Maine event for land based farming
A US company planning to grow salmon in land based tanks has completed the purchase of land for the venture, in Bucksport, Maine.
Whole Oceans plans to farm Atlantic salmon in a recirculating aquaculture system.
It hopes to initially produce 5,000 tonnes of salmon annually and eventually increase capacity to 20,000 tonnes.
The company is also seeking sites for production on the west coast, and recently confirmed that it was buying a majority share in the world’s first land based salmon farming venture, Kuterra, which produces about 250 tonnes of salmon a year..
The British Columbia, Canada, based business was established by the Namgis First Nation in 2013, and has received government subsidies to remain operational.
The owners have been trying to sell the facility for the past two years and said the deal advances their mission to ‘develop next-generation Atlantic salmon aquaculture on land’.
Namgis First Nation have been leading opponents of traditional open net pen salmon farming on Canada’s west coast.
Another company, Nordic Aquafarms, is also planning to establish a land based farm in the state of Maine. Its site, in Belfast, Maine, is looking to produce 16,000 tonnes of salmon in its initial phase, expanding to 33,000 tonnes.
The company’s subsidiary, Fredrikstad Seafoods, began production at is Norwegian land based facility at the end of May, receiving the first 100,000 smolt.
It is the first and only land based salmon farm in Norway and plans to produce 1,500 tonnes a year o begin with.
A Dutch company, Kingfish Zeeland, has also recently announced it plans to move into land based farming in Maine.
According to a report by Seafood Source, the farmer, which operates a recirculating aquaculture system yellowtail farm in Kats in the Netherlands, wants to build a much bigger RAS facility in the US.
CEO Ohad Maiman told Seafood Source the company had considered 22 sites along the US east coast but had narrowed the list down to two sites, both in Maine.