Dutch kingfish farmer parterns with UMaine to build RAS farm in Jonesport

UNITED STATES
Monday, January 20, 2020, 06:00 (GMT + 9)

A Dutch aquaculture firm that plans to build a USD 110 million land-based fish farm in Jonesport has reached an agreement with the University of Maine to lease space at the school’s aquaculture incubator to breed and hatch fish that the company then will grow to market size.

Kingfish Zeeland has an option to acquire a 94-acre oceanfront parcel of land overlooking Chandler Bay on Route 187, a few miles east of Jonesport’s main village. If it gets the necessary regulatory approvals, it plans to build a facility on site within the next couple of years that would produce around 13 million pounds of yellowtail fish a year for the North American seafood market, with possible expansion sometime later.

The firm, which already has a land-based yellowtail farm in the Netherlands, has signed a lease with UMaine’s Center for Cooperative Aquaculture Research in Franklin, roughly 50 miles away from the planned development site, to develop the broodstock — mature members of a species used for breeding — for the fish farm.

The Kingfish Zeeland Aquaculture Park is located in the Province of Zeeland, in the Netherlands, on the shores of a pristine marine estuary nature reserve

UMaine already has a broodstock of the species, Seriola lalandi, that Kingfish Zeeland will use to help develop its own breeding population that will support an expected annual production in Jonesport of 13 million pounds, according to Megan Sorby, an operations manager for the Dutch firm. She said Thursday that Kingfish also plans to bring some of its own fish from the Netherlands to supplement development of its Maine broodstock.

UMaine Center for Cooperative Aquaculture Research

Kingfish plans to develop its own hatchery in Jonesport as part of the planned USD 110 million capital investment, Sorby said, but it intends to maintain its relationship with UMaine after its broodstock has been established.

Author: Bill Trotter /Bangor Daily News (Read the whole article here)


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