Hi all, I just wanted to reach out to you. We reached almost 5000 people with our original petition. The cruise ship pier and port authority were soundly rejected by Bar Harbor. We dodged a bullet, and thank you for your incredible support. 

Frenchman Bay now is facing an even bigger threat, and we need your help. Does this photograph look like a good spot for an industrial site? A Norwegian company thinks so, and wants to raise 66 million pounds of salmon annually right here off Acadia NP. 

American Aquafarms, based in Portland and organized recently by the Norwegian Firm, Global AS, is proposing a gigantic farmed salmon operation for Frenchman Bay. Plans are to place 30 huge sea pens, each 150 feet wide, just north of the Porcupine Islands and in a separate location north of Bald Rock occupying a total of 100 acres in the bay. The company is also in agreement to buy the former cannery and lobster processing factory  in Gouldsboro, where it plans to substantially rebuild and expand the plant in order to hatch the eggs and process the fish it raises in Frenchman Bay.

Ocean based salmon farming is environmentally unsound, and has been banned in Washington State. Impacts include: pollution from fish waste, transfer of disease and sea lice to wild fish, use of chemicals (antibiotics and pesticides) that impact wild marine life, escaped farmed fish changing the genetics of wild salmon and more. Details about the proposed pen containment technology and the infrastructure, including the height, lighting, generator noise as continuous pumps will be running , potential diesel spills, and maintenance of the pens, were not provided by the company. To date there have not been any environmental impact studies of the proposed pens on the health of Frenchman Bay.

How will these structures impact the lobster fishery of Frenchman Bay, and the existing local aquaculture ?

Removal of “solids” from the containment pens (large plastic bags filled with thousands of fish and their waste) does not account for the significant liquefied waste produced both by the fish and by the dissolved fish food. This liquefied waste will be pumped back into the bay, containing high amounts of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus. Frenchman Bay already has significant toxic algae blooms each year- how will this increased nutrient load affect the health of the bay ecosystem?

Please go to our website to learn more. It’s all hands on deck to fight this threat. FriendsofFrenchmanBay.org. All donations there will go towards this struggle.