September 30 , 2021 — A Belfast soup kitchen had a tuna weighing 600 pounds (270 kilograms) donated for its meals last week by a lobster fishing crew that netted the fish.
The crewmembers from J & J Lobster were catching bait near the coast when the massive bluefin tuna hit their net, the Bangor Daily News reported.
“It was an adrenaline rush to say the least,” the owner of J & J Lobster, Jamie Steeves, told New England Cable News.
Read the full story from the Associated Press
August 6, 2021 — City councilors in Belfast, Maine, U.S.A. are considering the use of eminent domain to seize a piece of disputed property and end a protracted land dispute that has held up progress on a project planned by Nordic Aquafarms.
On 3 August, the council voted unanimously to pursue the takeover of an intertidal area that has been the subject of a court battle over ownership, Maine Public reported. The lawsuit over the intertidal area was first filed in 2019 by Jeffrey R. Mabee and Judith B. Grace, who allege that they are the true owners of intertidal land that Nordic plans to run inflow and outflow pipes through.
March 4, 2020 — Maine officials are taking the final comments on a proposal to build a large, land-based salmon farm in Belfast.
Nordic Aquafarms of Norway wants to build the facility, which would produce tens of millions of pounds of salmon per year.
The Maine Department of Marine Resources hosted a public hearing about the proposal on Monday night, and the state is taking comments on it until March 12. The proposal has been contentious in the community because of the scope of the project, which would use tanks to grow the fish.
March 3, 2020 — Nordic Aquafarms (NAF) has completed the last hearing for state-level permitting required for the company to complete its planned USD 500 million (EUR 447.9 million) salmon recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) facility in Belfast, Maine.
The hearings, which occurred on 2 March, were for a state-level permit for the removal and disposal of subtidal excavation material and the company’s plans to ensure local fisheries aren’t impacted. The removal of material is part of the company’s plan to locate inlet and outlet pipes for the facility in the nearby Penobscot Bay.
February 13, 2020 — Dozens implored the Maine Board of Environmental Protection this week to put the brakes on plans for a $500 million land-based salmon farm here.
At a hearing Tuesday night, many who came to the University of Maine’s Hutchinson Center wore red to signify their opposition to Nordic Aquafarms’ project. It was the only chance for the public to address the BEP officials during their three-to-four-day visit to the midcoast city, where they will review environmental permit applications required for the project.
“I beg you to deny Nordic this opportunity to destroy our environment, our home, to line their pockets with gold,” Aimee Moffit of Belfast told state environmental officials.
The Norwegian-owned company is angling to build a flagship facility near the Little River in Belfast, with a goal of producing 33,000 metric tons of Atlantic salmon every year. It would construct 10 buildings — including several grow-out modules that company officials have described as “the largest aquaculture tanks in the world” — on a 54-acre site that’s currently mostly woods and fields.
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.
December 10, 2018 — From oyster farms to cultivated seaweed and farm-raised salmon, aquaculture is often described as essential to the economic future of Maine’s fisheries in the face of a changing ecosystem. Warming waters from climate change are pushing lobster farther Down East and have shut down the shrimp fishery, and threats such as ocean acidification and invasive green crabs are harming Maine’s natural fisheries.
But opposition to several proposed projects suggests the hardest part of getting into aquaculture might be getting past the neighbors. All along the coast, neighbors argue that pending aquaculture ventures will create too much noise, use too much energy, attract too many birds and obstruct their opportunities for boating or lobstering. One questioned whether an oyster farm would make it hard for deer to swim from one point of land to another.
In Belfast, abutters to the land where Nordic Aquafarms hopes to put in a giant land-based farm to raise salmon have filed a lawsuit against the city, which they say hastily and secretly approved a zoning change the company needed to move forward.
In Brunswick, opponents of a proposed 40-acre oyster farm have hired not just attorneys, but a public relations expert, Crystal Canney, in the hopes of persuading the Department of Marine Resources not to approve the lease.
November 8, 2018 — At a recent hearing in Kittery, so many people showed up to weigh in on the proposed expansion of an oyster-growing operation in a local creek, Department of Marine Resources hearing officer Amanda Ellis had to make a choice.
“Based on the number that we’re seeing we’ve made the decision to postpone the hearing,” she said.
But opponents such as Mike Dowling were still plenty willing to talk.
“I have many concerns, there’s a whole group of us, introducing over 2,500 objects suspended or floating into the creek creates a pinch point, and everyone uses that little sandy beach to go swimming,” he said.
Such complaints do arise with aquaculture enterprises, with neighbors — sometimes including fishermen — worrying about water access, environmental effects and property values. Up the coast in Maquoit Bay, near Brunswick, a proposed 40-acre shellfish farm is meeting some stiff resistance.
And then there’s Belfast, where a proposal to site what would be one of the world’s largest indoor salmon farms is stirring talk of the darker days, when the city was dominated by chicken processors.
Law enforcement authorities have launched a crackdown on unlicensed eel fishermen and illicit sales along the East Coast.
August 7, 2017 — BREWER, Maine — Changes in the worldwide fisheries industry have turned live baby American eels into a commodity that can fetch more than $2,000 a pound at the dock, but the big demand and big prices have spawned a black market that wildlife officials say is jeopardizing the species.
Law enforcement authorities have launched a crackdown on unlicensed eel fishermen and illicit sales along the East Coast.
Although not a well-known seafood item like the Maine lobster, wriggling baby eels, or elvers, are a fishery worth many millions of dollars. Elvers often are sold to Asian aquaculture companies to be raised to maturity and sold to the lucrative Japanese restaurant market, where they mainly are served grilled.
But licensed U.S. fishermen complain poaching has become widespread, as prices have climbed in recent years. In response, the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other agencies are investigating clandestine harvesting and sales.
Operation Broken Glass, a reference to the eels’ glassy skin, has resulted in 15 guilty pleas for illegal trafficking of about $4 million worth of elvers. Two people are under indictment, and more indictments are expected.
In Maine, more than 400 licensed fishermen make their living fishing for elvers in rivers such as the Penobscot in Brewer and the Passagassawakeag in Belfast every spring. They say law enforcement is vital to protecting the eels and the volatile industry.