From Parliament
The final approval of New Zealand King Salmon’s Blue Endeavour open ocean aquaculture project is a significant step for New Zealand’s aquaculture, and a win for the economy, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says.
“Blue Endeavour will be the first open ocean aquaculture salmon farm in New Zealand. It’s going to provide more jobs for the Marlborough region and benefit our economy by providing sustainable kaimoana to the world,” Shane Jones says.
The Blue Endeavour project will develop salmon farming in the open sea off the north Marlborough sounds and is expected to produce 10,000 tonnes of harvested salmon annually with an export revenue of up to $300 million per year.
“While this is a huge step that will contribute to the government’s goal to grow aquaculture to a multibillion-dollar industry, it’s taken far too long to get to this point,” Shane Jones says.
“The coalition government is committed to removing unnecessary barriers to make approval processes for projects such as this quicker and easier and, in doing so, a lot cheaper.
“There are currently too many hurdles causing delays for aquaculture projects, and these delays hurt our economy and the communities that rely on aquaculture.”
New Zealand King Salmon submitted its application for resource consent to Marlborough District Council in 2019. Consent was granted in September 2023, following an Environment Court decision.
The Ministry for Primary Industries then assessed the proposal for its impact on fishing in the region and gave approval on 16 January 2024. Finally, there was a 30-day judicial period, which ended on 28 February 2024.
“New Zealand’s seafood is sought after globally. I’ve long been a proponent of the expansion of our aquaculture industry and I look forward to seeing it contribute to our export-led recovery,” says Shane Jones.
Fish farming takes more food than they make.
Farmed fish are usually fed fish-meal, at times minced up chicken full of anti-biotics Basically the problem is, the farmed fish eat more than they produce in fish protein. It takes 3 pounds of fishmeal to make 1 pound of Atlantic salmon. This shows the fallacy of farming fish.
Isn’t farming fish supposed to take the pressure off fishing the natural fishery?
Fact is it doesn’t. It increases the pressure.
Shane Jones has gained a self-promoted reputation as a tough guy. A “he knows best” person. It is almost guaranteed that he will oppose anything that is well thought out because he thrives on simplistic solutions. He has not done, or has ignored, the relevant homework here. Well done Tony.
New Zealand King Salmon has a poor reputation littering Marlborough landfill with rotting salmon carcasses while leaving unsightly abandoned salmon farms around the outer Marlborough Sounds.
Shane Jone’s comments about a win for the economy seems a sick joke as NZKS has seen around 80% of its value wiped from the Australian and NZ Stock Markets.
NZKS was the site of an exotic disease incursion cynically described as the “NZ” Rickettsia Like Organism (NZ-RLO) by MPI in order to protect product destined for overseas markets.
Salmon farming is a questionable form of aquaculture for New Zealand as we must import fish meal due to the high mercury content of local fish.
As 70-80% of the cost of rearing salmon is imported feed and this is in short supply globally this seems a bit of a punt by a grandstanding Minister.
Open Ocean farming is not a proven technology and will test engineering limits in turbulent Cook Strait.
I guess NZKS will be able to put a number of hectares of public ocean on their books as a private asset thanks to a Minister’s largess.
If this venture is given public funding I would expect a back lash from informed observers.
[The government subsidized land based salmon farm in the Mackenzie Country is enough of a flight of fancy by ill informed Ministers. Land based salmon farming start ups are crashing and burning in Europe and North America presently]
In his bullish optimism, the minister could see only the bright side of the coin. To get the full picture the following questions need to be answered:
1. Will juvenile salmon first be raised in a land-based freshwater hatchery in the initial stages before being transferred to the ocean? If so, where?
2. Where will the waste from the farmed salmon go? Will it be dumped directly into the ocean?
3. What chemicals will the company apply to the salmon to prevent parasites and/or disease?
4. Will the company be using chemicals to accelerate fish growth?
5. What chemicals will the company use to clean the ocean pens containing the salmon? (The pens will be colonized in short order by all manner of marine hitch-hikers).
6. Are the farmed salmon to be fed on material derived from wild fish stocks?
7. If environmental protection regulations are issued to govern how the salmon are reared, who will police those regulations? (If it is the Ministry for Primary Industries that will be a classic conflict of interest).
8. What sanctions will be imposed on King Salmon if it fails to comply with environmental requirements?
9. What tax breaks or other corporate welfare handouts has the government got in mind for King Salmon’s operation?