Nordic Aquafarms Approves Plans to Pursue Land-Based Aquaculture Facility in Humboldt
This is a press release from Nordic Aquafarms:
Nordic Aquafarms, an international leader in land-based aquaculture, [Friday] announced that its Board of Directors has approved proposed investment plans to complete permitting for a RAS aquaculture facility on the Samoa Peninsula in Humboldt County, California. This will be the company’s second proposed land-based aquaculture facility in the US, and the first commercial scale RAS facility on the West Coast. According to Nordic Aquafarms´ CEO Bernt Olav Roettingsnes, the expansion is aligned with the company´s US strategy of building its facilities close to the regional markets it plans to serve.
“We are now proceeding on both U.S. coastlines after having verified ideal development sites, competitive solutions for power and clean water access, and overall favorable conditions for development ” says Erik Heim, president of Nordic Aquafarms Inc. “The Humboldt location will enable us to reach more than 50 million people within a 12-hour drive or less, which reduces the cost and environmental impact of transportation while supplying the market with sustainably raised local fish.”
In 2018, Nordic Aquafarms announced plans to build a land-based salmon farm in Belfast, Maine to serve the East Coast markets. That project is in the final stages of permitting.
CALIFORNIA SPECIFIC:
Nordic Aquafarms Inc. has over the past months carried out a due diligence of all potential opportunities and risks related to building the Humboldt facility. Nordic Aquafarms has also worked closely with local vendors to plan the permitting process for the facility. We are very satisfied with the results of the due diligence and we are now looking forward to starting the CEQA and permitting processes, says Marianne Naess, Commercial Director in Nordic Aquafarms Inc. We are particularly thankful to the local authorities, the Harbor District, and the Humboldt community for their support along the way.
Nordic Aquafarms will immediately start local recruiting to support expansion of activities in Humboldt. Local investment will also rapidly increase. In the first phase the company is looking for a Humboldt-based Project Director and an Engineering Manager who will work closely with the rest of the Nordic Aquafarms´organization in permitting and designing the facility. We will continue with our extensive outreach in the community and permanently staff our office on Third Street in Eureka. Once local management is in place, we encourage residents to stop by the office to get acquainted with the project. Commercial Director Marianne Naess will also hold a public information meeting at the Wharfinger on November 14th to present the company´s plans going forward.
Permit applications are expected to be submitted in the summer of 2020.
About Nordic Aquafarms
Nordic Aquafarms (www.nordicaquafarms.com) is one of the premier investors and developers in land-based aquaculture internationally, with production facilities in Norway (Fredrikstad Seafood) and Denmark (Sashimi Royal and Maximus), and two projects under development in the United States. The company is a trailblazer in the land-based fish farming industry with employees in three countries and is supported by strong and well-established financial investors. The company has a strong in-house engineering capability that has enabled significant innovation in RAS development.
Nordic Aquafarms is developing sustainable fish farming practices for the future to deliver super fresh high-quality seafood to regional markets. The company is committed to being best in class on achieving low environmental impacts, from setting new standards for clean discharge, to energy efficiency and solar power, to avoiding GMO or antibiotics in its production.
Land-based aquaculture
Land-based RAS production is a rapidly emerging method for sustainable production of salmon. It is based on indoor production in a controlled environment using large tanks and water treatment systems. Its benefits include:
- the ability to recycle and treat water on site to reduce overall water consumption;
- recycling of waste resources and nutrients;
- the prevention of sea lice and parasites;
- the elimination of fish escape into the sea and co-mingling with wild species;
- the application of renewable energy concepts;
- a shorter distance to market for a high quality, fresh product, reducing the carbon footprint of air and land transport; and
- consistent quality and traceability all year round.
Demand for fresh seafood
The U.S. today imports more than 90% of its seafood and demand continues to grow. The U.S. and many other countries in the world can never become self-sufficient on wild-caught fish, particularly with the many ecological challenges we are seeing in oceans worldwide, such as pollution and climate change effects.
To meet current demand, much of the fresh fish consumed in the U.S. is air-freighted at a significant cost and with considerable carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to global warming. To achieve growth in domestic supply of fresh local fish in a sustainable, environmentally responsible manner, fish farming is a necessity and we will see much more of it in the coming years. Since sea-pen farming is controversial in the U.S. and wild-catch resources are limited, the many benefits of land-based farming should make our approach widely acceptable and a high priority in the US.
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Manipulate our resources to the benefit of people that live elsewhere. Who wants to eat farmed fish.? It is ridiculous that we have a hatchery system in place but are unable to raise Chinook’s to release. Yet, we are moving forward with gmo fish raised on pellet food and antibiotics and whatever bait they can scoop out of the bay. A logical solution would be to build our stock to benefit local commercial fisherman and the community and not some corporation with minimal employees and economic ties to the community. Classic California Politics.
I want to eat farmed fish. Do I prefer it? Not really. But I understand that overfishing is a major problem, causing declining ocean and river fish populations, as well as harming non-food species as bycatch. And, not being a total dick, I’m willing to make short-term sacrifices to prevent long-term harm.
~no, you don’t want to eat farmed fish, Bushytails. This isn’t the 80s. Farming-for-profit gorge has become non-human. Like caged and stacked and packed chickens, they get fed their own waste. I bet the farmed fish contain lots of aluminum – like us.
“Farming-for-profit gorge has become non-human.”
I completely agree with you on this. To begin to understand our food system, the way it is today, is to become an ascetic, of sorts. I’m better off eating when I’m drunk and blind-folded, or willingly blind… because to think about it, with too much clarity, ruins my appetite, and, it hurts. Even the vegetables are denigrated… never mind the animals… I saw your comment about having goats, so I think that you understand.
It was all different before.
” A logical solution would be to build our stock to benefit local commercial fisherman and the community and not some corporation with minimal employees and economic ties to the community. ”
I like your solution.
Oh please no. Despite promises, fish farming on a commercial scale is notoriously filthy and the “farmed” fish are disease vectors that will inevitably and negatively impact our already-struggling salmonid species. And “farmed” fish aren’t even healthy as a human food. This is a disaster in the making.
Are you aware this is going to be a land based fish farm? I’m curious how it will have a negative effect on local salmonids.
“a disaster in the making”
Sadly, you are correct. The whole thing is a nightmare…
~more from the lying sacks of excrement.
As soon as the server answers my question and admits the fish is farmed I politely say no thank you.
You don’t get it do you ?
We are starting to see the first stages of human overpopulation.
Oceans can’t keep up. Rivers can’t keep up. If the weather changes then the cropland can’t keep up.
Next century… (or maybe later on in this one), Soylent Green.
All of those ‘ecology defenders’ (protesters) are targeting the wrong thing. Protest the churches.
Zero kids great, 1 kid fine, 2 kids is enough, 3 kids and above… you are killing the planet.
It is 70 years too late to begin, but if we (humans) start right now we can make a difference.
More kids… we are doomed.
Bozo,
People today understand that overpopulation is a myth, if not a right-wing conspiracy.
https://conservationfolks.com/how-overpopulation-leads-to-animal-extinction/
“Although the growth rate has peaked, the total number of people on the planet will continue to increase. The United Nations predicts it will grow to 8.6 billion by 2030, 9.8 billion by 2050 and 11.2 billion by 2100.”
“The massive growth of the human population is putting extreme pressure on the earth’s resources. There are more and more people, so we naturally need more and more natural resources to survive. ”
https://populationmatters.org/news/2019/09/20/wildlife-conservation-incompatible-human-population-growthThis is one of countless scientific studies which demonstrate what the population movement has known for a long time: more humans means less wildlife. ”
https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/population_and_sustainability/climate/
“People around the world are beginning to address the problem by reducing their carbon footprint through less consumption and better technology. But unsustainable human population growth can overwhelm those efforts, leading us to conclude that we not only need smaller footprints, but fewer feet.”
~oh, if the U.N. says so, then it must be fact.
https://www.pop.org/debunking-the-myth-of-overpopulation/
The fact is that the much feared fertility rate began declining in the West more than 150 years ago, long before the advent of UN-style family planning and population control. In fact, France reached what is called the demographic transition in the 19th century. The fact of nature is that fertility rates decline naturally when populations move from the farm to the city and from agricultural subsistence to the industrial age. They decline also as women move toward education and postpone marriage, also aspects of modernization. http://www.usccb.org/about/pro-life-activities/respect-life-program/the-myth-of-overpopulation-and-the-folks-who-brought-it-to-you.cfm
(Sighs). We are already over-populated. Take a look at the world around you.
Fish (well, wild) are depleted. Birds are gone. Rain forests are burning in South America (and elsewhere).
There is massive extinction of species around the world.
——-
The rapid loss of species we are seeing today is estimated by experts to be between 1,000 and 10,000 times higher than the natural extinction rate.*
Unlike the mass extinction events of geological history, the current extinction challenge is one for which a single species – ours – appears to be almost wholly responsible.
———
7+ billion = too many people. When it get to 11+ billion people = well, good luck.
Mother Earth provides for man’s needs, but not man’s greed. Same as it was, Bozo. It’s not overpopulation. Mother Earth can’t produce because we have depleted, excavated, sucked and force-filled areas for”fracking” resources beyond recognition. Take, take, take waaay far and beyond what we use, (rock & gravel mining for one, deforestation for two), blown the land to hell and gone, dumped chemicals, plastics, garbage, waste of all imaginable and unimaginable forms in the rivers and oceans – but hey let’s keep that overpopulation theory alive.
Yep, we make our own problems, so wholly responsible – no question there.
Bozo,
Central is right. The key variable in the whole equation is, us… and how we choose to manage the resources that we have.
I feel your pain, as many people do, when it comes to witnessing this mass extinction. No one that I know wants to see the obliteration of wildlife, or their wild habitats.
Most resources are, to varying degrees, renewable. Notably, not oil or gas. Having an economy that runs on a finite resource is part of our problem. Just read that Aramco is the wealthiest company in the world. My point is that we should be focused on how we choose to use the resources that we have, and whether we choose to steward them in a way that might sustain us, in the present, and into the future — not just us, but the plants and animals and ecosystems that we depend on for life.
It’s greedy corporations, like this franken-fish slaughter-house, that are making everything worse for everybody, including the fish.
the real world problems deal with the fact that free energy has been available for decades(tesla coils), but the establishment gravy train wants to farm profits at the expense of the people and the environment.
I’m so sick and tired of this GREEN ENVIRONMENT bullshit, when the people and corporations at the top of the food chain are just lookin at the profit margins
free energy will result in people not having to deal with utilities like PgNe, etc, and all the fairy tale belief systems that keep pushing the blame on the general public.
the information is out there, but when you get approached by the men in black and have little choice to turn over your free energy device, we are a long time gone.
~about the overpopulation mantra; too many mouths would be Only because our species has depleted Mother’s Earth’s resources. We’re extincting ourselves – AND paying for it!
Soylent Green tells the story of New York in the year 2022. Don’t look now, we’re two years ahead of schedule.
Nailed it.
I place the blame at the corporation’s feet.
also the Government who squanderz the free energy patents in the name of national security.
BULLS HIT, LIES, AND CORRUPTION.
just another day in the matrix
its bad enough when the existing seafood processing plant has a massive release of waste solids like the one in the am hours of 11-2-19. the chunking solids made a trail all the way out into the ocean. I would assume it was accidental since they haven’t been allowed to do so for decades.
Apples to oranges. Waste solids from wild caught fish isn’t the same as effluent from a fish farm. Fish farms are notorious for using lots of antibiotics.
November 14th is also the same day as the Planning Commission will probably rubber stamp the wind turbine thing outside Rio Dell and Scotia. A busy day for the loss of our local environment.