Bucksport

Whole Oceans and Nordic Aquafarms advanced in their march toward breaking ground on their land-based salmon farms at sites in Bucksport and Belfast, respectively.

The acquisition of Mayo Regional Hospital made progress last week when Gov. Janet Mills approved a revision of the hospital’s state charter, needed before the deal could advance.

Emergent Holdings, the parent company of Whole Oceans, which is developing a state-of-the-art land-based salmon aquafarm in Bucksport, is offering to buy a majority stake in Kuterra LP, a British Columbia-based company that pioneered growing salmon on land.

Kingfish Zeeland, a four-year-old aquaculture company that raises Dutch Yellowtail fish in The Netherlands, is looking at two sites in Maine for its planned expansion into the United States.

Whole Oceans, of Portland, announced it completed a purchase and sale agreement with American Iron and Metal Development USA LLC for a parcel of property on the site of the former Verso paper mill.

The owner of an ice cream shop in downtown Bucksport has submitted a proposal to buy Wilson Hall, a historic but deteriorating former seminary on Franklin Street.

Whole Oceans, a company planning to construct a land-based Atlantic salmon aquafarm on the site of the former Verso Paper Mill in Bucksport, will collaborate with the University of Southern Maine to offer a course in aquaponics and recirculatory aquaculture systems.

With 26,000 commercial mariners transiting the East Coast coastal and inland waterways at any given time, Maine Maritime Academy expects there will be a sizeable customer base for its new Center for Professional Mariner Development at the former Verso paper mill in Bucksport.

Maine Maritime Academy in Castine has signed a purchase-and-sale agreement to acquire a six-acre parcel of land at the former Verso paper mill site in Bucksport to locate the college's new Center for Professional Mariner Development.

Bucksport, a 5,000-population town on the Penobscot River, will start pitching itself to major passenger cruise lines this winter, the Bangor Daily News reported, citing Richard Rotella, the town's economic development director.