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August 11, 2020

Whole Oceans moves its office from Portland to Bucksport as aquaculture plans continue

an aerial view of the town of Bucksport Photo / Maureen Milliken Whole Oceans has moved from Portland to Bucksport as the company redevelops the former Verso paper mill site for aquaculture. The photo, taken from the Penobscot Narrows observatory, shows the site before many of the buildings were razed.
By Maureen Milliken

Whole Oceans, which is building a recirculating acquaculture system at the former Verso paper mill in Bucksport, has opened a new office in the town.

The company has closed its Portland office and moved into the 52 Main St. space in Bucksport, just down the street from the mill site.

“We are excited to take one step closer to bringing this new industry to the town of Bucksport and the state of Maine," CEO Jacob Bartlett said in a news release. "Joining the downtown business community in Bucksport will help us deepen the relationships we’ve already formed in the community as we look toward a successful future together.”

The 900-square-foot building had been home to the Bucksport Bay Area Chamber of Commerce, which closed in May for financial reasons exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Courtesy / Whole Oceans
Whole Oceans opened its office in Bucksport in July at 52 Main St. From left, Rich Rotella, community and economic development director; Susan Lessard, Bucksport town manager; Orfa Cabrera, senior hatchery manager; Michael Thompson, senior project coordinator, and Kevin Tait, finance manager.

Whole Oceans is in the pre-construction phase on 104 acres at the former paper mill site, and continues to make progress toward groundbreaking, the release said. The current phase includes finalizing details of the design plans and contract negotiations for construction of the project. The company will produce sustainably farm-raised Atlantic salmon in a recirculating aquaculture system at the site. 

Aquaculture engineers are working on optimizations to the design. Those changes, along with the pandemic, forced Whole Oceans to push back the construction timeline, but the final result will be an improved facility in terms of how space is used, energy usage and fish health, the release said.

Meanwhile, Whole Oceans has demolished many of the remaining structures on the former site of the Bucksport paper mill, and leased adjacent submerged land in the Penobscot River from the state. 

Michael Thompson, who recently joined Whole Oceans as senior project coordinator, and Orfa Cabrera, senior hatchery manager, will operate out of the new office.

“The town of Bucksport and the community welcomes Whole Oceans to main street as this is one step closer to future growth,” said Susan Lessard, town manager, in a separate news release.

The company is planning its aquaculture system in a phased development that at full build-out will have 945,000 square feet of building area, 1.37 million square feet of impervious area and 1.43 million square feet of total developed area. The build-out is expected to take 10 years. The town planning board approved the project in September, contingent on state Department of Environmental Protection permits.

While the company plans to redevelop about a million square feet of the former mill site, only 65,000 square feet will be new development, John Whitten, of CES Inc., representing Whole Oceans, told Mainebiz last year. The mill, which opened in 1930 and expanded in 1975, closed in 2014.

The 200-acre paper mill site was subdivided into four lots, and Whole Oceans bought two. The $53 million in development on the former mill site also includes a firefighter training site being developed by Maine Maritime Academy, of Castine, on another lot. A $539,000 brownfields cleanup has been completed.

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