Expanding salmon farm sites are a major concern of Friends of Blue Hill Bay. New farms have the potential to cause a serious negative environmental impact on the Bay. Examples are listed below.

• Destruction of marine habitat beneath and around the fish pens

• Nutrient pollution due to concentrated amounts of fish feed, feces, mucus and urine discharged into the water.

• Chemical pollution due to the pesticides, antibiotics and artificial coloring used in fish feed.

• Use of antibiotics in fish feed may contribute to antibiotic resistance in humans.

• Chemicals used to artificially color fish may cause an allergic reaction.

• A number of environmental groups (e.g., The Sierra Club, National Audubon Society and the Monterey Bay Aquarium) recommend not eating farmed salmon.

• Salmon farming threatens the endangered wild Atlantic Salmon by spreading disease, such as Infectious Salmon Anemia (ISA).

• Escaped farmed salmon compete for food and pollute the habitat of wild Atlantic Salmon.
  

• Salmon farming depletes wild fish stocks since it takes 3 lbs. of wild fish to produce 1lb. of farmed salmon.

• Chemical and nutrient pollution negatively impact lobster, clam and scallop habitat.

• Loss of traditional fishing grounds to industrial salmon farms.

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