Saving Seafood

Cooke subsidiary acquires Aqua Bounty Canada’s operations for USD 2 million

March 4, 2025 — Cooke subsidiary Kelly Cove Salmon (KCS) has acquired the defunct operations of Aqua Bounty Canada on Prince Edward Island.

Cooke said the acquisition will allow KCS – the Atlantic Canadian salmon-farming division of Cooke Aquaculture – to produce large smolts for stocking its existing ocean salmon-farming sites. According to a Form 8-K filed by AquaBounty Technologies, the parent company of Aqua Bounty Canada, the purchase price was just over CAD 3 million (USD 2 million, EUR 1.9 million) minus the aggregate amount of liabilities for Aqua Bounty Canada under an outstanding loan with KCS and accrued and unpaid license fees.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Cooke Aquaculture acquires Houston fishing company in $650M deal

December 20, 2017 — New Brunswick seafood giant Cooke Aquaculture got even bigger on Tuesday, with its acquisition of a Houston, Texas company and its workforce of 1,000 people.

Cooke Aquaculture acquired Omega Protein Corp. in a $500 million USD deal — approximately $650 million (Canadian) — in one of the single largest foreign investment deals a New Brunswick company has ever done in the United States.

“It’s the single largest acquisition [our] company has ever made,” said Joel Richardson, vice-president of communications for Cooke.

“When a New Brunswick company reaches beyond our borders and acquires a company outside our province, it helps strengthen jobs back here and at home.”

Omega Protein, founded in the early 1900s, is a fishing company that sources omega oils and specialty protein products for both nutritional supplements and animal feeds.

They operate over 30 boats off the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, near Mississippi, Louisiana and Virginia, and catch a forage fish called menhaden, which is rich in omega fatty acids.

Read the full story at CBC News