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Aquaculture Firm Plans To Develop Former Navy Site

Halibut Post-harvest +3 more

MAINE, US - Despite the recent closure of a sardine cannery and concerns about the future of seafood processing in the state, there is a Maine aquaculture company that is looking to expand and to move its base of operations into town.

Maine Halibut Farms, which has been under development at the University of Maine Center for Cooperative Aquaculture Research in Franklin, has plans to construct a new facility on land formerly owned by the Navy in the village of Corea.

According to Bangor Daily News, earlier this month, Gouldsboro’s planning board approved a proposal to subdivide about 26 acres into four commercial lots, one of which has been reserved for Maine Halibut Farms.

The land, surrounding a former Navy building on the site, is owned by Eastern Maine Development Corp. EMDC’s goal is to develop all four sites with aquaculture or commercial fishery businesses, according to officials.

Alan Spear, owner of Maine Halibut Farms, said that it is too early in the process to say how big an operating facility his firm might establish in Gouldsboro.

He said: “None of that I’m prepared to discuss at this point. We’re in the process of planning those details.”

He added that he has spent several years developing aquaculture cultivation methods for halibut at the CCAR business incubator site in Franklin. Already, he said, he has been able to ship some of his product to market in New York City. Large halibut can grow to be several feet in length and can weigh several hundred pounds.

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