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Blue Hill Bay is a pristine body of water bordered on the east by Acadia National Park. The Park holds a 4,000 acre conservation easement on Long Island, an unspoiled island encompassed by the Bay. The communities of Tremont, Mt. Desert, Trenton, Surry, Blue Hill and Brooklin all border the Bay. |
Donate Today!
The Friends of Blue Hill Bay need your help! The number of aquaculture lease sites in the bay is increasing and there is very little oversight.
You can now donate via credit card or check - click here to donate
Your much-needed donation supports all of FOBHB's work including legal efforts as well as community outreach and education, partnering in regional conservation efforts, advocating for healthy bays and oceans on a national scale, supporting sustainable fisheries, and promoting research of Blue Hill Bay.
Welcome to Friends of Blue Hill Bay
The mission of the Friends of Blue Hill Bay (FOBHB) is to conserve the natural ecology, sustainable marine fisheries, and unique aesthetic quality of Blue Hill Bay. We have been forwarding this mission since 1999 and we invite you to celebrate our ten-year anniversary by learning more about the group and by contributing to our efforts.
In addition to monitoring the expansion and effects of aquaculture, FOBHB is also working to address other challenges in the Bay. These include shellfish declines, harbor dredging, climate change, nitrogen pollution, and sustainable finfish fisheries. We are advocating for a Baywide Management Plan that includes all those who have a vested interest in a healthy Bay.
We invite you to browse our web site to learn more about the environmental threats to Blue Hill Bay, what we are doing to protect the Bay, and how you can help.
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Recent Happenings Around the Bay.......
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Protect Seaweed Habitat and Local Fisheries!
Your help is needed to protect intact rockweed (seaweed) habitat and its link to local fisheries and wildlife. The proposed LD 585 would eliminate rockweed protections currently in place in Cobscook Bay (towns of Lubec, Eastport, Trescott, Whiting, Edmunds, Pembroke, Perry).
Please support our local fishermen, and habitat supporting fisheries, by signing this petition and adding your name to the current 300+ signatures from all over Maine and New England. We hope to reach 500 signatures and comments.
PETITION: http://www.change.org/petitions/save-our-seaweed
For more information, please contact us at: saveourseaweed@gmail.com
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****** DRAFT Needs Assessment Now Available********
Blue Hill Bay Watershed Needs Assessment
The draft Blue Hill Bay Needs Assessment report is now ready. There will be a presentations on this report and an opportunity to offer your comments on March 11, 2013 from 6:00 PM - 8:30 PM at the Ellsworth city hall auditorium (storm date March 14). If you are unable to attend feel free to e-mail your comments by April 16, 2013 to tmartin@hcpcme.org or call 667-7131.
The Blue Hill Bay Watershed Needs Assessment is a multi-town, multi-stakeholder initiative designed to engage these communities in a dialogue to better understand their resources, assess the status of the resources, and make informed decisions about coastal activities which impact these resources.
The Project is being led by the Hancock County Planning Commission partnering with the Friends of Blue HIll Bay and the eight communties surrounding the bay.
Click here for more information about the project
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Aquaculture Public Hearing
March 25, 2013 @ 5:30 PM
Surry Elementary School
754 North Bend Road
Surry, ME 04684
The Department of Marine Resources will hold a public hearing on the application for a 4-acre, 3-year, aquaculture lease located in Morgan Bay, north of Jed Island, Surry, Maine for bottom and suspended culture of quahogs and American and European oysters. Other compatible uses of the site would be permitted. At the hearing, the Department will take evidence relating to the criteria for granting a lease as listed in 12 M.R.S. §6072(7-A) and DMR Rule Chapter 2.37, including the effect of the proposed lease upon riparian owners’ shore access, navigation, fishing, ecology, and other uses of the area. Copies of the application and the DMR site report are posted on the Department’s web site, www.maine.gov/dmr/aquaculture, under “Pending Aquaculture Lease Applications.”
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Latest Disease Fiasco Confirms Need for Land-Based Farmed Salmon
The Atlantic Salmon Federation (ASF) urgently calls upon Fisheries and Oceans Canada and provincial governments to restore public confidence in salmon farming by immediately imposing a moratorium on the expansion of open net pen salmon farming and seriously investing in closed-containment technology.
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Follow FOBHB's Effort to Protect Newbury Neck
This spring, the Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) granted a blue mussel aquaculture lease just off shore of High Head at the end of the much-loved Newbury Neck. Despite opposition from the Town of Surry and FOBHB, DMR granted the lease in April, and consequently in June, FOBHB filed a petition in Maine Superior Court citing that DMR’s action adversely impacts the natural ecology of the bay, excludes all other reasonable uses of the area, and denies the community the ability to fish, boat, and recreate in the area. It further charges that DMR regulations do not contain adequate rules dealing with the method of gathering and assessing baseline information as required by law. Below are the legal documents in order of occurance:
- Letter to DMR from the Town of Surry Opposing Lease - March 2012
- Letter to DMR from FOBHB Opposing Lease- March 2012
- FOBHB's Petition Filed with Maine Superior Court -June 2012
- DMR's Response to Petition - August 2012
- FOBHB's Reply to DMR's Response -August 2012
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New Additions to the Web - Fall 2012!
- FOBHB joins Frenchman Bay Partners. Study shows loss of eelgrass in Goose Cove 2008-2011. Click Here.
- Best Management Practices for the East Coast Shellfish Aquaculture Industry The manual is the final product of 22 workshops with input from hundreds of stakeholders.
- Aquaculture Update: New NB Rules on Sea Lice Proposed
New Brunswick is now talking about better sea lice reporting rules. Sea lice are a major issue in many parts of the North Atlantic, since as few as eight can kill an Atlantic salmon smolt.
- FOBHB Summer 2012 Newsletter: Learn about FOBHB's petition to protect Newbury Neck, the BHB Symposium, and more!
- Behold the Bay Symposium (Fall 2011) Presentations
- Links to important Bay and Ocean Intitiatives:
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Aquaculture Update Page - Click Here
- Suspected outbreak of salmon virus at Nova Scotia fish farming operation
- Nova Scotia Eastern Shore salmon farm proposal morally indefensible
- Royal Society of Canada Report on Biodiversity Cautions on Aquaculture
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Will Oyster Farms Spoil Maine's Coast Line?
View Recent FOBHB Newsletters
- Summer 2011
- Fall 2010
- Spring 2010
- Fall 2009
Visit the FOBHB Advocacy Page - Click Here
- FOBHB Opposes Black Island Pollutant Discharge Permit
- FOBHB Signs onto National Ocean Council Letter
Visit the new "Sustainable Fisheries" page to learn about sustainable seafood, ocean issues, local sustainable intitiatives, and sustainable fisheries management.