Monitoring and Scientific Advice for The New Zealand King Salmon Co. Limited

Challenge

The New Zealand King Salmon Co. Limited (NZKS) are New Zealand’s largest producer of King Salmon, and are based in the top of the South/Te Tau Ihu where King salmon are farmed at a number of locations within the Marlborough Sounds. Organic enrichment derived from the farming process can impact the seafloor below and down current of the farms, and resource consent conditions require NZKS to undertake monitoring at each farm site to determine farm impacts on the receiving environment. In addition, climate change has meant sites are no longer suitable for growing salmon, to the point where continued operations at a number of locations are forced to change. This in turn involves changes to the resource consents governing operations of particular farms, and SLR have provided expert advice to assist in the process or revising applicable resource consents.

Solution

SLR has been undertaking soft sediment seabed, and intertidal and subtidal reef monitoring for NZKS utilising methodologies including seabed sediments sampling and diver-collected imagery. In addition, SLR provides scientific consulting expertise to support changes/additions to consents that the sea-farms operate under. Our work enables the farms to operate sustainably through an adaptive management approach. The reports that our team produce are disseminated to a wide range of end-users, such as regulators (local council), Tangata Whenua, legal experts, and the general public.

Impact

Our team acts as a trusted advisor providing timely ongoing support to NZKS for the successful continuation of their farming operations. SLR’s environmental assessments of effects and assistance with resource consenting enable NZKS to sustainably grow resource use and value to continue to be the world’s largest producer of King salmon.