E2Tech’s latest forum, called “Fish Out of Water: Land-Based Aquaculture in Maine,” has sold out for the venue, an indication of the interest in salmon farms being planned on the midcoast.
Organizers are looking into live-stream options, according to the forum web page.
The forum is scheduled for June 27, from 7:30-10 a.m., at the headquarters of Coastal Enterprises Inc., 30 Federal St. in Brunswick.
The focus of the forum is on sustainable land-based fish farming, a growing industry worldwide and more recently in Maine.
Interesting initiatives in Maine include those of Whole Oceans and Nordic Aquafarms, seeking to establish land-based salmon farms; and American Unagi, an eel farm start-up.
E2Tech (the Environmental & Energy Technology Council of Maine) will bring together academics, business leaders and regulators to discuss the technology and economic impacts of sustainable land-based fish farming.
Speakers include:
• Sebastian Belle, executive director, Maine Aquaculture Association;
• Barry Costa-Pierce, executive director, UNE North: Institute for North Atlantic Studies;
• Erik Heim, president, Nordic Aquafarms Inc.;
• Meredith Mendelson, deputy commissioner, Maine Department of Marine Resources; and
• Sara Rademaker, president and founder, American Unagi.
The subject of land-based aquaculture was a natural, given growing activities in Maine, E2Tech Executive Director Martin Grohman told Mainebiz.
“Our program committee identified this as a segment that’s generating a lot of buzz and activity,” he said. “They’re absolutely right. This segment is hot.”
The speakers will offer a cross-section of discussion, with Belle providing an overview on aquaculture, Mendelson on the regulatory landscape, Costa-Pierce the global perspective, Rademaker the start-up perspective, and Heim a discussion of how his operation is expected to work.
“I think of the question as, ‘Why Maine and why now,’” Grohman said.
Rademaker, who launched American Unagi in 2014, has had a small eel farm under way in South Bristol, raising elvers so they can be sold live and fully grown to local restaurants.
Her operation includes partnerships with Maine elver harvesters, to grow the eel farm industry in Maine. Typically, Maine’s elver harvest is shipped overseas to farm operations in Asia. Maine is the heart of the East Coast elver fishery
At the Maine Fishermen’s Forum in March, she said her operation has grown from growing 1 metric ton of eels the first year to 10 metric tons this year. A metric ton is 2,200 pounds. She’s seeking permits to build a grow-out facility in Waldoboro, with capacity to produce 100 metric tons in 2019 and 200 metric tons by 2020. And she’s been sending product to chefs across the U.S. to try.
Plans have been in the works to build two of the world’s largest land-based salmon farms, Nordic Aquafarms Inc. in Belfast and Whole Oceans in Bucksport. Company leaders say they were attracted to Maine for the same resources leveraged by others in the fisheries — clean, cold water and a heritage of working waterfronts. Together, Nordic Aquafarms and Whole Oceans expect to capture nearly one-fifth of the domestic import market. Additional interests are now eyeing Maine.
Maine’s growing land-based aquaculture industry, like sea-based industry, benefits from high water quality, a growing suite of training opportunities, aquaculture development facilities, and a well-established service infrastructure in environmental monitoring, site assessment, marine engineering, seafood processing and aquatic animal health fields.
Aquaculture is a targeted technology sector in Maine for R&D investment.
