Huon Aquaculture is proposing to develop an Australian-first salmon nursery at its Whale Point industrial site in Port Huon, where salmon smolt will be grown to larger sizes in a land-based facility before being transferred to sea pens.
“We have been watching the development of land-based technologies for some time and we are preparing to take our first step toward it with a new salmon nursery,” said Peter Bender, CEO and managing director of Huon Aquaculture. “The benefit of a salmon nursery is that we get to research the fish as they grow and see how they perform in land-based growing facilities. It also means that the time the fish are at sea is reduced with will further improve the company’s environmental performance through longer fallowing and improved biosecurity.”
Tasmania-based Huon expects that the new facility will generate around 200 jobs during construction and a further 10 once it becomes operational.
Bender said the proposed new facility is still at the concept stage and that the company is keen to have community input into every step of the development process so that it can include the communities views in its design and decision-making processes.
Interested neighbors and community members were invited to attend an information session about the proposal on 10 April.
