BANGOR DAILY NEWS • January 17, 2025
Nordic Aquafarms announced Friday that it is giving up on its plans 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, which was to be built near the Northport town line, was to draw water from Penobscot Bay for its tanks and discharge wastewater back into the bay, but it was dealt numerous legal setbacks as it tried to secure that access.