Swan's Island: Six miles east of ordinary

Swan’s Island was home to an Atlantic salmon farm and processing plant that started in the late 1980s. Salmon farming had success in other parts of the country and world. The waters around Swan’s Island seemed a good fit for salmon farming. It would provide another fishing industry source in addition to the lobstering, scalloping, and shrimping already in place.

Mariculture Products started a salmon farm that was obtained and renamed Island Aquaculture by a local group in 1993.

Salmon pens were located in several spots around the island. There were some near Scrag Island, some in Toothacher Cove and some at nearby Frenchboro.

The first deliveries of salmon smolt (baby salmon) were brought by the ferry, Everett Libby. The picture on the right shows the delivery of the smolt.

The picture on the left is of the salmon processing plant. It was located on the shore of Burnt Coat Harbor in Minturn.

The business employed seven or eight islanders full time and up to a dozen part time.

Marion Stinson was one of the employees in the first fish processing plants but the story she tells in this audio is about her life growing up on Swan’s Island.

Try as they might the business could not be sustained. It was purchased by a Norwegian company in 2000 and closed in 2003. Most of the pens have been dismantled and the parts have been recycled for other uses.