Business as usual for Nordic in US after change at the top in Norway

A company seeking to build a land-based kingfish farm in California has confirmed that its management structure will not be affected by a change at the top of its Norwegian parent company, Nordic Aquafarms AS.

Nordic AS, which farms yellowtail kingfish (Seriola lalandi) in land-based farms in Denmark and Norway, announced yesterday that its current board chairman, Charles Høstlund, had become its new general manager. Høstlund has more than 20 years’ experience from leading positions in the aquaculture industry and was chief executive of Norway Royal Salmon from 2014 until the company was taken over by SalMar – now the world’s second largest salmon farmer - in 2022.

Former Nordic AS chief executive Bernt Olav Røttingsnes, who had told the board that he wanted to step down from the position, will continue to contribute to the development of the project in California, but his involvement will not lead to management changes in Nordic’s United States subsidiary, Nordic Aquafarms Inc.

All major permits

“The change in Norway has not impacted leadership here in the US, and Brenda Chandler will continue in her role, guiding US operations as the US CEO,” a spokesperson for Nordic Aquafarms Inc told Fish Farming Expert.

Nordic originally planned to build a 33,000-tonnes-per-year recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) Atlantic salmon farm on a brownfield site on the Samoa Peninsula in Humboldt County, northern California, but changed both size and species. It now plans to build a 10,000-tonnes-per-year yellowtail kingfish RAS which is currently in the latter stages of the permitting process.

“We have all of our major discretionary permits, and what is left are a handful of department-issued permits, i.e., for the intake, owned and to be operated by the Humboldt Bay Harbor and Conservation District, the ACOE (US Army Corps of Engineers), the California Water Board, etc. Each department is in its administrative process of reviewing and writing the permits, and all should be in hand soon,” said Nordic’s spokesperson.

Salmon project stalled

Developments have not been so positive for Nordic in Belfast, Maine, on the east coast of the US. The company’s plan for a 33,000-tonne RAS salmon farm has been mired in legal arguments about who owns a stretch of intertidal land that Nordic needs so that it can run water intake and outlet pipes from its site to Penobscot Bay.

Opponents of the salmon farm project gained the upper hand when a court ruled that Nordic didn’t have the rights to lay pipes across the land. In May, Belfast City Council, which had been supportive of the RAS facility, voted to vacate and repeal its eminent domain (compulsory purchase) order of the land.

Nordic is now seeking a court order to extend two permits for the project, which are due to expire next year, while its legal battles continue.

“In terms of the Belfast project, all Nordic-related cases have now been transferred to the Business & Consumer Docket from the Waldo and Kennebec County superior courts. This means that these cases have been consolidated under a single court and judge, and we look forward to a swift resolution of the issues,” said Nordic.