American Aquafarms buys Maine Fair Trade facility – The Ellsworth American

GOULDSBORO – East Coast Seafood Group’s Chief Government Officer, William Blais, confirmed late Friday that the corporate had bought to American Aquafarms its Maine Truthful Commerce Lobster property within the Gouldsboro village of Prospect Harbor.

“Actual property deal closed as we speak,” Blais reported in an April 29 e-mail. In a previous e-mail, he famous “MFTL [Maine Fair Trade Lobster] has been below contract for properly over a 12 months.”

Information of the anticipated sale of the century-plus, seafood-processing facility follows Gouldsboro Selectmen voted 4-0 Thursday night time to increase its current finfish aquaculture moratorium for one more six months.  Each Gouldsboro City Supervisor Eve Wilkinson and Planning Board Chairman Ray Jones stated the additional time was wanted to additional overview and refine a draft aquaculture licensing ordinance and attainable amendments to the city’s website plan, land use and different ordinances to higher regulate industrial-scale, aquaculture operations on land on the town akin to American Aquafarms’ challenge.

First imposed in mid-November final 12 months, in a virtually unanimous vote by 200 voters at a particular city assembly, Gouldsboro’s Finfish Aquaculture Improvement moratorium was supposed to provide the Planning Board and city lawyer time lease extra time to overview the city’s present ordinances and draft amendments enabling the neighborhood to higher regulate giant, finfish aquaculture-related actions. In the course of the six-month interval, the issuance of municipal permits for constructing and development related to large-scale, finfish aquaculture improvement is prohibited.

“This has been a unprecedented factor,” Choose Board Chairman Dana Rice commented Thursday, referring to the controversy over and proceedings relating to American Aquafarms’ proposed plan to boost 66 million Atlantic salmon in Frenchman Bay and day by day discharge of 1.4 billion gallons of diluted wastewater into the 14-mile inlet.

Since mid-October in 2020, American Aquafarms has sought to boost 66 million kilos of Atlantic salmon off Bald Rock Ledge and Lengthy Porcupine Island in Frenchman Bay. Final week, the Maine departments of Marine Sources and Environmental Safety terminated the Norwegian-backed firm’s lease and wastewater allow functions. Regulators cited the corporate’s failure to furnish a professional supply of Atlantic salmon eggs and juvenile fish and adjust to state genetic requirements and necessities as grounds for the 2 DMR functions’ termination. The DEP’s dismissal of the 2 wastewater discharge license functions was based mostly on the actual fact the proposed Bald Rock Ledge and Lengthy Porcupine Island websites have been now not within the working because of the DMR functions’ termination.

“We totally intend to hold our opposition ahead,” Buddies of Schoodic co-founder and Gouldsboro resident Jackie Weaver informed Selectmen Thursday night time. “We’re nonetheless constructing what’s already a really sturdy case in opposition to this challenge. The struggle is much from over.”