Welcome to Friends of Frenchman Bay. Thanks for your interest. We need you!.
Frenchman Bay is a breathtaking and wild ecosystem, bound on two sides by Acadia National Park. Friends of Frenchman Bay is a group of people who live in towns around the Bay or visit this unique spot on earth. Our primary efforts have been to protect Frenchman Bay from proposed large scale industrial fish farming , and bring attention to the environmental degradation caused by the many mega cruise ships visiting the bay.
At this time we, the people, have overcome; the mega salmon farm gave up, no mega home port berthing pier was built in Frenchman Bay, and the people of Bar Harbor enacted legal limits of how many persons could disembark from the giant ships- which then meant many fewer mega ships coming for several years. In a 2026 ruling on appeal, Mega ships are sadly being allowed again with no passenger limits during all months except July and August. We value the dark starry skies, the marine life, the cold, clear waters, and clean air. We stand ready to protect the air of our region and the water of our bay from future threats that may arise.
https://www.instagram.com/p/COxn4YYLw4_/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Cruise ship issues: please help pay the continued legal costs that Charles Sidman has incurred fighting for the health of the bay and community! Visit his go-fund-me. As of 3/1/26 more than $1,000,000 has been raised and over $300,000 in legal cost are still owed, with more bills coming in.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/8aeb5n-protect-acadia-from-cruise-ships
2026 Legal fights
- FRIENDS OF EASTERN BAY VS DEPARTMENT OF MARINE RESOURCES et al. (see link below)
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZyaHdCblpANiS7R1q6R6zUjWPXCT0X2TIIWqkgvkydk/edit?tab=t.0
The Maine Supreme Court has upheld the Permit for a 20 acre mussel and shellfish farm in Frenchman Bay.
2. The Conservation Law Foundation suit against Cooke Aquaculture ( current industrial Salmon farming off the Maine Coast) is allowed to move forward. FFB has contributed to this effort:
https://www.clf.org/newsroom/court-rules-clfs-case-against-cooke-aquaculture-can-move-forward/
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/24092026/industrial-aquaculture-threatens-maine-fishing-heritage/
Industrial Salmon Farm
We applaud the rejection of the AA permit in 2022 by the State of Maine, due to inadequacies in the salmon egg source portion of the application. AA pledged to come back with a new application for their project, and had already purchased the land based component of their project. However, they gave up and sold the property in June of 2023!
https://frenchmanbay.org/4342/american-aquafarms-proposal-terminated-by-dmr-dep/
June 27, 2022; AA dropped lawsuit: https://www.newscentermaine.com/article/news/local/american-aquafarms-withdraws-from-salmon-farm-project-lawsuit-maine-environment/97-38858cf9-5464-47d3-b6ca-9063fbe33138
- “When built, American Aquafarms’ plant in Maine will be the world’s largest full-cycle aquaculture facility based on closed cages in the sea.” (These are actually semi-closed, NOT closed containment- quote is from from Intrafish trade publication 3/31/21 )
Save the Bay Flotilla 
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/07/23/magazine/are-sprawling-fish-farms-coming-swallow-maine/
Below are links- (first is the DMR Aquaculture lease criteria)
https://www.maine.gov/dmr/aquaculture/documents/decisioncriteria.pdf
Link to PDF Why we need to stop this:
https://44091146-201a-4fb7-83d1-6c55cd66b050.filesusr.com/ugd/cff342_c71241adc16d4287905697665b98b2db.pdf
https://friendsoffrenchmanbay.org/2021/04/save-the-bay-stop-the-fish-farm/
We know that large scale fish farming in the bay would forever change the intrinsic natural qualities that make Frenchman Bay a beloved national treasure, and would threaten the generational livelihoods of lobstermen (and women) of the bay . Two Aquaculture sites of 60 and 60 acres, composed of 30 pens, each 150 feet wide (the green squares in this map), raising 66 million pounds of salmon annually, had been proposed for large industrialized salmon farms off the Porcupines and near bald rock.The company vows to try again with the application. No environmental assessments have been undertaken. Click on our Industrial Fin Fish Farm page to learn more: https://friendsoffrenchmanbay.org/industrial-fin-fish-farm/
Please contact us via the email icon on this page. Donations are accepted by donate button on this site or at Friends of Frenchman Bay, Box 53, Hancock, Maine, 04640.
We are an all volunteer Community Association.
We continue to stand against an outsized cruise ship pier previously proposed for Bar Harbor.
These gifts of unspoiled nature cannot be assessed in financial terms. “Once destroyed, nature’s beauty cannot be repurchased at any price.” – Ansel Adams
