J u ly / A u g u s t 2 0 1 8 9 3 discovery melissa doroquez Club Aquaculture By Colin S. Sargent • Illustrations by Ed king Countries eye Maine as the prime location for ocean farming. F rom artisanal small-batch farm- ers to the largest indoor aquacul- ture facilities in the world, Maine is emerging as a hotspot for locally-and-glob- ally conceived fish-farming projects. Nor- dic Aquafarms, headquartered in Fredrik- stad, Norway, already has two projects in Denmark beyond their flagship local plant. In Maine, Nordic plans to build a $450M, 33,000-ton solar-powered indoor salmon farm that will be one of the largest in the world. The salmon will be raised in massive indoor tanks in the planned 40-acre facil- ity carefully filtered by cutting-edge equip- ment. Why go to all this trouble? It’s all about trying to stay one step ahead of para- sites–in fact, a Norwegian marine science lab has even created a laser-armed drone that zaps sea lice at short range, chemical free. We caught up with Erik Heim, CEO of Nordic Aquafarms, at his rocky-coast site just across the border from Sweden to get an answer for why these big, new indoor fish-farming concepts are attracting big in- vestments to Maine coastal sites from Bel- fast to Bucksport. PROOF IS IN THE WATER “We started with a scientific approach, working hand in hand with an engineer- ing firm from Norfolk [Virginia],” Heim says. “We looked at elevation, water quality, and other environmental factors. Maine’s established brand in quality seafood was also a great fit for us. It’s difficult to find both clean, fresh water and access to sea- water, in a place where it’s nice for people working there to live, where you have ser- vices and so on. Belfast clearly stood out as the best place to pursue. It turns out, there was a property located ideally that had both freshwater and seawater access. “In regard to challenges that we’ve faced, we know aquaculture has been con- troversial in the U.S. We’re not involved in sea-pen farming, which has been the major source of objections. The land-based sys- tems can neither be invaded by nor con- tribute to the host populations for sea lice. We have full control of everything that comes in and out of the facility.” Sophisti- cated recirculation systems conserve water and allow for careful monitoring of the in- flow to the fish. “We invest in environmen- tal technologies that preserve as many of