Following four years of litigation, the Dutch aquaculture company Kingfish Maine has effectively been given the go-ahead to launch a land-based fish farm in Jonesport.
On Thursday, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court denied an appeal of a permit granted by the Department of Environmental Protection for the project, which aims to farm 8,500 metric tons of yellowtail Kingfish each year on a 94-acre site overlooking Chandler Bay.
Opponents argued that the DEP erred when it approved the permit under the Site Location of Development Act and Natural Resources Protection Act (NRPA), claiming that the agency did so “without independently evaluating the environmental impacts associated with the discharge of treated wastewater.”
But the court disagreed, saying that the state “did not err in interpreting the scope of review under NRPA or abuse its discretion in relying upon the department’s evaluation of impacts of the intended effluent discharge.”
Opponents have said that the farm’s wastewater would pollute Chandler Bay with nitrogen, among other things, and could cause toxic algae blooms. But Kingfish representatives claim there are safeguards in place.
Kingfish Company CEO Vincent Erenst said that now that the appeals have been exhausted, the project timeline will be determined by economic and financial conditions. The project as first outlined in 2021 was to build a 50,000-square-foot recirculating aquaculture system that would cost $110 million.
“This has been a multi-year battle with a small group of opponents which worked to stop our project,” said Erenst.
Kingfish first brought the project to Jonesport in 2019 and the local, state and federal permitting process was completed during the pandemic.
The company in the meantime has been growing yellowtail broodstock at the Center for Cooperative Aquaculture Research in Franklin and in 2022 distributed its yellowtail to restaurants in major cities on the East Coast.
In their appeals of the DEP permits, the Roque Island Gardner Homestead Corporation and the Eastern Maine Conservation Initiative raised concerns about the project’s effect on the local scallop fishery, eel grass wetland, as well as noise and light pollution.
Opponents, now grouped under the name Protect Downeast, said they are continuing to conduct studies of the water quality in Chandler Bay as things evolve.
Kingfish Maine has been monitoring the water in Chandler Bay since 2022, through a process that takes place every three weeks, May through October, in six locations. Four locations are mandated by permitting. The additional two locations were agreed upon by the town and Kingfish.
“It’s not unexpected,” Protect Downeast treasurer Ariana Fischer said of the court decision.
She said she and other opponents support land-based aquaculture that is completely contained.
“Our argument all along is that (recirculating aquaculture systems) are intriguing and that they can be really, really great, but this one is not a truly recirculating system, it uses ocean water,” she said.
