Letter to the Editor
February 11, 2022
Ellsworth American
Dear Editor:
Your paper ran a paid advertisement on Jan. 20 from American Aquafarms singing the praises of its own plan to build the equivalent of 15 football fields of salmon pens in Frenchman Bay. The ad was typical of the public relations campaign that the company has been peddling to Maine residents for the past year: half-truths and sweet talk that sidestep all the deeply troubling environmental issues posed by the proposed fish factory.
American Aquafarms claims that growing salmon with commercially untested technology in Maine waters is more sustainable than sending the fish to U.S. markets by air freight. But what is sustainable about a technology that will pump some 430 million gallons a day of only partially treated water into the waters off Acadia National Park? What is sustainable about occupying prime lobstering and fishing grounds that have supported local fishermen for generations? And what is sustainable about threatening the natural beauty that attracts more than half a billion dollars of tourist dollars to our community each year?
Kathleen Rybarz
Lamoine
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