NZ King Salmon fights for expansion

New Zealand King Salmon could lift production from about 8750 metric tons a year to about 22,000 metric tons a year if its application to develop nine new fish farms in the Marlborough Sounds is successful, aquaculture general manager Mark Preece said in Blenheim yesterday.

An Environmental Protection Authority hearing to consider an application by King Salmon for a required plan change and resource consents, opened at the Floor Pride Marlborough Civic Theatre yesterday.

King Salmon operations and contracts manager Mark Gillard, who managed the proposed expansion project, said demand for fish grown by the company was outstripping ability to supply.

To expand, the company needed new farms in Queen Charlotte and Pelorus Sounds and Port Gore in the outer Sounds, where the Marlborough District Council had prohibited aquaculture.

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