BANGOR DAILY NEWS • February 21, 2025
Towns up and down Maine’s coast have grappled for more than a decade with the changes that come with a growing aquaculture industry. In the last several years, some have gone further, considering local ordinances meant to restrict state-issued leases for large aquaculture projects in their waters. It has brought to the forefront tensions between traditional uses of Maine’s coast and the growth of aquaculture, an industry that has grown by about 2 percent annually for the last two decades and brings in more than $85 million in sales each year. It has also highlighted disagreements about which entity — the state or the municipality — has the authority over those uses, creating an ongoing impasse.