November 5, 2019

Nordic Aquafarms to invest in second land-based aquaculture facility in US

The new location in Humboldt, California will be the first commercial scale RAS aquaculture facility and will serve the west coast market.

Bernt Olav Roettingsnes, CEO of Nordic Aquafarms said this is part of the company's strategy in the US to construct new facilities adjacent to potential regional markets.

Erik Heim, president of Nordic Aquafarms said the new location will supply a market of more than 50 million people with sustainably grown local aquaculture produce within a 12-hour drive or less. This not only reduces cost but also lessens the environmental impact from transporting supplies.

A land-based salmon aquaculture farm in Belfast, Maine is in its final stages of construction. This facility was built to serve the east coast market.

Land-based aquaculture production facilities are a new way to sustainably produce salmon in a controlled environment. It uses large tanks and water treatment systems, which can be recycled and treated on-site to reduce consumption. As it's land-based, it removes the potential of fish escaping into the sea and prevents sea lice and parasites, both major issues with sea-pen aquaculture facilities.

In addition to consistent quality and traceability, a land-based facility recycles waste resources and nutrients, applies renewable energy concepts and has reduced carbon footprint from shorter distance to market.

Today, the US imports more than 90% of its seafood. To meet growing demand, fish are air-freighted at large costs with major impact to the environment. As wild catch resources are limited, and sea-pen farming is controversial in the US, fish farming is a necessity to achieve growth in domestic supply of fresh local fish in a sustainable, environmentally responsible manner.