Planned Salmon Farm Spurs
Concerns in Belfast

by Laurie Schreiber

Renderings of Nordic Aquafarms’ proposed Atlantic salmon land-based facility in Belfast looking north. US Route 1 lower right. Penobscot Bay and Belfast center upper right. Belfast Reservoir #1 foreground. Nordic buildings in area above reservoir. Photo courtesy Nordic Aquafarms.

BELFAST—About 100 Belfast residents attended a June 12 panel discussion on aquaculture, organized by Nordic Aquafarms, the company that’s proposing to build one of the world’s largest land-based Atlantic salmon farms in this coastal community.

Nordic announced plans for a land-based salmon farm here in January, 2018.

Many Belfast residents expressed concern. One concern centered on effluent and its potential as a pollutant or bearer of disease, particularly given Belfast’s pristine waters plus efforts to recover marine organisms like groundfish and alewives that are already impacted by situations like climate change and nitrogen-loading. Others wondered about the potential impact of a large facility on the community’s character. Some were curious about jobs that would be available.

Nordic Aquafarms’ proposal coincides with a similar proposal, by Yarmouth native Rob Piasio, to launch Whole Oceans, a land-bsed Atlantic salmon farm on the site of the former Verso paper mill in Bucksport.

“Like many of you, I was surprised to see not one but two proposals for land-based salmon culture,” said Anne Hayden, a Sustainable Economies Program manager at the Plymouth, Mass., environmental research nonprofit Manomet. “I didn’t see how it could compete economically with net pens. But I’ve discovered that, although this technology is new to us, it is not new. I think you’re right to be asking these questions. But I think that net pen and land-based are very different. The disease issue, almost everything, is different, and one reason why these companies are going to land-based is because the technology has gotten so good that they can manage all those things that are much harder to manage in the water, like sea lice.”

“I’m concerned about the size of this project,” said one resident. “Whether it’s a fish factory or a shoe factory or whatever, it’s just a really big facility.” She wanted to know how the company would give back to the community and mitigate potential socioeconomic impacts. “There will be collateral damage,” she said. “You’re going to make a huge impact if you come. Are you going to ruin the place that you love by doing this? And if you do come how much money will you donate to salmon restoration for wild salmon?”

“We’ve been trying to engage as much as possible with the community,” responded Nordic CEO Erik Heim. “There’s a lot of input and we’re trying to process this. Local knowledge is important for us in understanding how to develop a business in a town like Belfast. We’re not looking to ruin anything; that would hurt us as a business as well….What I can promise is that we’re dedicated to make this project work in the context of this kind of community.”

In terms of wild salmon, he said, the company is helping sponsor local salmon-related festivals and will accept invitations from wild salmon groups in Maine, he said: “We’d like to be part of supporting wild salmon protection and we believe our facility is an important contribution to that.”

“I see the bigger picture,” said another resident, “as creating an industry here that requires a lot of different kinds of people to support it and that would provide opportunities for people to start new businesses to support your plant. What kind of people are you looking for to do that? What kind of businesses can you see growing up around the plant?”

Heim cited engineering, construction, and communications as some fields he’s hired for to date. Others include veterinary services, specialized suppliers through the value chain, administration, technical staff, biologists, and “a diverse cross-functional team around an operation like this.” In addition, he said, it’s an opportunity for universities to provide work opportunities for students, and for industry partners working in technology, biology and innovation. “We’re doing this in Norway,” he said. “These opportunities will come here, both for local businesses and to businesses in other places in Maine.”

Heim said 60 jobs are expected for phase 1 development, involving various skill levels, from high-school-level education and up. There will also be work-training programs, he said. “In the beginning, it’s important to have a specialist staff in place to make sure everything is put in place correctly,” he said. “Once that’s in place, we can expand beyond that.” In Denmark and Norway, he said, the company has seen that municipalities were interested in training opportunities, tax revenue, and opportunities for local businesses.

Nordic, established in 2014 in Fredrikstad, Norway, has three land-based facilities, one in Norway and two in Denmark.

One man wanted to know if piping discharge a mile out of the bay would eliminate pollution potential.

“We’ll work out the details in the application process,” said Heim. The application process, he and panelists said, includes rigorous review of the proposal by agencies like the Department of Environmental Protection and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, with opportunities for public input along the way. “They’ll be asking, What is this company contributing and what does it mean for that particular area?” Heim said.

He added, “In Norway, we’re subject to extremely strict standards….We’ll be bringing that technology here. I know of no land-based operation that removes as much as we do.”

According to a Nordic news release, land-based production is based on indoor production in large tanks and water treatment systems. Benefits are reported to include the ability to recycle and treat water on site to reduce overall water consumption, recycling of waste resources, prevention of sea lice and parasites, elimination of fish escape into the sea and co-mingling with wild species, application of renewable energy concepts, and shorter distance to market for a high quality, fresh product, reducing the carbon footprint of air and land transport.

Hayden noted that, at one time, many fishermen saw aquaculture as a “privatizing of the commons.” That seems to have changed, she said. “We’re now seeing the trend where that distinction, between fisheries and aquaculture, is breaking down and that fishermen are looking to diversify their income streams,” she said. “They’re not going to build a land-based salmon farm, but they might grow oysters or mussels or seaweed. So I’d say it’s a positive trend.”

Permit applications are in the works this summer, said Heim. Recent new hires include two people moving to Maine from Norway—a director of operations and a project manager; as well as a Cumberland native who will help lead the production team and another Maine native who is an aquaculture expert.

Reached by phone several weeks before the meeting, Heim explained that decreasing start-up and operation costs of land-based salmon farming has boosted the sector as a viable competitor with sea-pen farming. In the past 10 years, the cost of sea-pen production has doubled in relation to the incidence of sea lice, treatment, and resulting mortalities, he said. “What’s been happening is when sea-pen prices go up, we also see land-based costs coming down,” he said. “Today, if you build at efficient scale, both your capital expenses and production costs will be in the same range as sea-pen.”

Land-based salmon farming, he said, is coming to fruition after years of research.

“I’d say, in the past five to six years, lots of learning had been going on,” he said. “Now we’re seeing that the knowhow is starting to mature. It’s a very interesting time to go into this segment.”

How did he settle on Belfast?

“We started more or less globally, then looked at the significant seafood trade deficit in the U.S., with the U.S. importing more than 80 percent of its seafood,” he said. “The U.S. is the largest single market for salmon. That creates a business case for increasing production in the U.S. We looked along the coast from Washington, D.C. to Canada, and ended up in Maine due to its cold, clean water and the seafood brand of Maine, which we think will work very nicely with salmon. Finding the right type of placement, where you have both seawater and clean freshwater available, took six months. It was quite a journey.”

Transparency with communities is important to the company, he said.

“We have a history of communication with the communities we’ve been developing in,” he said. “We voluntarily hold information meetings and release newsletters, to give as much information as possible. We realize this is a new thing in Maine, and it’s natural for people to ask questions. At the same time, it takes a while to get all the facts on the table when you’re developing a site like this. We were received very well by the city council and city manager, and we met with a lot of business leaders in the area. There are some people who don’t want the development. I respect that. We try to answer all the questions as well as we can.”

There’s potential for land-based seafood farming to continue to expand, he said.

“In the global context, seafood is considered the most energy-efficient and viable way of producing protein compared with other meats, so expectations are that farming could double to meet global demand,” he said.

The proposed site is on coastal acreage belonging to the Belfast Water District. Nordic holds an option to buy the property.

The first phase of construction, expected to begin in 2019, pending permits, will be for facilities to produce 15,000 mt per year. Operations are expected to start in 2020.

Second-phase build-out would take production to about 25,000 mt, with upper-end capacity of 30,000 mt.

Around 100 people are expected to be employed at maximum development.

“We’re hoping to find Maine employees but we’re also recruiting nationally and internationally,” Heim said.

Construction will include a green buffer of trees around the facility to minimize visual impact, he said. Existing recreational opportunities, like a network of trails that the public has enjoyed for years, will remain. An existing older building on the site, valued by the community, will remain and will be repurposed as a visitor and education center.

“We’re trying to give something back to the community in terms of attraction and education value,” Heim said.