MAINE PUBLIC • February 16, 2023
Maine's highest court sided with opponents of a proposed Belfast fish farm Thursday in a case over access to intertidal lands. The company Nordic Aquafarms had negotiated an agreement with the owners of a waterfront parcel in Belfast to run underground pipes from a massive, planned fish farm to Penobscot Bay. The estimated $500 million project has been in the works for several years and has already received state permits. But neighbors who oppose the fish farm – which would raise Atlantic salmon in tanks in a land-based facility – claimed that they owned the intertidal zone where the intake and outtake pipes would pass through. On Thursday, Maine's Supreme Judicial Court ruled against Nordic Aquafarms and said the deeds make clear that the intertidal zone belongs to the neighbors.