Salmon farm gets nod at last

It has taken nine years, but NZ King Salmon has finally achieved resource consent to build its salmon farm — Blue Endeavour — in Cook Strait.

The NZX-listed company said it had won final Government approval to proceed with the project, which it says will be a New Zealand first.

It will also be a world first in farming the king salmon species, also known as Chinook, in the open ocean, where conditions are cooler and more conducive for growth.

Chief executive Carl Carrington said it had been a “very robust” process to gain Fisheries NZ approval and to find common ground with, iwi, non-government organisations, and the community.

The company will now complete

18 months of seabed, seabird and marine mammal monitoring.

The next step will be a “proof-ofconcept” phase, which will mean installing trial pens from June 2025.

The firm will start with a smallscale pilot farm. “We will dip our toes into the open ocean, to carefully realise Blue Endeavour’s potential, while continuing to talk to local communities, iwi and others who also have key interests, rights and values around the ocean,” Carrington said.

Blue Endeavour, when fully operational, could generate $300 million in new revenue a year, he said.

Grant Lovell, the company’s general manager of aquaculture, said the open ocean was the next logical step for NZ’s aquaculture industry, “in cooler, deeper waters.”

In Cook Strait — 7km off Cape Lambert — the company will be working in a hostile environment, with waves up to 10 metres and very strong currents.

The farm will require 54 anchors, weighing 3 tonnes apiece. Its two blocks of 10 circular pens will cover less than 12 surface hectares.

When operational, Blue Endeavour will have the capacity to produce

10,000 tonnes of salmon.

NZ King Salmon has farmed salmon for more than 35 years in the Marlborough Sounds, and with nursery, hatchery and processing landbased operations in Nelson, Ta¯kaka and Canterbury.

The 2022 year was a disaster after warmer-than-normal weather caused

20 million fish deaths at its inner Marlborough Sounds farms, plunging the company into a $73.2m annual loss.

Last year, NZ King Salmon reported a six-month profit of $10.6m, against a $24.5m loss in the previous corresponding period.

At the time, it issued an earnings guidance range of $23.5m-$27.5m ebitda for the January 2024 year.

The past two years have seen the company concentrate its efforts at its facilities in the cooler Tory Channel, where 95 per cent of its fish are now grown, away from its warmer sites in Queen Charlotte and Pelorus Sounds.

In addition, NZ King Salmon has for years been working on “thermotolerance” — breeding fish that can withstand warmer temperatures.

From 2026 it could get up to 500 tonnes of fish from Blue Endeavour.