Why don't we see comments on Nordic Aquafarms from folks with graduate degrees in marine ecology? 

If NAF were above-board, they'd have tried first in Rockland, which has year-round rail connections to bring in food and export salmon.  These Norwegian salmon factories are not embraced in Norway as they are in Augusta. 

Friends familiar with the Norwegian salmon farms imposed on the northern British Isles tell me the farms are sources of ecosystem problems wherever they appear. 

The NAF factory would be obsolete within 50 years of opening, and cost as much to remove as it would have paid in taxes during its lifetime —-that's not counting the century it would take to replace the forest. 

If the dams were removed and replaced with fish ladders on the Damariscotta model, those two ponds could produce alewives and elvers until the next glacier appears.  The profits would accrue to locals who sell alewives for lobster bait and elvers to Japan, not to Norwegian stockholders.

Dr. William Burgess Leavenworth, Ph.D., is a retired environmental historian and mariner, who lives in Searsmont.