Letter to the Editor December 2, 2022 Ellsworth American Dear Editor:
In a recent article about the latest financial and legal problems facing American Aquafarms founder Mikael Roenes, company spokesperson Tom Brennan told The Ellsworth American that “We need to renew our discussion with DMR at some point and see what’s possible,” adding “There’s no point until after the [gubernatorial] elections.”
Presumably those discussions will start again soon now that the election is over. That’s too bad. Maine’s Department of Marine Resources refused to accept the company’s first applications and even though the denial was based on a technicality, it was still welcomed by the many citizens and organizations from this area and around the state who came together to fight the company’s proposal for huge, destructive industrial fish farm in the waters of Frenchman Bay next to Acadia National Park.
For generations, lobstermen, commercial fishermen, independent aquaculturalists, tourism businesses and visitors from around the world, recreational boaters, and year-round and seasonal residents have all shared the resources of this bay. We have done just fine without these foreign investors whose only interest is plundering and polluting this special place for their own financial gain.
If American Aquafarms has the nerve to try to ram this awful development down our throats again with a new proposal – as it appears they will – we are ready to take them on again and stop this project once and for all. This is our home. It’s where we live, raise our families and make a living. It is a place worth defending.
Leslie Harlow
Ellsworth