Maine Coast News
For Immediate Release February 22, 2002
Contact Penobscot Bay Watch 594-5717
DMR ordered to release files on aquaculture violations to Legislature.
AUGUSTA - The Maine Legislature's Marine Resources Committee has ordered the Department of Marine Resources to provide the committee with detailed information on crimes committed by the aquaculture industry in Maine. The request comes as the committee yesterday considered ways to protect the state's coastal tourism industry and fisheries from aquaculture encroachment.
By next Tuesday, DMR must provide the committee with a report detailing all violations of state laws and regulations by the aquaculture industry, that the DMR is aware of. The description must identify which companies have committed violations, what the violations were, and how many violations there were.
The Committee also requested details on reports that the fishpens at the Trumpet Island salmon farm operation in Blue Hill Bay were unlawfully overstocked far beyond the number allowed under its state license. According to reports, while the Trumpet Island company was only licensed to raise 350,000 fish at a time, it had 540,000 salmon in its fishpens.
At the hearing, the committee members seemed frustrated by the DMR's opposition to efforts to include measures in the bill that would require the department to consider the economic impacts of new aquaculture operations on tourism and commercial fishing along the Maine coast.. The Department of Marine Resources claims it only needs to consider the impacts to the immediate "footprint", and told the committee that an economic analyis of the coast would be prohibitively expensive.
Representative Paul Volenik (Sedgewick) and a number of other legislators took sharp issue with the Department's position.
"It seems some sort of breach of logic that the economic development of the coastal region is the prime concern for the department" Volenik said, "and yet the department says it cannot analyze the economic impact of an industry moving in and possibly displacing an existing industry, such as tourism or traditional fishing. I just see a logical disconnect there."
The Committee will meet again on Tuesday to continue its work on improving the criteria for grainting licenses for aquaculture operations.
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