Concerns have been voiced about harm from land-based Atlantic salmon farm proposals poop discharge through underwater pipes extending  into Penobscot Bay from the shore.  Proposed waste pipe contents have not been disclosed yet, but it will probably contain salmon poop.

Over the past century Penobscot Bay's wild haddock, cod, swordfish, tuna, Atlantic salmon and other fish population declined due to over-fishing, climate change, pollution, and other factors, reducing amounts of fish poop they left behind. Fish poop affects water plants like fertilizer on your garden. Containing nitrogen and nutrients, it increases water-borne plant growth, which nourish species at the bottom of the food chain, sustaining fish and sea creatures that eat them. Chlorophyll-containing green water plants also photosynthesize oxygen into seawater from carbon dioxide so that fish can absorb it into their bloodstreams through their gills like humans do through their lungs. If any of the current aquaculture initiatives pan out, wild cod, haddock, tuna and swordfish poop reduction, due to decline of the population of  these species may be offset by farmed salmon poop, which should increase sea life in the bay and make it healthier.

Fish oil, which fresh salmon provide, has Omega-3 fatty acids that assist heart and circulatory system functioning and is prescribed by doctors for atherosclerosis.

Proposals for land-based Atlantic salmon farms would benefit the local economy, increasing jobs, incomes, tax revenues, and reducing hunger and poverty. If built, these projects could grow the economy, reduce youth out-migration which has bedeviled Maine for decades, keep small businesses alive and workers busy. We should all support these initiatives.