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Legislators urged: drop acreage boost from aquaculture bill.

AUGUSTA. Doubling the acreage that fish farmers are allowed to lease in Maine waters is a bad idea that should be scrapped, said fishermen and conservationists testifying last week before the state legislature on LD 1857,a bill to implement the findings of the Governor's Task Force on Aquaculture in Maine.

Stonington fisherman Marsden Brewer told the Marine Resources Committee that doubling the acreage that aquaculturists can lease from 250 acres to 500 goes against the state's marine resources policies

"As a commercial fisherman, the only thing I've heard the DMR talk about over the last ten years was limits. Limits on the amount of days you can fish, limits on the size of the gear you can fish, limits on entry. It's mind-boggling to think that the same department that promotes limits in all fisheries, advocated for no limits with regard to the amount of acres that can be leased by any one corporation or individual."

(DMR deputy commissioner David Etnier had told the committee earlier in the hearing that his department had proposed dropping all limits on the size of aquaculture operations.)

Brewer noted that a lobsterman fishing the 800 trap limit occupies only 6,400 square feet of bottom or about one seventh of an acre, with traps. "If a company can't make it on 250 acres, there's a pretty good chance they're not going to make it on five hundred." he said.

Brewer also questioned the economic benefits to Maine of the salmon farms in Cobscook Bay, most of which are owned by Canadian firm Heritage Seafoods.

"There's no processing; that's done in Canada now." Brewer told the Marine Resources Committee. "The support sector: building the nets, building the pens, that's Canadian jobs. The barge comes over from Canada to feed the fish. When it comes time to wash the nets, these days the barge comes over. They change nets and take them back to Canada to be cleaned. The people down in Cobscook didn't really gain a whole lot."

He told the committee that leasing Maine public trust submerged lands to corporations from another country is "a major loss for Maine people".

Attorney Roger Fleming of Conservation Law Foundation told the Marine Resources Committee that the proposed doubling of aquaculture leases from a maximum of 250 acres to 500 acres goes against the original intent of Maine aquaculture lease laws, which was to provide opportunities for displaced fishermen, and to let small business entrepeneurs have a chance to make a good living on the water.

Instead, Fleming said, "As we have increased the maximum allowable lease acreage from 100 acres, we have witnessed consolidation of the finfish industry into three multinational corporations who dominate the market and prevent individuals from sharing in the profits of this industry. "

Rather than providing jobs for Mainers, he said, "we are now just providing our waters to grow out fish for these corporations, absorbing all of the external costs such as lost fishing grounds and pollution and receiving none of the profits and relatively few jobs."

Fleming also challenged the industry claim that the doubled lease acreage is needed for "fallowing" farm sites. "Currently, DMR regulations only require that sites lie fallow for three months, while the typical growing cycle in the pens is only 18 months. Thus, there is adequate time to fallow sites and remain on the current single year class, i.e., two-year growing cycle." he said.

In response to arguements that the additional acreage is needed to meet the two year fallowing period ordered by Judge Gene Carter in his ruling on the U.S.P.I.R.G. lawsuit., Fleming said the judge's order only applies to a handful of the most poorly managed sites that were found to be seriously polluting the environment. "The entire industry should not be rewarded as a result of poor environmental management at these sites." he said.

Brewer noted that American fishermen have already lost access to some of the richest areas of Georges Bank and the Gulf of Maine, thanks to a ruling by the International Court of Justice that set the US Canada marine border in those waters. "I don't expect that we''re going to make out very good in the Gray Zone either," he added.

The Gray Zone is a rich lobstering area near the mouth of the Bay of Fundy that is claimed by both the US and Canada. Negotiations are presently underway that could result in fishermen from both nations setting traps in those waters at different seasons.

He said the companies unable to turn a profit on 250 acres "might have to do away with some of their less productive methods. They might have to go for more productive methods. But there's still an awful long time that these companies can work within that 250 acres before its necessary to change that.

"I'd rather see the limit less," Brewer said, "but for now, let's leave it alone."

The Legislature's Marine Resources Committee is holding work sessions on the aquaculture bill on Monday, February 23rd February 25th, March 1st, and March 3rd.The sessions will be held in Room 437 of the State House at 1pm.

Background:

* Download LD 1857 as a word.doc for easy reading: Click Here

* About the Aquaculture Task Force & its 2003 hearings Click Here

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