Until as recently as 1992, the first salmon caught in the Penobscot River was presented to the U.S. president. Today this river is at the heart state’s salmon restoration efforts. The Penobscot River Restoration Project, a collaboration between the Penobscot Indian Nation, six conservation groups, a hydro power company and state and federal governments has targeted the removal and decommissioning of dams and improvement of fishways as a means to bring back the salmon and other sea-run fish. But even those most optimistic, including Bucky Owen, salmon expert and advocate and recipient of Atlantic Salmon Federation highest conservation award in 2009, agrees that continued stocking will be needed to keep salmon in the river.
However wild-caught fish are not the only Salmon in Maine.
When fish farming was proposed in Washington County in the late 1970’s sport fishermen joined many underemployed commercial fishermen to support the efforts. They believed that the farmed fish would not affect the native runs; saw an opportunity for a boost to the economy and figured that nothing would be wrong with more salmon. Populations of wild fish were already on the decline. Within the first couple of years of the booming fish farm business, word spread among the “sports” that some of the fish entering the rivers were different. Ed Bartlett, who had been fishing the Dennys River for over thirty years, recognized this difference “I know I started catching aquaculture fish, the tail was small and the fins were frigged up.”
2000 was a key year when the salmon in the seven rivers of eastern Maine including the Dennys were listed as endangered species. Two years ago all salmon in the Kennebec eastward were added to the list. This listing includes “a prohibition against take, which includes any harm, capture, or collecting of the fish.” The economic effect of this listing was feared by many in the state government who sought to lighten the listing to a lesser status.
For the salmon aquaculture industry, tighter regulations were imposed to prevent the escape of farmed fish. Sebastian Belle, executive director of the Maine Aquaculture Association is “not convinced that they (farmed fish) are a risk to the wild”. He has, however, been directly involved with the development and implementation of a containment management system for net-pen aquaculture. According to DMR Commissioner George Lapointe, in the last several years “there has been little incidence of escapes.”
From its peak production of 35 million pounds with a value of 80 million dollars in 2000, Maine’s farmed salmon industry today is limited to one company, Canadian-owned Cooks Aquaculture. In 2009, 13.3 million salmon with a value of 41.8 million were harvested.
New to the Atlantic coast is the transgenic fish, that some call the “frankenfish”. “AcquAdvantage salmon” is the registered name of this genetically engineered (GE) Atlantic salmon created by splicing in a gene from the West Coast Chinook salmon and a gene from the eel-like ocean pout. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) conducted public hearings this September for a request made by Aqua Bounty, a Massachusetts-based company, to market this fish. The public comment period is open until November 21, after which time, if approval is granted, according to company spokesman, John Soohoo, “the fish will be on the market in two years.” The eggs would be produced in Prince Edward Island (PEI) and then grown-out in land-based farms in Panama, before being shipped to the U.S. market. A faster growing fish is the promise of this genetic engineering. AquaAdvantage salmon would be the world’s first commercially approved GE animal. Also pending decision is whether this fish would have to be labeled as “GE.” The company is hoping that no label will be needed as the product is not “materially different” from other farmed salmon.
The Maine Aquaculture Association is in agreement with the International Salmon Farmers Association (ISFA) with a policy adopted ten years ago: “In accordance with sound environmental practices, the ISFA firmly rejects transgenic salmon production.” Should the FDA approve the AquaAdvantage salmon, Belle would want the opportunity to further review all documents and research methodology. He believes that the argument for land based operations being safer as “fundamentally flawed.” “Three things would have to take place before we would consider support for GE fish in Maine; the use would have to be proven to be safe in the environment, the consumer would have to be asking for it and our competitors would have to be using them.” Belle also supports labeling with the belief that “the consumers have the right to know.”
With all the various agencies, both state and federal, as well as profit and non-profit groups devoted to the salmon in Maine, there are only a few times when everyone comes to the same table: “Certainly when the endangered species act was being discussed,” recounts Lapointe. And he believes that they will gather again when an application is made for a GE fish farm in Maine. How likely is it that Maine would be considered for growing this new fish product? According to Lapointe, “discussion is more real than eggs in PEI and farms in Panama.”
Certainly with the endangered species listing of salmon in Maine, there will be close scrutiny. As far as the current application facing the FDA, Senator Snowe calls it “precedent setting” and in light of the efforts the state has taken to protect our endangered populations of wild fish, “the Federal government must not approve any activity that would slow or prevent the ongoing recovery of this resource.” With this kind of support and recognition of the salmon’s value in Maine, Ed Baum sees “no reason not to be optimistic” about the future of the “wild” fish. He credits the listing with “accelerating all the good efforts of so many groups to restore habitat.”