More large salmon farms are proposed for Southland though they appear years away from development. Ngāi Tahu Seafood Resources Ltd was granted consent for its Hananui Aquaculture Project through the fast-track process on Monday to construct a finfish farm off the northern coast of Stewart Island/Rakiura. It was third time lucky for the applicant after having been previously declined. The project will feature four marine farms positioned within an 1285ha area 2km-6km from the shore. The marine farms will consist of polar circle pens, up to 20 on each farm, in two 10-pen blocks, along with associated mooring lines, anchors, feed, accommodation barges and navigational aids. It will be built in two stages, the first comprising one block of 10 pens at each of the four farm sites, with a total discharge of up to 15,000 tonnes of feed per year. Ngāi Tahu said on Monday it was pleased to get the consent and it would now take time to assess the conditions and the best way forward. It was aiming to produce about 14,400 tonnes of salmon per year, once everything was up and running. It could potentially bring in $5 billion of export revenue in the 25-year term of its consent. That output is dwarfed by another development planned for the region. A document produced by Great South last year states there are three other salmon farm developments planned for the waters off Southland. The Ocean Farms NZ-01 project uses new technology and enables transition from inshore to offshore farming. The target was to start in 2035, looking at producing 20,000 tonnes of salmon yearly. The company, which is based in New Plymouth, has construction partners engaged and was lining up investors. It would be in an area across 475ha of open ocean southeast of Stewart Island. Sanford operates a remote New Zealand king salmon aquaculture farm in Big Glory Bay on Stewart Island, which was established in 1993. It has plans to add a new open-ocean salmon farm at the southeast end of Foveaux Strait. It has also applied under the fast-track process to build two large salmon farms about 15km outside Otago Harbour. This has yet to be progressed to the referred stage. Sanford did not reply to questions on Tuesday when contacted about its new Foveaux Strait project. The third planned salmon farm is on the site of the former Ocean Beach freezing works. The project is now being overseen by the Fjordland Group, a new entity established to carry forward the Bluff aquaculture project originally developed by ImpactMarine NZ. The project was part of the fast-track process under ImpactMarine but has not made any progress. The Great South document states the total New Zealand seafood export value for 2024 was $2.19b with $605.6m of that from aquaculture — salmon, mussels and oysters. Economic consultancy Infometrics, which contributed to the document, said aquaculture was an inherently risky activity, with hurdles around consenting and financing which added uncertainty to “if and when” each project will progress. The scale of the projects was significant, so resource constraints were expected which might prevent projects from being realised in the short to medium term, it said.
