At an aquaculture lease hearing in Northport in February, a resident of Bayside angrily asked Joe Larrabee how he could get him to turn down the rock music Larrabee usually had blaring from his radio when he was working on his mussel raft 1,190 feet offshore.
“Just ask,” answered Larrabee, who wasn’t aware that the music, turned up to compensate for hearing loss he incurred in the Vietnam War, would be an annoyance.
The resident asked; Larrabee told him to consider it done. End of that problem, but by no means of all the problems that surface over and over again at shellfish aquaculture lease hearings. They cover a broad range of complaints: the lease site interferes with a sailboat racing course; the raft or other technology used is a hindrance to other recreational navigation; noise from motors or hydraulic equipment is bothersome; the shellfish could strip out the phytoplankton from the waters or bring in disease; the operation might bother seals; floating oyster trays might attract gulls and they will foul the water; lobstering grounds will be disturbed; property values will go down; equipment might break loose.
Frequently opposition is fierce. John Lewis, DMR Aquaculture Environmental Coordinator, who has attended numerous hearings and produces the department site review for each, says complaints generally boil down to three things: view, noise and navigational hazards. “It’s more a social issue than ecological,” he says. “Shellfish are pretty benign ecologically. They clean the water, and if anything, a shellfish aquaculture operation probably increases diversity of marine life because there is a structure in the water.”
Noise can be difficult to address because standards are general. Mike Hastings, director of the Maine Aquaculture Innovation Center, says every lease is now required to have a noise mitigation plan, to explain how noise will be controlled. He cites an example where one aquaculture operation muffled an air compressor and enclosed it in a small house in response to riparian complaints about noise.
“View we do not address,” says Lewis, but he adds that the DMR is in the process of developing rules to address it: the general size, height, shape and color of any structure. Even though view has not been listed on criteria by which a lease application is judged, applicants often have modified their plans in response to riparian concerns.
“Navigation is a legitimate concern,” Lewis says. One of the requirements for a lease site is that it “will not unreasonably interfere with navigation.” However, he adds, as was pointed out at Larrabee’s hearing, anyone operating a boat is responsible for posting a watch and slowing down when visibility is poor and should have either prior knowledge of the area or electronic aids and an awareness of hazards posted by the Coast Guard before attempting to travel when visibility is limited.
Hastings noted that as far as sailboat racing or other recreational use of the water is concerned, the State Planning Office formulated a policy in the mid-1980s that stated when there is a conflict between recreational and commercial use of Maine waters, commercial use has priority. Both Hastings and Sebastian Belle, director of Maine Aquaculture Association, feel that although this policy has not been changed, people have come to believe recreational use of Maine waters is just as important as commercial use.
The frustration about noise expressed at Larrabee’s hearing epitomized the extreme divide that can separate riparian landowners from shellfish farmers and the working waterfront in general. Lewis, Belle and Hastings agree that opposition to aquaculture leases is rooted in the nature of the changing population of Maine’s coastline, which includes many second homes and retirees from other states. A study by Coastal Enterprises, Inc. (CEI) reported in 2003 that an estimated 25 miles of working waterfront remains along Maine’s 7,000 miles of shorefront.
Belle points out that as was evident in the lack of communication between Larrabee and the Bayside resident, the people who work on the waterfront travel in different circles from the people who now own most of the coastal property. “It’s become a clash of two different social groups – a clash between people with different backgrounds, needs and expectations,” he says.
“Most of the new people are totally unfamiliar with the needs of a working waterfront,” says Hastings. “They don’t understand that the marine industry changes over the years. They seem to believe their property rights include an uninterrupted view and no noise.” (This has led to proposals in some towns that lobster boats not be allowed to start up until 8 a.m., none of which have passed.) Hastings points out that although many of Maine’s new residents love to collect bronze nautical memorabilia or visit maritime museums, they would not have wanted to live amid the noise and dirt of a town like Bath or Searsport in the 19th century when ships were being built along the waterfront.
“For many newcomers, a proposed aquaculture shellfish lease is their first exposure to aquaculture,” he notes. “They go to the library or Internet and come out with information on extreme cases where aquaculture has been done poorly and photos show a bay covered with back-to-back mussel rafts.”
Although Belle says he and shellfish farmers have worked with “fair-minded, sincere riparians who are open to learning about aquaculture,” he feels that if people don’t want an aquaculture lease to be granted, they are unwilling to work with an applicant to resolve differences.
“The new landowners along the coast are accustomed to resolving problems in either a political or legal manner,” he says. “Maine fishermen, who have turned to aquaculture (mostly part-time) as a means of continuing to work on the water, are unschooled in either.” He has observed that some pre-application hearing meetings, which are intended to provide a way to resolve problems before the actual hearing, have become a venue for objecting riparians and their lawyers to find the applicant’s Achilles heel. “The applicant discloses all his intentions and gives the lawyer a road map on how to oppose,” he says. “Applicants are being sand-bagged at the hearings.”
Belle believes two things need to happen to even the odds at aquaculture lease hearings. “I think the state should require interveners to disclose what they object to in a lease before the hearing, so the applicants can prepare their defense,” he says. “And, during the hearing, interveners should be required to stick with their basis for objections as stated in the pre-hearing.” He also believes applicants should have the right to be defended by a public attorney. “I’ve started to say that I believe the system has become so skewed in favor of privileged folks, I believe the working waterfront folks are being discriminated against,” he says. “We are the minority, and I believe the state system needs to find a way to protect the right of this minority. It may mean commercial users need to be given some different treatment.”
The Maine Aquaculture Association has made a commitment to be more proactive in helping people prepare lease applications and to educate them about what they might encounter in the pre-application and actual lease hearings. The association is also trying to educate the public about aquaculture, to help people understand that an applicant cannot easily move his site, as was suggested at Larrabee’s hearing, but must consider many variables, including access, water depth and navigation routes, tidal strength, ice breakup, lobster fishing in the area, water quality, wind and wave action, currents, plus other concerns mandated by the DMR, including riparian ingress and egress, wildlife habitat, a 1,000-foot area between the lease site and any beaches or parks or docking facilities.
One fisherman who was applying for a shellfish aquaculture lease told Lewis that he was advised by a person new to Maine that he should give up working on the water and become a carpenter, or get a real job in Jackson Lab. Fortunately for the working waterfront, not all sectors of Maine are so strongly opposed to aquaculture. At the recent hearings of the Maine Aquaculture Task Force, heads of the B & B, Restaurant and Maine Tourism Associations spoke about the importance of aquaculture for Maine’s economy and tourism industry. The head of the restaurant association pointed out that much of what is grown ends up being served at local restaurants and inns in Maine. Sea kayaking companies have begun to run tours that visit shellfish and fish farm sites, and a longtime Eastport resident, Butchie Harris, takes visitors on sailing tours to learn about fish farms in Cobscook Bay.
Most of all, Belle and Hastings believe people need to recognize that aquaculture is necessary to supply the ever growing demand for seafood, which cannot be met by wild stock resources.
Lewis asks that anyone who has a concern about an existing aquaculture site contact him at (207) 633-9594.