Blue Hill Bay Battle Continues over Mussel Farm

Last spring, the Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) approved an application for a 51.4-acre mussel farm off the eastern shore of Long Island writes Stephen Rappaport in the Ellsworth American.

The application, from Erick Spencer Swanson for Mussel Bound Farm and Maine Cultured Mussels is now under dispute since

FOBHB filed a Superior Court suit to overturn DMR’s decision last June. It says the venture has been accepted without reviewing evidence from the considering evidence that the farm would unreasonably interfere with navigation and lobster fishing in the area.

Another failing, according to Ellsworth attorney Sally Mills, was that it didn’t clearly explain whether the business arrangements of the mussel farm corporation. If it is a partnership then the application should have contained information about the finances of the Erick Spencer Swanson.

“Individually or collectively, these deficiencies are egregious,” Mills argued.

FOBHB also claims that, even if the application was complete, DMR made serious mistakes in the procedure it followed during the review process.

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