Environmental Concerns

Nordic is a farm growing fresh food for customers in the Northeast. We rely on clean water and a healthy environment to grow our fish. The businesses of the future must incorporate both social responsibility and financial objectives to be truly successful in the long-term. Our brand and future certifications are highly sensitive to our environmental stewardship practices.

Investment in environmental technologies demonstrates our dedication to protecting the environment, and why Nordic Aquafarms is supported by serious environmental organizations.  Our production requires clean water to produce high quality fish. We have every incentive to be an environmental steward in Belfast to ensure clean water in the future.

Nordic uses Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS) in an indoor, biosecure facility.

For example:

• Nordic cleans and reuses production water.
• Nordic treats all water coming in and out of the farm for disease-causing pathogens.
• Nordic removes all solid waste from effluent and only discharges treated water.
• Nordic has extensive barriers to prevent fish escape.
• Nordic does not need medication and pesticides to treat parasites such as sea lice as they cannot enter the farm due to our extensive filtration and water treatment before the water enters the farm.

We do not use growth hormones, antibiotics, or pesticides in our daily production. We produce a natural product and thus do not add any harmful chemicals to the production water.

FDA approved cleaners and disinfectants are used to clean other parts of the facility and are not directly discharged in any material quantities.

Biosecurity and fish welfare are the primary considerations for the farm design and operation. In addition to the biosecurity measures in place to ensure that the facility remains disease-free, all water leaving the fish production areas including floor drains and processing will undergo extensive treatment of ultrafiltration through 0.04-micron filters equivalent to 1.5748e-6 inches in size before passing through UV disinfection at 300mJ/cm2. Fish health is closely monitored on the farm to manage and contain any early onset of disease if it were to occur.

On the global scale, the US ranks #1 in chicken and beef production, and #2 in pork production. However, we rank #16 in seafood production. We have much work to do. Salmon have a higher percentage of protein and energy retention when compared to the other protein sources on the graphic below. The feed conversion ratio is also the most efficient, given that for every 1.1 pounds of feed, you get 1 pound of fish.

When we look at the efficiency in use of local resources, our salmon will be one of the most resource efficient.

Currently, over 90% of fresh salmon is airfreighted into the US, and half of all fresh seafood is thrown away. The Belfast facility will displace a portion of imports from overseas locations with a local craft seafood product. At Nordic, we plan to distribute our salmon by truck, as airfreighting produces much more CO2 than our local strategy.

We’ll be able to get our fish to consumers faster than imports, giving people more available days for their fish to be fresh. Reducing food waste is the most effective way of reducing CO2.

We further reduce our footprint by employing renewable energy solutions.