In the rural Maine town of Beals, with a population of less than 500 people, resident Paula McCormack holds the title of chairman of town's select board. She's also in charge of monitoring the operations of Canadian aquaculture giant Cooke, which has three netpen salmon farms in the area.

"We’re working with them to correct the problems we’re having with them," she told IntraFish. Those problems, she said, have included workers leaving trash at the town landing as well as resident's lobster traps being moved without notice for Cooke's operations.