You can add the town of Cushing to a growing list of communities that are putting local limits on large scale aquaculture. On Nov. 4.  the voters of Cushing approved a moratorium on industrial-scale aquaculture by a wide margin of 467 to 193. Cushing is the latest community to adopt a moratorium on industrial scale aquaculture in its coastal waters and now will build its own permanent ordinance to protect Maine waters against the damaging community impacts of such operations.

Harbormaster Austin Donaghy said, “The town and the working waterfront feels there needs to be some constraints around industrial scale aquaculture. We are watching what is happening in the Damariscotta River where leases are now being sold to foreign companies.  Our community wants a say in what goes in our waters.”

On Oct. 30, the town of Beals voted in a permanent ordinance that regulates and controls industrial scale finfish and other types of aquaculture operations to ensure that Beals waters stay clean and that traditional fishermen do not lose access to their waters.  Selectboard Chair Glenda Beal said, “We took almost a year to develop an ordinance that passed muster with our community.  It clearly did, as it was a unanimous vote at our special town meeting.”

And in August of this year, the town of Lubec, through a citizen’s petition, adopted an ordinance that locally regulates industrial scale aquaculture.  Citizens worked to gather signatures and put the ordinance to a vote at a town meeting where it passed 91-84.

“The people of Lubec have sent a clear message on their thoughts about large-scale aquaculture sites in our local waters,” said Lubec’s John Delaney, a resident who helped lead efforts to enact an ordinance. “The downsides of coastal salmon farms have been well documented, as have  the repeated environmental violations committed by Cooke Aquaculture in locations around the world where they operate.”

The growing list of Maine communities that have passed moratoriums and ordinances to address the local impacts of aquaculture can be found at protectmaine.com.