Cooke gets go-ahead for RAS post-smolt facility
New Brunswick initiative will shorten time salmon spend at marine sites
Global salmon farmer Cooke has been given the green light to build a $72 million land-based post-smolt facility in its home province of New Brunswick, Atlantic Canada.
Cooke subsidiary, Kelly Cove Salmon Ltd (KCS), has received a Certificate of Determination to Proceed from the New Brunswick government’s department of environment and local government.
Family-owned Cooke, which farms salmon in Canada, the US, Scotland, Chile, and Tasmania, said the approval is an important step following successful completion of an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) earlier this year.
The recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) facility will be sited in the Champlain Industrial Park, Bayside, Charlotte County, alongside the Passamaquoddy Bay. Land clearing at the site will begin this week.
Cooke intends to grow post-smolts from 150 grams to 500g-plus in the facility.
“Hybrid systems, involving a mix of land and marine-based fish farming, will continue to be part of our future. We have been operating land-based salmon hatcheries and marine farms sustainably for 38 years,” said Cooke’s vice president of public relations, Joel Richardson.
“Innovative scientific technologies bring a new opportunity for greater production in ocean waters by shortening time Atlantic salmon spend in marine cages.”
In March of last year, New Brunswick’s agriculture, aquaculture and fisheries minister Margaret Johnson, released the New Brunswick Finfish Aquaculture Growth Strategy 2022-2030. It guides responsible development in the province’s finfish aquaculture sector with a focus on land-based production through the implementation of new technological advancements.
Cooke said the post-smolt facility, which KCS first began planning in 2017, is a multi-phased project will take three years to complete and create more than 340 direct construction jobs and 222 indirect and induced jobs.
Cooke has already made significant capital investments in Charlotte County. Earlier this year, Cooke’s new, $21 m freshwater hatchery in Pennfield became operational, and the company recently completed a $50 m expansion at its salmon processing plant in St George.
