Where do AI data centres go when nobody wants them on land? Increasingly, the answer companies are testing is: underwater. Off the coast of Eastport, Maine, a company called DeepGreen has proposed sinking an AI data center onto the sea floor near Kendall Head, right at the mouth of Passamaquoddy Bay, a body of water shared between the U.S. and Canada. The stated operational footprint is about 27 acres, roughly the size of 20 American football fields, though DeepGreen originally sought a federal permit for a much larger 400-acre project area. The company says the system would be cooled by cold ocean water instead of freshwater, and powered by tidal turbines rather than natural gas or coal, pitching the project as a cleaner alternative to a typical land-based data center.

But Eastport is a fishing town of barely 1,300 people with a fishing industry that has already collapsed once before, and the opposition has stacked up in layers. The Passamaquoddy Tribe at Sipayik rejected DeepGreen's offer of electricity and a community benefits agreement outright, with tribal leadership stating opposition to "data centers in areas with sensitive natural resources." Eastport's own city council escalated from initial caution to a formal letter of dissent and, eventually, a unanimous vote for a 180-day moratorium. Even the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the neutral federal regulator, independently found DeepGreen's application deficient on four separate points, including a failure to identify all affected tribes and no clear justification for that oversized 400-acre request.

What happens when the moratorium runs out in roughly six months is still an open question, and this episode walks through what's actually known, what isn't, and why a small Passamaquoddy Bay fishing community is pushing back this hard on a technology most of the country has never heard proposed underwater. If you want the ocean news of the day broken down like this, every weekday, subscribe to Ocean Decoded Live and hit the notification bell so you catch us live, Monday to Thursday, 4:00–6:00 PM.

Chapters:
0:00 Intro: AI Data Centers Are Going Underwater
1:51 Why AI Data Centers Spark Public Backlash
3:57 Deep Green's Eastport, Maine Proposal
4:53 Meet Eastport: A Small Fishing Town
7:07 Mapping the Site: Kendall Head and Passamaquoddy Bay
9:57 Inside Deep Green: From Bathtub Prototype to Data Center
11:44 FERC, Permits, and the 400-Acre Question
15:47 The Passamaquoddy Tribe Says No
18:33 The City Council's Escalating Response
22:37 Regulators Raise Their Own Red Flags
23:54 Environmental Risks: Heat, Noise, and the Unknown
28:01 The 180-Day Moratorium: What Happens Next

Takeaways:

Deep Green has proposed an underwater AI data center off Kendall Head near Eastport, Maine, in Passamaquoddy Bay, with a stated 27-acre operational footprint.

The company originally sought a federal permit covering 400 acres, far larger than its actual footprint — FERC flagged this discrepancy as one of four deficiencies in the application.

The project has scaled down its proposed power source from 51 megawatts (170 turbines) to 15 megawatts (16 tidal turbines) in the Bay of Fundy, one of the most tidal-powerful regions in the world.

The Passamaquoddy Tribe at Sipayik rejected Deep Green's partnership offer, including free electricity, citing a responsibility to protect the bay's fisheries and cultural resources for future generations.

Eastport's city council voted unanimously for a 180-day moratorium after regional counties, residents, and FERC itself all independently raised concerns.

Unresolved environmental questions include localized ocean warming (cited at roughly one degree, from unnamed research), seafloor noise and vibration, potential leaks, and no underwater backup system if the facility fails.

This is not DeepGreen's first underwater data center attempt FERC previously rejected an earlier project over missing tribal consultation.

The permit currently in place does not guarantee construction; what happens after the 180-day moratorium expires is still undecided.

#OceanConservation #MarineBiology #SaveOurOceans #ProtectTheOcean #OceanAwareness #BluePlanet #ConservationMatters #ScienceForChange
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