JONESPORT — Residents may soon get another chance to weigh in on a proposed $110 million aquaculture plant in Chandler Bay from The Kingfish Co., a Dutch fish farming firm seeking to build a land‑based facility in town.
Many in the area hope the project could bring back jobs reminiscent of the sardine canneries that once lined Moosebec Reach.
The Maine Department of Environmental Protection has approved draft language from the Jonesport Planning Board that would amend town ordinances to give The Kingfish Co. an additional 30 months to make a substantial start on its project.
The Planning Board is expected to discuss the proposed ordinance changes at its May 19 meeting. If the board approves the revisions, the issue will go to voters because any ordinance change requires a townwide vote.
Town officials say they will define what qualifies as a “substantial start” if residents approve the 30‑month extension.
“It’s been in court for three years,” Frank Smith, chair of the Planning Board, said. “The town approved it. And we didn’t just approve it willy‑nilly. We spent a whole year on it before we approved it. DEP approved it. It’s gone through several different layers of court. It hasn’t been shot down yet, and it’s still going.”
Critics of the project, including several who joined the lawsuits that slowed it, have said they do not believe The Kingfish Co. has the money to build.
“The core problem for them is that they have a very expensive technology that is still not commercially proven at scale,” said John Higgins, a member of the Roque Island Gardner Homestead Corp., which took Kingfish to court in August 2023 over the project’s likely environmental impact and lost.
“They are dealing with the reality of a product that they’re producing that isn’t taking off like gangbusters and has increasing costs associated with it, such as feed, electricity, municipalities.”
Higgins’ family has owned Roque Island since 1806. He describes the homestead, located off the Jonesport coast, as the town’s largest single taxpayer.
On Jan. 20, the company announced on the regulatory pages of Euronext Growth, the Norwegian exchange where it trades as OSE:KING, that for the second year in a row it will not be able to meet its financial obligations to investors, specifically its EBITDA covenant — a requirement tied to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization that measures a company’s ability to service its debt.
“Kingfish has initiated discussions with its key stakeholders regarding its capital structure and financing arrangements, which could include issuance of new equity,” the company announced on its website in January.
In its outlook and financing section, the company added, “These discussions are ongoing and are intended to ensure that the Company remains adequately funded to support its ramp-up towards full farm capacity utilisation and to maintain compliance with its financial covenants.”
The company’s 2025 annual report, originally scheduled for release to investors April 30, has been pushed back to May 21 — barely a week before the regulatory five‑month deadline.
One reason for the delay is a recent shakeup in company leadership. Last November, the Netherlands‑based Kingfish announced that Karl Buiks, a veteran of the international food sector, had been selected to replace Chief Operating Officer Vincent Erenst, who had planned to retire. Buiks was scheduled to start Jan. 1, but he resigned Dec. 17, citing personal reasons. Erenst agreed to remain as CEO for another year while the company searches for a successor.
Kingfish’s core business is growing and harvesting yellowtail kingfish, a warm‑water species primarily sold in Japan for sashimi. Japan controls about 90 percent of the global yellowtail market.
Whole Foods had been selling Kingfish Zeeland Yellowtail raised in the Netherlands for $27.99 per pound, but the company announced in September 2025 that it was scaling back its U.S. sales.
“In light of the further increased import tariffs, an unfavorable USD (U.S. dollar) exchange rate, and elevated logistics costs, Kingfish has decided to scale back commercial activities of fresh yellowtail kingfish in the United States, despite the strong volume growth achieved over recent quarters,” the company announced in the Euronext regulatory pages.
The company declined to comment on the delays in its financial reporting, citing regulatory concerns.
“As a publicly traded company, we cannot comment on our Annual Report or Q1 results prior to their official release, in line with disclosure regulations,” Erenst told Monitor Local in an email.
Jessica Brockington is a Community Reporting Fellow receiving training through the Journalism New England Career Lab to do civic reporting that provides people in towns across New England with the information they need to be engaged in their community.
