American Aquafarms files appeal of Maine salmon farm permit-denial

American Aquafarms has filed a petition for a overview of the Maine Division of Maine Assets’ (DMR) rejection of its software for a big salmon aquaculture facility within the waters of Frenchmans Bay, off the coast of Gouldsboro, Maine, U.S.A.

On 20 April, 2022, the Maine DMR denied the corporate’s software for 2 leases within the bay, citing an absence of an accepted egg supply for its salmon. American Aquafarms had hoped to develop as much as 30,000 metric tons of Atlantic salmon in closed net-pens by 2024.

American Aquafarms’ petition, filed on 19 Might in Maine’s Cumberland County Superior Court docket, requests a overview of DMR’s resolution. The corporate deliberate to make use of eggs from Maynard, Massachusetts-U.S.A. primarily based AquaBounty – a supply the Maine DMR claimed didn’t meet the state’s necessities.

The refusal to proceed the lease course of “constitutes an arbitrary and capricious motion which was unsupported by the proof earlier than the division,” in keeping with the petition, which was acquired by SeafoodSource. The submitting additionally claims that communication by Maine DMR with a 3rd celebration 5 days earlier than its last resolution on the lease “was a violation of [American Aquafarms’] proper to due course of as assured by each the U.S. and Maine constitutions.”

The court docket paperwork say that American Aquafarms first heard the division didn’t think about AquaBounty a “certified hatchery” in September 2021, and {that a} overview of AquaBounty could be required previous to any additional motion. The corporate then despatched a letter to the division that initiated the overview, which required the corporate to ship alongside AquaBounty’s testing protocol together with “genetic data exhibiting that the salmon didn’t originate in Iceland or Europe.”

In keeping with the court docket paperwork, it grew to become clear that whereas AquaBounty’s testing schedule and protocols search for related pathogens as these required by the Maine DMR, they don’t line up precisely with the schedules described within the Maine DMR’s laws. As the corporate “labored to reconcile the information,” it acquired a second letter from the DMR indicating that if the corporate didn’t adjust to new necessities by a “newly imposed deadline of 25 March, 2022,” the division would terminate the lease software.

Following up on that deadline, American Aquafarms knowledgeable the DMR that the U.S. Division of Agriculture’s Nationwide Chilly-Water Agricultural Middle could be used as an alternate egg supply within the occasion testing knowledge from AquaBounty couldn’t be coordinated to Maine DMR’s satisfaction.

“The eggs that the USDA would provide to [American Aquafarms] are produced in Maine, and due to this fact wouldn’t be topic to … overview,” the attraction states.

The corporate requested an extension of the “arbitrarily imposed” deadline of 25 March – a request that the division refused. The Maine DMR additionally instructed AAF, in keeping with the submitting, that the corporate may “solely obtain eggs from the USDA ‘if sure circumstances are met.’”

“The division didn’t specify which circumstances it discovered to be unacceptable,” the submitting states.

The corporate is claiming that Maine DMR “had no factual foundation earlier than it to help the imposition of this four-month timeline,” and that it failed to present the corporate any alternative to reply to its objections.

American Aquafarms Firm Spokesman Thomas Brennan told MainePublic the attraction is meant to “hold the allow software alive.”

“We did this as a final resort. We try very a lot making an attempt to work throughout the course of, we thought we met all the necessities,” Brennan mentioned.

A Maine DMR spokesperson, nevertheless, instructed SeafoodSource the division stands by its resolution.

“That call was primarily based in regulation and legislation designed to guard the marine setting. American Aquafarms’ failure to display that its proposed supply of salmon may meet standards in regulation for a ‘certified supply hatchery’ and to offer documentation demonstrating that the proposed supply of salmon may meet genetic necessities in legislation (§6071(4)) was a serious omission that compelled our resolution,” the spokesperson mentioned.

The attraction effort comes amid growing opposition by communities close to the proposed web site of the aquaculture venture. Voters in Hancock, Maine, voted unanimously at an annual city assembly on 10 Might to intervene in allowing on the salmon venture.

“The folks of Hancock clearly perceive the dangers to this group and the individuals who reside and work across the bay,” Frenchman Bay United Board Member Ted O’Meara mentioned in a press launch. Frenchman Bay United is one in every of a number of native organizations which have vocally opposed the venture.

Simply earlier than the city assembly vote, a poll of Hancock County, Maine residents by environmental non-governmental group Oceana discovered 66 p.c of voters within the county – the place the venture could be situated – opposed the venture.

“This reveals that Mainers, particularly these in Hancock County, don’t need this monster fish farm to maneuver ahead,” Oceana Marketing campaign Director Matt Dundas mentioned in a launch. “Whereas it’s nice information that this proposal is stalled, the battle to avoid wasting Frenchman Bay is way from over.”  

In a 22 April assertion, AquaBounty President and CEO Sylvia Wulf clarified her firm’s function within the American Aquafarms’ venture and the standing of her firm’s salmon eggs.

“AquaBounty has been in discussions with American Aquafarms about turning into an accepted provider to offer them with non-genetically engineered Atlantic salmon eggs from our facility in Rollo Bay, Prince Edward Island, Canada. Representatives for American Aquafarms requested particular data and knowledge from AquaBounty, which we now have offered. We didn’t obtain requests for any further data,” Wulf mentioned. “AquaBounty has rigorous high quality management and high quality assurance procedures in place to verify the genotype of each business batch of eggs shipped from our hatcheries. We confirm the genotype and ploidy of genetically engineered ‘GE’ eggs shipped to AquaBounty farms utilizing procedures accepted by the U.S. Meals and Drug Administration, and we confirm that no GE eggs are current in any cargo of non-GE eggs, utilizing established molecular organic strategies. The identical egg [quality control] process could be used to confirm the absence of GE eggs in batches utilized by AquaBounty to supply non-GE fry or smolts for our prospects. Moreover, AquaBounty doesn’t produce non-GE and GE eggs on the identical time in a single facility.”

Photograph courtesy of American Aquafarms