December 17, 2018 — Forty years ago, Belfast was probably best known for poultry processing. Rendered chicken fat slicked the water in the harbor, and feathers flying in the wind were jokingly called “snowstorms in July.”
The industry collapsed in the 1980s, and the city has since remade itself as a community that takes environmental sustainability seriously.
So, it’s no surprise that Belfast is the preferred site for a Norwegian company looking to build a state-of-the art, land-based aquaculture facility, which requires clean, cold water to raise salmon from eggs to adulthood. And it’s also no surprise that the project is under fire by some local activists who say that it’s too big and would destroy an unspoiled wooded area.