A New Hampshire group wants to be the first to bring offshore fish farming to the waters off New England by raising salmon and trout in open-ocean pens miles from land, but critics fear the plan could harm the environment.
FILE - An Atlantic salmon leaps out of the water at a Cooke Aquaculture farm pen on Oct. 11, 2008, near Eastport, Maine. A New Hampshire group wants to be the first to bring offshore fish farming to the waters off New England by raising salmon and trout in open-ocean pens miles from land, but critics fear the plan raises environmental concerns. Blue Water Fisheries wants to place 40 submersible fish pens on two sites totaling nearly a square mile about 7.
The New England company hasn't said much about its plans. Scott Flood, who is listed as a representative for Blue Water Fisheries on documents, declined to comment on the project. Other representatives for the company did not return phone calls seeking comment. The aquaculture project would include pens submerged about 15 meters below the surface in depths of about 80 meters , federal documents state. The project would yield"up to 25.6 million pounds of a combination of steelhead trout and Atlantic salmon annually," the documents state. The company’s year-round operations would take place out of Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
Conservation groups have also argued the fish farms are bad for the environment because of pollution in the form of the antibiotics and pesticides often used on the farms.
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