For Maine’s fishermen, spring is traditionally a time of optimism: traps and nets to be readied, boats to prep and launch, anticipation of perhaps a better year than last. It’s the same, says Sebastian Belle, director of the Maine Aquaculture Association (MAA), for Maine’s aquaculture operations, which are a growing part of the working waterfront. “Shellfish growers are gearing up to put seed in the rivers and bays,” he says. “Salmon farmers are stocking smolts; trout growers are getting calls from people who want to stock their ponds. It’s a hopeful time of year, a positive time filled with possibilities.”
This year, after intense wrangling that has marked Belle’s nearly three years as director of the association, including lawsuits and new regulations concerning Atlantic salmon as an endangered species, the ISA virus and water quality issues, he feels aquaculture in Maine is filled with possibilities. “When I first came into this position, I wasn’t sure,” he says – “there was a proposal for a moratorium on aquaculture leases – but now, a lot of regulatory uncertainty has been resolved and I think we may be at the end of a long, dark tunnel.”
Belle believes that despite the presence of some people and groups who oppose aquaculture of any sort and are unwilling to compromise, there are opportunities on many fronts for shellfish and finfish aquaculture to grow in Maine. He praises Gov. John Baldacci’s Aquaculture Task Force, which issued recommendations (“The Planning and Development of Marine Aquaculture in Maine”) that have been accepted by the legislature and signed by the governor as law. “I am concerned about some areas,” Belle says, “but I think the task force did a very good job in critically reviewing all issues and developing a set of reasonable recommendations. If the state has the courage and political backbone to enact their recommendations, aquaculture has nothing to fear and everything to be hopeful about.”
Now, he believes, it is important that MAA not only continue to support shellfish and finfish growers, but also to increase efforts to educate the public about aquaculture.
Last year, he says, MAA took its display to 10 to 15 trade shows and public events, including the Maine Sportsman’s Show in Augusta, the Fishermen’s Forum and the “Big-E” in Springfield, Massachusetts, the largest agricultural trade fair in America. In Springfield Belle’s team distributed information to thousands of people each day, many of whom will come to Maine in the summer. The materials, developed in conjunction with Maine Sea Grant, Maine Coastal Program and the Maine Aquaculture Innovation Center, focus on what growers do, the kinds of programs they have in place to minimize environmental impact, the importance of aquaculture in Maine ($82 million in sales in 2003), special aquaculture programs and research at University of Maine, and the Finfish Bay Management agreement that was developed by all members of the finfish industry during Belle’s tenure. There is also “Celebrating Aquaculture,” the first volume in a planned series of recipe books that feature farm raised fish and shellfish from Maine.
Belle would like to get this information to all coastal communities in Maine. “Once people learn the facts about aquaculture,” he says, “most tend to be excited about it and supportive.”
He was heartened by the Maine Tourism Industry’s support during the Aquaculture Task Force Hearings and believes linking aquaculture with the tourism industry is a promising trend. MAA is developing programs – seminars, tours and distribution of locally grown product – designed for the thousands of visitors who arrive on cruise ships, and the association is helping organize tours of aquaculture farms for kayaking groups. He believes festivals like the Salmon Festival in Eastport on the first Sunday of September and Oyster Festival in Damariscotta at the end of September are invaluable in developing community support for aquaculture.
Under Belle’s leadership, MAA, whose members range from mom-and-pop operations to multi-national corporations, has begun to focus more of its resources and expertise to help new lease applicants navigate the process, and after they acquire a lease, to provide technical and marketing support. The lease requirements, he notes, can be daunting, particularly if lawyers or large conservation groups represent riparian owners who oppose working operations within their territory. Belle adds that although he understands why Babe Stanley signed an agreement with the Conservation Law Foundation (WWF May ’04) prior to his lease application hearing saying that he will use only submersible mussel rafts on the lease site in Frenchmen’s Bay, he is concerned that the agreement “essentially usurps state authority.”
“It allows the CLF to insert itself between the state and applicant and to function as a gatekeeper,” he says. “The state, by considering imposing conditions on the lease site, has legitimized CLF as a gatekeeper and abdicated some of their power. To me, it was legal blackmail, where Stanley was told he had to sign the agreement or be opposed by a large, multi-state, well-funded legal organization.”
MAA continues to support research that benefits aquaculture. Belle says that the planned USDA cold water research facility in Franklin combined with University of Maine’s Center for Cooperative Aquaculture Research (CCAR) will produce the “best cold water aquaculture research facility in the United States and possibly the world.” He points to ongoing research at CCAR to develop aquaculture of cod and halibut, and says there is also promising research in Maine on shellfish/finfish and finfish/aquatic plants polyculture. This type of synergistic relationship, he says, would permit a grower to increase production, yet decrease environmental impact. Other interesting projects, he notes, are trials of faster growing oysters and the experimental Oyster Gardening program initiated by Maine Sea Grant.
Belle says that presently, the mussel industry is facing a crisis in obtaining “spat” or seed. MAA hopes the state will help resolve the problem. “We need more sites where growers can consistently collect high quality seed,” he says. “One way the DMR could support continued expansion of mussel farming would be to issue special licenses for mussel spat collection.” This would be similar to the one-year Limited Purpose Aquaculture (LPA) license that allows people to test a small site to see if it is viable for a larger operation. The LPA can be obtained in weeks, as opposed to over a year for a three-year experimental aquaculture lease or 10-year standard.
Belle believes it is imperative that he continue to watch legislative issues that affect not only the aquaculture community, but Maine’s working waterfront in general. He is concerned about Bay Management proposals that would parcel out the bays to various user groups. “The working waterfront is a minority in Maine,” he repeatedly says. “The working waterfront is the smallest user group. It would be the easiest to pick off.” He adds that any discussions about Bay Management should include shore site development and land use, linking land and sea activities.
Belle knows the working waterfront from many angles: he worked on a crab fishing boat off the coast of Alaska when he was 16, and fished for lobster out of Montauk Point in New York for several years before returning to school at University of Massachusetts in Amherst to obtain a degree in fisheries biology and agricultural economics. Subsequently, he worked in various aspects of aquaculture in the United States and abroad.
He is passionate about “protecting sustainable commercial use along the Maine coast and protecting the rights of the minority group who make a living on the water from opponents with high level funding and political power.” He is realistic about obstacles the fishing and aquaculture industries face, but like all growers and fishermen in springtime, he is optimistic about the future.