Biomark is one of several companies that provide mobile fish tagging services to help track salmon migration.

Augusta, ME—In 2003, NELC won an industry-changing lawsuit thatimposed strict pollution discharge limits and wild salmon protection measures on Maine’s burgeoning salmon farming industry. Just months after the verdict, the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) followed suit, issuing precedent-setting Clean Water Act discharge permits to salmon growers.

Now, the industry is seeking to delay for two years the implementation of a key protection: the tagging of each farmed fish, so that escapees—fish that can spread disease and pollute the gene pool of endangered wild salmon—can be traced. Josh Kratka, one of the NELC attorneys who litigated the original case, submitted comments to DEP in August opposing the delay.

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