Maisonnette, New Brunswick, Canada-based RC Organic Northern Products Inc. is proposing a land-based Atlantic salmon aquaculture venture, the first of its kind in the province.
The project aims to build an organic, land-based Atlantic salmon hatchery on the site of a former fish processing plant in Grande-Anse, New Brunswick, including both freshwater and saltwater facilities. Sterile female Atlantic salmon would be hatched from eggs and grown to the smolt stage within the freshwater facility, and then be relocated to a saltwater grow-out facility where they would be grown to market size and harvested.
The existing 100-meter by 15-meter plant building is already set up to house a freshwater site, while a new 100-meter by 40-meter building will need to be constructed to house the grow-out operations. No processing will take place on-site.
The detailed design of the hatchery has not been completed, but it is expected to house four depuration tanks with a hatchery capacity of up to 100,000 salmon smolts. According to the Environmental Impact Assessment, the hatchery would produce a maximum of between 300,000 kilograms and 400,000 kilograms of salmon annually.
Company CEO Romeo Cormier did not immediately respond to requests from SeafoodSource for comment on the business.
The proposed site, a former fish processing plant, has several existing saltwater wells but no freshwater well, so the project requires the drilling and assessment of a freshwater well for the hatchery. The company plans to recycle more than 95 percent of the hatchery’s process water to maximize production efficiency and reduce potential environmental impacts.
According to 2016 census data, the population of Grande-Anse is 899, up from 738 in 2011, with an unemployment rate of 19.4 percent. According to the EIA, the operation would create between five and 10 full-time skilled positions for the town.
The CBC first reported on the proposed facility and spoke briefly with Grand-Anse Mayor Gilles Theriault, who said he was pleased about the project landing in his town.
"I think it's a good news story, myself," said Theriault, who added that work could begin on the project in early 2020.
While the proposed land-based facility would be the first in New Brunswick, it would not be the first in eastern Canada. Sustainable Blue in Centre Burlington, Nova Scotia, has been producing Atlantic salmon at a land-based facility for years, first bringing its fish to market in 2015. In addition, Cape d’Or has been producing salmon in a land-based facility in Advocate Harbour, Nova Scotia, for the past five years.
Photo courtesy of RC Organic Northern Products Inc.
