Maine allows small marine nursery licenses once rules are adopted

The Department of Marine Resources may approve licenses for small coastal nursery and care sites. Sites serve young marine organisms before sale or transfer and provide brief care before transfer. Equipment may cover up to 1,600 square feet, excluding mooring equipment. Applicants need an existing aquaculture lease or license, except municipal shellfish committees and municipal officers applying for municipal projects. Sites must produce no discharge, use approved stock and equipment, and avoid unreasonable interference with navigation, shoreline access, fishing, and other uses. The nonrefundable application fee is $400. Municipal applicants are exempt when the organisms are not used commercially. Applicants must notify shoreline owners within 300 feet and the municipality. The license does not grant a lease or replace other required permits. Holders must file confidential annual cultivation reports. The Department of Marine Resources cannot issue these licenses until rules are adopted. Organisms may remain at a site for no more than six months.

Marine farmers must seek state approval to add species, different gear categories, equipment, or structures to eligible leases. The process covers eligible existing aquaculture leases. The commissioner may also approve temporary operating changes to address environmental threats to public health or farmed organisms. Commercial research and development leases cannot be amended. A lease that bars discharge cannot be amended to allow discharge. Different gear categories require a lease that allowed bottom gear only. Leases originally approved without gear are ineligible. Equipment or structure additions apply to leases that did not authorize them. Additions cannot violate existing lease conditions. Gear, equipment, and structure additions require public notice and a chance to submit written comments. Nonrefundable application fees cannot exceed $200 for species or $500 for gear, equipment, or structures. Substantially similar replacements need no amendment. Lease amendments cannot be authorized until rules are adopted. Applicants must have held a lease for at least one year to add gear categories, equipment, or structures.

Marine Resources officials can inspect covered farming sites and collect samples when they identify a possible health risk. Access covers aquaculture leases, limited-purpose aquaculture licenses, and licensed facilities listed in the law. Limited-purpose aquaculture licenses under section 6072-C require annual inspections. Sampling requires a possible risk to people, animals, or other marine organisms. Samples must be as small as reasonably possible. Refusing access is grounds for revoking the lease or license. Test results are confidential. The Department of Marine Resources may disclose them to protect public health, support Marine Patrol enforcement, or consider renewal or revocation. Officials must give the reason for sampling at least 24 hours before collection and share test results immediately after they become available.

A commercial research lease can remain in effect while the commissioner decides an application for a standard aquaculture lease. This applies to limited-purpose leases for commercial aquaculture research and development. The application must cover all or part of the research lease area, and the commissioner's decision must come after that lease expires. Applications filed within 30 days after expiration require a nonrefundable $500 late fee. The commissioner may waive the fee when substantial illness or a medical condition prevents filing within 30 days after expiration. A physician must document the condition. The commissioner cannot process covered applications received more than 30 days after expiration. The leaseholder must remove all gear and equipment within 120 days. Approval keeps the research lease in effect until the standard lease takes effect. Denial keeps it in effect until 30 days after the decision.

The Department of Marine Resources must keep previously confidential planting and harvest reports confidential while it retains them. This covers reports filed under the former aquaculture lease and limited-purpose aquaculture license reporting requirements. The reports must have been confidential when submitted under the former reporting provisions. Confidentiality lasts until the department no longer retains the reports under its records retention schedule.