401 Cruise ships booked through 2030; Is 'reservation' a legal contract?
MDI Bio Lab President: shellfish farm expansion threatens our future
BAR HARBOR, April 2, 2022 - Cruise ships have booked reservations here until the end of the decade, according to documents produced by the town manager in response to citizens petitioner Charles Sidman’s request.
In all, 401 visits have been scheduled until 2030. Ninety-five ships have scheduled visits in 2023, and 160 in 2022.
At issue is whether these reservations constitute “contracts.”
“I am not an attorney, but I would argue - and so would the cruise industry, that under the Federal Maritime Commission’s rules and regulations, the sharing of our SOP (standard operating procedure), combined with the approval of the harbormaster to anchor in our harbor, constitutes as a ‘contract.’” Town Manager Kevin Sutherland stated in his reply to Sidman last night.
Sutherland responded to Sidman only after he appeared to be in violation the Freedom of Access Act, which required that he acknowledge Sidman’s request in five days and to produce the information in a “reasonable” amount of time. In an email to Sutherland and copied to town council members this week, Sidman said it’s been six weeks since his request and that he would take the matter to the state deputy general who oversees FOAA if he didn’t get answers.
Sutherland stated that he was away on vacation and just returned this week. He forwarded the information to Sidman yesterday afternoon.
“I think he was stung by my email that he's out of compliance and he realized that he was. He was chagrined that he is now behind the legal eight ball here … So he responded to me within 24 hours, which is good in one way, but in another way, he's just repeating and further evidencing the gaps in their position.”
Sidman said today that Sutherland’s response was still “not satisfactory” because of the opacity around the reservations. Sidman pointed out that some of the ships booked multiple ports on the same day.
“It’s just more of the same. I will keep pointing out that it's not responsive. It's not transparent and he's not being straight with the town. He's working for and protecting the industry, not the town that pays his salary.”
“PortCall (https://maine.portcall.com/#!?tab=2) is the only information about specific ships that I, or the general public, have access to,” Sutherland stated. He listed the visits as:
160 for 2022.
95 for 2023
56 for 2024
32 for 2025
25 for 2026
7 for 2027
7 for 2028
6 for 2029
6 for 2030
“Any other reservation made since July of 2021 has remained in ‘requested’ status due to Council Motion. Also important to note is that anytime a change is made to an existing booked reservation, for example if a different ship is added to a booked port call or the agent changes the day of the port call, the reservation is automatically canceled and placed back into requested status. This happens frequently due to scheduling issues caused by making plans this far in advance, likely making these numbers drop even further as time goes on. “
Sidman said once the petitioners get enough signatures to place the issue on the ballot in November, “then we'll fuss about what's a legal contract.”
The petitioners are proposing to change the town’s land-use ordinance so that the number of persons disembarking in Bar Harbor may not exceed 1,000 a day starting in 2023, to be enforced by the harbormaster. Property owners who exceed that number would face a fine of at least $100 per person.
“I've been meeting an awful lot of people who are seeking out to sign the petition and the feelings are intense,” Sidman said.
MDI Bio Lab President: Expansion of shellfish farms ‘threatens our future’
BAR HARBOR - There was going to be plenty of opposition from lobster fishers to the proposed expansion of mussel farms in Frenchman Bay, but the coup de grace at a two-day hearing this week came from an unlikely source.
The MDI Biological Laboratory went hard Monday against the de Koning family’s proposal to add 48 acres to its lease to grow shellfish, saying it threatens the future of the lab, which was founded in 1898.
Hermann Haller, president of the MDI Bio Lab in Salisbury Cove, testified that “this planned project is not innocent … it is a threat for us. After more than 120 years of research at Salisbury Cove, it threatens the future of Mount Desert as a biological laboratory.”
That sounded pretty ominous. The MDI Bio Lab is often overshadowed by Jackson Labs, which is the world leader in breeding and producing experimental mice for research and experiments.
The QSJ is not as well versed in the bio lab. Its website claims it took inspiration from Charles Darwin for “scientists to go into the field to study, compare, and elucidate basic biological processes in a diverse range of organisms. Its location on the rocky Maine coastline offered access to countless diverse animal species.”
A scientist for the lab testified before Haller that he worried about the fallout from the noise created by the equipment need to transport and harvest the shellfish, but he also admitted there is no data to support his concerns.
James Coffman, in a 1-minute, 23-second testimony, said 10 times he wasn’t aware of scientific evidence that noise would harm the breeding of zebrafish crucial to his research of how the body reacts to inflammation, stress, noise and other factors.
“Noise can be stressful but there really isn't a lot of studies on that. So there's a lot more unknowns than there are knowns about the effects of noise, … we simply don't know what the effect of the impact of this is going to be. The studies haven't been done. I think we heard for the first time tonight some some preliminary studies of what the decibel levels are going to be but we don't know what the actual levels will there be but the other side of the unknown is we don't know how they're going to affect our animals. So I think that there is a substantial potential risk here to our animals at our facility, and we don't have a way of quantifying that risk.
“Whenever you introduce a lot of uncontrolled variables, especially if for research that we're doing in my lab, for example, that is looking at stress, it's going to affect the data that you get, and we don't know what the effect is going to be.”
That did not stop Haller from a full-throated condemnation of the project.
“As a scientist, I'm not against aqua farming in general, and we at MDI Bl are in support of our neighbors and their family. But the solution of their problems is not here. Not in front of our laboratories 30 feet from the high tide mark, and less than 2,000 feet from our site,” Haller stated.
“You cannot run a research organization next to a factory.
“MDI BL has invested millions of dollars in physical and human infrastructure to maintain research animals in environmentally controlled conditions.
“The planned facility may not kill our animals but interfere with their breeding. And this leaves us with few animals and makes our research projects not feasible anymore.
Haller then took it to another level, chronicling the potential damage in monetary terms.
“Scientists at MDI BI have more than $20 million in active federally funded research project in over the years has brought in over $180 million in federal grants. However, these projects are dependent upon healthy research animals and even more importantly, are performing at this side threatens to jeopardize a new initiative. We now provide unique comparative research animals to the global pharmaceutical industry as a tool for improving early stage drug discovery. Noise will interfere with the breeding of our fish in danger. We may not be able to fulfill our obligations both with NIH and major pharmaceutical industry, leading to lawsuits, possible lawsuits and financial loss.”
Haller did not respond to a request for an interview.
Fiona de Koning stated in an email to the QSJ, “We have taken extensive steps to minimize and mitigate the noise levels of our vessel to the full extent practical.
“We are continuing to research if there may be further improvements we can make and to think about other protocols that would improve the perceptions of the Bio Lab, however, we maintain that we are no threat to their business. We will continue to be respectful and courteous neighbors.
“Repeated noise measurements across a variety of weather conditions at the Hadley point and airport boat ramps gave normal background noise levels of 60-70db,” de Koning said.
“After being made aware of the Bio lab’s concerns regarding the impact of any noise on their fish development, I took a trip up to the zebrafish lab at UMaine, which at the time had about 35,000 animals on hand.
“Inside the fish room, I took six measurements that ranged from 63.5 to 77.1db. Next, I went to the Cooperative Extension diagnostic and research lab in Orono and took measurements in their salmon rooms. First, I was shown the saltwater mixing room which shares a wall with the fish rooms, inside the noise level was 77.2dB, while in the fish rooms I took 4 measurements of between 69.8-70.8dB.
“We also need to consider how inefficient the transfer of sound between water and air is, as anyone who has swum underwater in a pool can tell you. It can be noisy when your head is above water and is much quieter when submerged. The fish at the Biolab are in tanks, in a room contained by walls, presumably suitably insulated and our vessel will be working many feet away.”
Is 20 years too long for lease?
The lab’s testimony showed demonstrably how inadequate Maine’s regulations are at dealing with unknowns wrought by climate change, combating interests and unanticipated consequences in the future.
The state does not have any provisions for leases under 20 years. It obviously caved to industry which wanted to lesson its risk for investors.
But what if in those 20 years, Coffman’s concerns came true, that the noise from Acadia’s generators did indeed affect the breeding of his zebrafish? What then?
The solution is for investors to take more risk, instead of taxpayers shouldering that burden. Why not a 5-year lease, 7-year-lease, 10-year lease?
Lobster fishers still hold the biggest card
Without the MDI Bio Lab objections, it would be mostly a fight about territory among fisheries.
The extraordinary lobster industry in Maine is unique in that it’s essentially made up of small family enterprises, at a time when farming, ranching, timber and others have been gobbled up by corporations.
So where do the de Konings fit?
The deKonings already have five farms over 158 acres - four in Frenchman Bay and one in Deer Isle.
They plan to import technology from the Netherlands to breed mussel seeds in the 48 acres then transport them at some stage to mature in the five farms. That will require additional heavy equipment to handle up to 1,000 tons of blue mussels, 10 million scallops and 1,000 tons each of softshell and hardshell clams southwest of Googins Ledge.
Whereas previous farms were satisfied to occupy only the seabed, the new technology calls for ropes for seeds to cling to, and the ropes would be suspended from the surface, creating a navigational problem for not just fisheries but for recreational vehicles and shipping.
Duncan Haass, one of many lobstermen who testified, said, “I come from a generation of fishing families. I am deeply concerned about the fishing area that will be lost as I set traps in those areas and have for years. I set about 200 traps a summer in the Lamoine park area and in that specific site where the lease is proposed – about 60 traps.”
The worry expressed by some is that the de Konings are industrializing their farms, against the sensibility of Maine’s small farm ethos.
Fiona de Koning replied, “The lease site we are applying for will collect mussel seed to sustain our existing farm sites in the face of climate change. As farmers, we must adapt to survive in the long term, just as other fisheries do. We do not seek to displace local fishermen. In fact, it is prohibited in statute for any new aquaculture operations to unreasonably interfere with existing fisheries.
“Our proposed site will not interfere with significant fishing activity, and will not impede navigation. The site leaves channels on either side of 500 and 990 feet (for comparison, the entrance of Bar Harbor past the breakwater is 430 feet wide, and is much more heavily trafficked than Eastern Bay). This mussel seed site is going to make a world of difference for our family business and our ability to produce healthy, sustainable seafood, improve the water quality, and provide good jobs for local people.”
Protect Maine’s Fishing Heritage Foundation Executive Director Crystal Canney said, “What we are seeing is a gold rush mentality for aquaculture leases in the ocean. In the case of Acadia Aquafarms, we have one entity leasing hundreds of acres. Now, Acadia Aquafarms is asking lobstermen and women, those in other fisheries, and the public to give up another 48 acres in a small bay.
“And we know the Department of Marine Resources approves these leases 95% of the time and refuses to strengthen regulations that would protect the ocean. What we saw in this hearing was strong pushback from the fishing community and members of the public on leasing any more of the Maine waters. We heard it from scientists, recreational users, and those who make a living on the water. The exclusive use for one company will put others out of work and endanger sensitive scientific research underway in the area. This is an attempted ocean grab.”
Student lobster license holder Karessa Anderson who lobsters in the area testified, “I work three paying jobs in the summer and my biggest income is from the lobstering industry. I use this money for gas to get to work, I volunteer as a track coach, I buy my school clothes, pay for car insurance. But the biggest piece of my money will go towards undergraduate school in pre-law. It’s expensive and I am doing everything I can to make this happen. I don’t understand why the state would continually take away lobster bottom for the sake of one company. It’s hard to imagine that the de Konings need more acreage and more money from that acreage. I am just trying to pay my way to get an education.”
Acadia Aquafarms is not to be confused with American Aquafarms which has applied for 120 acres for net pen salmon and has yet to complete its application.
FOOTNOTE: For scallop farming, the de Konings have a separate lease application for 68 acres northeast of Sunken Ledge, between Parker and Hancock points in Frenchman Bay. The DMR accepted the application as complete on March 18, 2021, but has not yet scheduled a public hearing. The operation would farm up to 4 million sea scallops using suspended gear, including lantern nets, long lines and ear hanging droppers, 4,000 feet from shore, the Islander reported.
Otter Cove remediation efforts to start
OTTER CREEK - The work to find remedies for the declining Inner Harbor here will start in earnest April 12 with a public “listening” session for residents to share information.
The meeting will start at 6 p.m. at the Otter Creek Aid Society meeting hall. The select board last September authorized Town Manager Durlin Lunt to partner with Acadia National Park and with scientists at College of the Atlantic and Schoodic Institute to assess conditions in Otter Creek Inner Harbor, where fish life has virtually disappeared.
“The Town would like to hear what community members value about the inner harbor, what problems they have noticed, and their thoughts on the causes of the problems,” Lunt said.
The listening session will be facilitated by Otter Creek resident Ron Beard.
The town is also partnering with Thriving Earth Exchange, which stated that “Problems appear to be related to climate change, tidal restrictions caused by a causeway built in 1939, and contamination caused by a water treatment facility that dumped contaminated effluent into the inner harbor.
.”Restoring the health of the inner harbor will help community members re-establish fishing, clamming, recreation, and other historical uses of the cove important to the community.
Acadia National Park owns nearly all of the land around Otter Creek Cove .The National Park Service and the Otter Creek Aid Society have documented history of the community, including historical use of and ties to the cove.
National Park Service also has extensive historical documentation of the causeway that restricts tidal flow to the inner harbor. Maine Department of Environmental Protection and US EPA documented that effluent from the water treatment facility in Otter Creek contained heavy metals, including copper, zinc, and cyanide, at concentrations that exceeded maximum regulatory limits.
The community hopes to use the results of the project to work with the National Park Service to plan and implement steps that could improve the health of the inner harbor.
“Potential next steps that the scientist might recommend could include further studies to document tidal flows, contaminants, experimental restoration of clam populations, or other steps necessary before larger-scale remediation is possible,” according to Thrive Earth Exchange.
“The timeline for this project is flexible (6-18 months) dependent on the availability of the scientist. National Park Service plans to do rehabilitation work on the causeway during 2023 and 2024. We expect milestones to include compiling existing historical records and data, assessment of data, and communication of results to the project team via a presentation and written report.”
Participating scientists are Chris Petersen of the College of the Atlantic and Hannah Webber, director of Marine Ecology, Schoodic Institute.
Planning Board to review COA dormitory proposal, yurts, subdivisions
BAR HARBOR - The College of the Atlantic will appear at the Planning Board meeting Wednesday to flesh out details of its new dormitory, a formality on otherwise a packed agenda, with yurts, a Hadley Point subdivision by Havana owner Michael Boland (COA grad) and sundry other business which may take all night to review.
The 12,000-square-foot building is the latest in COA’s building boom. It will include double- and single-occupancy rooms, a community kitchen, large common area with exposed mass-timber beams, and a covered outdoor area. The building is slated for the south end of campus.
The new dorm is part of a large and diverse set of solutions the college has been engaged with to alleviate housing woes among its student body, COA President Darron Collins ’92 said.
“As the rental and real estate markets have evolved over the past several years, creating more student housing has become one of our top priorities,” Collins said. “The COA student housing plan greatly increases our capacity on campus, and, along with other recent developments, should go a long way toward helping us provide a productive and beneficial living and learning environment.”
The new hall is designed to Passive House principles, which include airtight construction, a high-efficiency envelope, and heat-recovery ventilation. The 39-foot-tall building features mass-timber construction and wood-fiber insulation, and would use one-fifth of the energy of a similarly sized, code-compliant structure. The dorm would achieve net-zero energy usage with a 36 kW, rooftop solar array.
OPAL Architecture executive partner Tim Lock and his team designed the dorm through a collaborative effort with COA committees and the weekly All College Meeting. The project has been on an accelerated timeline since September 2021, and the college hopes to have students into the facility by fall 2023.
COA is building housing to meet the needs of its students, and has no plans to increase the size of the student body, which is now at its capped level of 350 full-time-equivalent students, Collins said. The new residence hall is part of a bucket of solutions responding to an increasingly limited, increasingly expensive rental market in Bar Harbor and beyond, he told the Bangor Daily News.
Current on-campus housing at COA provides space for 168 students, which is nearly half of the student body. The proposed residence hall would bring the number to 215. Off-campus purchases in recent years added a further 60 beds to the school’s roster, and the Mount Desert Center in Northeast Harbor, slated to open this summer, will add another 15 beds. In total, the purchases and plans represent housing for 290 students, or 83 percent of the student body.
The project will displace the faculty village, which comprises several small, shingled offices just off the south parking lot. The buildings will be moved to another location on campus.
LINCOLN’S LOG:
I was sad to hear of the recent death of Ellen Kappes, who was a dutiful attendee of the Mount Desert select board meetings by Zoom during the pandemic. There were nights when she and I, and Islander reporter Dick Broom were the only outside participants. Please read her tribute.
TRIBUTE: Ellen Kappes
1940 - 2022
MOUNT DESERT - Ellen Kappes, 81, of Northeast Harbor, Maine, died March 25, 2022, on Mount Desert Island.
Ellen was born in July 1940 in Rye, NY. She attended Northfield School for Girls and earned a bachelor’s degree in Art History from Smith College.
As friend, relative, artist, and volunteer, Ellen was an influential and inspiring figure in the local community. She was actively involved in town committees and civic organizations such as Island Housing Trust.
Many people knew Ellen as an accomplished silkscreen artist and watercolor painter who frequently showed her work at galleries and craft fairs. She loved to sketch, paint, and create art. She embraced the cold winters of her northern New England home, and especially enjoyed cross-country skiing on the carriage roads; some of her most beloved silkscreen scenes depict iconic snow-coated granite stones along the Amphitheater and Around Mountain trails.
She relaxed by pulling weeds in her backyard garden and was an avid reader of mystery novels. Although technically allergic to cats, she nevertheless cared for many of them over the years.
Ellen is survived by two children, Alex Kimball of Portland, ME, and Ben Kimball of Greenfield, MA; her sister Karen Kappes of Holden, MA; and by her spouse Moorhead Kennedy of Somesville, ME. She also cared deeply for her extended family of close friends and relatives.
She was preceded in death by her mother, Georgianna Kappes, her father Carl Henry Kappes, and her brother, Carl Kappes.
A private burial service will take place at Forest Hill Cemetery in Mt. Desert and a public remembrance service will be held in Northeast Harbor, both in late spring. Please check her Memorial Wall page at Jordan – Fernald Funeral Home (www.jordanfernald.com) for more details and to share your thoughts.
TRIBUTE: Douglas Paul ‘Choo Choo’ Holmes
1944 - 2022
OTTER CREEK - Douglas Paul Holmes, 77, of Otter Creek, Maine, died unexpectedly on Saturday, March 26th, 2022, at his home in Englewood, Florida. Born on May 26, 1944, in Biddeford, Maine, Doug was the third son and fourth child of Bernard L. and Alice (Buzzell) Holmes.
Doug was raised in the small village of Otter Creek, Maine and graduated from Mount Desert High School in 1962, where he excelled athletically. He attended the University of Maine at Presque Isle for one year before transferring to Thomas College, earning an associate degree in accounting in 1965. Doug then moved to Massachusetts, spending the majority of his adult life in Ipswich and Gloucester. He worked as an accountant at both the AC Lawrence Leather Company and Salem Hospital. He finished his career as a conductor on the “Purple Line”, Boston’s Commuter Rail, earning the nickname Choo Choo Holmes. Six years spent serving in the Air Force National Guard were also a source of great pride for Doug.
A lifelong bachelor, Doug valued relationships with family and friends above all else. He was exceedingly generous-with his time, his resources, and his love. He was quick to treat visitors to a lobster feed or to offer his nieces and nephews advice about driver safety and car maintenance. He loved children and they loved him back. He spent many summer afternoons teaching his grand nieces and nephews to fish. Doug was an avid Boston sports fan, the family historian, and lover of antique cars. Traveling to car shows all over New England and Florida, showing off his prized 1960 red Austin Healey convertible, was his favorite pastime. Doug loved to socialize and dance. Most Thursday nights he could be found at a local watering hole enjoying live music with friends.
Doug is survived by his longtime companion, Judy Manchester of PA, his sisters, Sandra (Holmes) Modeen of Otter Creek and Bernadette (Holmes) Moulton and her husband Paul of GA, his brother, Terrance F. Holmes and his wife Wenke of Atkinson, NH, nephews, William Modeen (Pamela) of Boise, ID and Michael Modeen of Franklin, ME, nieces, Kelly McCloud of GA, Heidi Sifferlen (Eric) of Concord, MA, Katrine Campbell (Stephen) of Reading, MA, and Britt Santamaria (John) of Portsmouth, NH, and many grand nieces and nephews. Doug was preceded in death by his parents, Bernard and Alice, brother, George Ronald Holmes, nephew, Christopher George Moulton and grandnephew Joshua McInvale. Additionally, he leaves behind many dear friends to whom he was most loyal and devoted.
A graveside service and celebration of his life will be held in late spring/early summer in Maine. Donations in his name can be made to the Otter Creek Cemetery Association, c/o Karen Zimmerman, 11 Grover Ave. Otter Creek, ME 04660, or to a charity of your choosing.
Condolences may be expressed at www.jordanfernald.com