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Nordic Aquafarms announced Friday that it is ceasing to pursue its plan to build a land-based salmon farm in Belfast.
“This decision comes after long-fought legal challenges waged by opposition,” the company said in a statement, adding that it has spent “tens of millions of investment dollars and many years of planning and permitting” the project.
The U.S. subsidiary of a Norwegian aquaculture company of the same name went public in 2018 with its plan to build a $500 million facility capable of producing 30,000 metric tons of Atlantic salmon per year in recirculating indoor tanks.
The facility, planned for construction on a former Water District property near the Northport town line, was to draw water from Penobscot Bay and discharge treated wastewater back into the bay.
It was the first in a wave of big aquaculture projects that were announced in Maine, built on the promise of being an environmentally friendly alternative to ocean-farmed fish that would bring tax revenue and some jobs to the area.
Other communities, including Bucksport, welcomed proposals for land-based fish farms, but opponents of the Belfast plan waged an intense legal battle over a number of years to stop the Nordic Aquafarms plan, ultimately sending the project into a long period of dormancy that ended with Friday’s announcement.
Brenda Chandler, Nordic’s U.S. CEO, used the announcement on Friday to make a final plug for land-based aquaculture and take a final jab at the opponents who stopped the project.
“Activism has its place, but with oceans under increasing pressure, solutions like land-based aquaculture are not just innovative, they are essential,” Chandler said.
