As a small-business owner and a regular small-boat sailor in Frenchman Bay, I am writing to say I’m worried about the recent proposal to put sea pens in Frenchman Bay. My business depends on Acadia National Park, with unspoiled scenery of the ocean next to mountain peaks, miles of trails, trees and wildlife attracting millions of people to our Island.

This will be the biggest salmon farm in the state with 100 acres yielding 6.6 million pounds per year. A short distance from this farm, cruise ships will also be out there anchored, emitting their cancerous fumes directly into the ocean instead of out their smokestacks. Millions of gallons of scrubber wash water are flushed out of a pipe in the bottom of the ship, containing a whole slurry of toxic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. These are two industries that should not be working side by side, and the reality is neither should be operating in Frenchman Bay.

The Belfast salmon operation just down the coast is the same size as the Frenchman Bay pens, in terms of fish produced, but it’s proposed to be built on land with a sewage treatment system cleaning the water.

The view of the Porcupines in Frenchman Bay in Acadia National Park is iconic. It would be spoiled by dead industrial symmetrical forms laid on top of the exquisite natural asymmetry. Let us keep the 5,000 jobs that Acadia National Park already supports and not spoil what already works. Big industry does not belong superimposed on a billion-dollar natural masterpiece.

Jim O’Connell
Bar Harbor