (In a previous meeting, the task force decided provisionally to disregard the effect of aquaculture on property values.)
The state is not asked to consider the purely private interest in aesthetic issues. However, the state could consider scenic impacts without violating public trust. Scenic impact is a public interest. Legislation would be needed to establish clarity on the issue of scenic impacts of aquaculture.
Another issue is the division of power between municipalities and State. The issue is debatable. "any time there is an opportunity for participation by anybody, that will slow down the process."
For most "efficient" process, government by fiat is best.
Why should Towns have jurisdiction over moorings, but not aquaculture? 99 percent of the reason is policy by the state. Who should be in charge?
Someone said that the State should be recognizing local concerns. Another said that state resources belong to all and benefit all the people therefore supercede local control.
Will Hopkins said the feeling of disenfranchisement by local people was much broader than questions about whether Towns or State issues mooring permits. The issue is larger than towns, and covers entire ecosystems.
Bay Area Management.
Des Fitzgerald said that the task force needed to confront the issue of Bay Management "once and for all."
Bay management is so big, we don't know what it is.
Paul Anderson suggested that the task forcer look at specific issues such as noise and aesthetics, conserved lands, address disenfranchisement by municipalities, better notification and better sense of participation, and assign a subgroup to look at bay management.
Issue of whether Bay Area Management committee would address all bay uses or just aquaculture. "We are in a quagmire. I wonder if it is going to get better."
The socioeconomic trends on the coast are people from out of state moving in to retire on the coast, without need to make a living on the water.
On the other hand, we have lobstermen up and down the coast. We aren't talking about giving up that working waterfront.
New people want to have "working waterfront" from the past, a seagull sitting on a wooden lobster trap.
Should the working waterfront be designated for certain areas and not others? Des Fitzgerald worried about losing any waterfront to the People from Away.
Jim Dow: there is a limit about what we can do to confront economic trends (of high property values and people from away buying up shorefront.)
Try bay area management out in pilot project. See how it works.
Des Fitzgerald: Bay Area Management (BAM) a conversation among stakeholders including towns.
There is no statutory guidance about BAM. The state can do whatever it wants.
Des: there should be no moratorium in BAM
There was concern that members of the Bay Management Board would act capriciously. Dave said that the duties of the Board need to be prescribed by the legislature. If they are prescribed, members will do their duty and not act capriciously. His experience is that officers in Towns with duties take them very seriously.
BAM should be adaptive and flexible.
Will Hopkins: the Board needs to have real power: the state needs to share responsibility and power. "That is how public trust doctrine gets implemented at a lower level."
Erick Swanson: there is now no mechanism to bring riparian owners to the table. The question should not be, do you want aquaculture or not, but aquaculture is going to happen: where to you want it? Bay management might be used to bring them to the table. Also, BAM might be a technical tool. The first applicant learns which areas are inappropriate: too much fishing, bad current, too cold, too shallow, and can share this information with subsequent applicants.
Eric Horne Shellfish farmer. People think of aesthetics as looking from the land out. Bay management should also include what it looks like from the water looking at the land.
Jim Dow: a selectman from Blue Hill said that he saw aquaculture as all cost, no benefit.
The question should be not whether we will have aquaculture, but where shall we have it?
BAM should be voluntary, not mandatory. If a region doesn't choose to do it, it can continue under the current system.
BAM should be based on an ecological area, not Town boundaries.
BAM should include science and a variety of stakeholders: towns, fishermen, tourist industry, riparian owners, general public, conservation groups, the State, aquaculture.
Sebastian Belle: we are by far the minority in every community on the coast of Maine.
Is there an imposed requirement that the Bay be available for aquaculture?
What kinds of aquaculture would a bay be open to?
If the applicant is a local person, the public benefit is more easily perceived.
Des: the BAM Board should be voluntary-with incentives.
David Etnier DMR director of the Task Force: there is value in having public, local input in the preapplication process to get local information and learn about social and aesthetic impacts. The group should be ADVISORY.
Is the BAM Board a regional Planning Board or an ad hoc reactive Board ruling on each application?
Need to look at the capacity of a bay: wholistically, not reactively and case by case.
Josie: these models are not mutually exclusive: board could do case by case AND in "spare time" think wholistically.
Industry doesn't have time to do public relations all the time to educate the public. (Speaker assumes the controversy is caused by "lack of education" rather than poor performance by aquaculturists accurately perceived by an educated public.)
Sebastian: the demographics are overwhelming: that is what is driving a lot of this. I would like to make BAM a system that draws riparians into it and debating issues and prevents them from litigating.
Josie: you'd have to destroy the constitution.
Worried that BAM will complicate the process.
There are no criteria for aesthetics and scenic value. These are the folks that felt most disenfranchised. We need criteria that acknowledge their concerns OR there will just be ticked off people.
Economic Report on Aquaculture: Gardner Pinfold of Nova Scotia: Michael Gardner
Short form: Salmon aquaculture has cloudy outlook: competition from Chile, court rulings, regulatory constraint.
Oyster outlook is good, scallops bad, mussel aquaculture is pretty good. There is competition from PEI, but they have reached their limit on lease sites, so Maine can now grow.
(Marsden Brewer later challenged the scallop figures in evening testimony, saying that they were based on the low end wholesale prices, whereas he aimed to raise scallops for the high end market.
Three panelists spoke of aquaculture businesses in Maine: Grace Cleaves of Maine Coast Products, makers of compost made of salmon waste, blueberry waste, etc; Peter Cowin of Seabait Ltd., marine worm aquaculturist; and Chip Davison of Great Eastern Mussel.
Rob Bauer: Counter Report on Economics of Aquaculture
Rob challenged many of the numbers of the Gardner Pinfold study from Nova Scotia. He said that he has been in the seafood business for 30 years and the oyster market is volatile and apt to collapse. He asked the task force whether it was a good idea to back a volatile industry, or the salmon industry which is barely competitive.
Rob Bauer gave statistics on the size of the tourism, marine trades, fisheries, and home building industries in Maine. He said that these are the industries that are driving the economy of the coast. He said that there was very little unemployment on the Coast of Maine with the exception of Washington County. If the justification for aquaculture is employment, then the State should not be pushing aquaculture on the Coast from Hancock to York, because the existing businesses already have trouble meeting their employment needs. Where is the employment for aquaculture to come? Why should the task force even think of threatening the well being of four such thriving and important industries?
Most people did not take him seriously. One said that his remarks totally contradicted the findings of the Gardner Pinfold study.
Other said that he had not shown exactly how the aquaculture industry negatively impacted these other industries.
In addition, aquaculturists challenged Rob's credentials as a "large shellfish grower." He said that he was partners with the guy in the Salt Pond in Blue Hill, and is the second biggest company in the state after Great Eastern Mussel.
Erick Swanson was asked if he had trouble getting people to work for him and he said no.
Josie asked for ten year projections of industry growth in aquaculture.
Sebastian volunteered reports from Howard Johnson, seafood buyer and market expert, and FAO analysts on world markets and trends.
Jim Dow noted that the Maine Aquaculture strategy in 1997 had the goal of tripling aquaculture production by 2002, but in fact, there was a reduction in growth. How can the task force enable real growth?
Erick Swanson: the finfish industry has been paralyzed by the EPA process these past two years. Now that is over, it will begin to grow again.
Josie asked that the tourist SAP person look into how aquaculture affects tourism.
Sebastian: University of Maine helped pioneer the shellfish industry. Its role has waned in recent years. University has hired the most eminent halibut culturist in the world to work in Franklin. The USDA is investing in Orono. Funds from Bond money will go into university structures that will be dedicated to aquaculture. University could become the preeminent cold water aquaculture institution in the country.
Erick: there is no evidence of adverse impact on property values. Paul: without changing statutes, can't consider the impact on property values.
Brian: when you talk about aquaculture research, should not just talk about Orono, but the University at Machias as well.
There should be more public education on aquaculture from the University, Sea Grant, and MAIC, Maine Aquaculture Innovation Center.
Can we ask for 10 year projection on aquaculture development? From the Maine Policy Institute: projections on where we are going.
Sebastian: Compare New Brunswick with Maine. Aquaculture in NB is four times the size as it is in Maine. Collin Nash of the FAO worte the Bible for aquaculture development and how to stimulate it. The only places where they have growing industry, it is government policy to support it.
Eric Horne: We have right to fish legislation. We should have right to farm legislation.
(The Stakeholder Advisory Panel met last week and developed a joint statement on noise and lights which they gave to the task force, together with comments by Roger Fleming.