After five years of failing to stick a single shovel in the ground in Belfast, Nordic Aquafarms co-CEO Erik Heim is leaving for undisclosed greener pastures. In 2018, emails obtained by me under the Maine Freedom of Access Act, then Belfast City Manager Joe Slocum told Heim Belfast permitting would be a cakewalk for Nordic, with only your usual cranks in opposition.

Slocum was wrong, and now Nordic is almost four years behind schedule, with no particular end in sight. Under Heim's watch Nordic has been taking it on the chin for four long years. 

And after four years of wanting to be a good neighbor, Heim and his wife Marianne Naess - Nordic's, well, interesting P.R. person - are leaving without a farewell tour. Bye-bye.

So now Nordic is bringing in Chief Financial Officer Brenda Chandler to try to breathe some semblance of life into Nordic's comatose Belfast project. But Bernt Olav Rottingsnes, Nordic's so far surviving CEO, was recently quoted in the media as saying Nordic needs bank loans but banks are leery of aquaculture — interesting way to get banks to open their vaults.

With banks and aquaculture investors fleeing for the exits, and Nordic hemorrhaging money in Belfast, I have some advice for Ms. Chandler: get paid in advance and get it in cash.

Lawrence Reichard lives in Belfast