BUCKSPORT, Maine (AP) A Maine-based investor says he’s building a salmon farm on the site of a former paper mill in Bucksport.
Whole Oceans’ Rob Piasio of Yarmouth says Thursday he’s purchasing the site to raise Atlantic salmon in a land-based facility. It’s the second land-based salmon aquaculture operation announced for Maine in recent weeks.
Piasio says he expects the project to include an investment of more than $250 million in Bucksport, which reeled from the news of Verso Paper’s closing in 2014. He says a groundbreaking is planned for some time this year.
Whole Oceans is not disclosing the purchase price for the Verso site.
Nordic Aquafarms, a Norwegian firm, has also announced plans to build a land-based salmon farm in Belfast. Maine’s existing salmon farms rely heavily on pens in the ocean.
