





Salmon farms failing to meet strict environmentally sustainable standards could be shifted.

Three New Zealand King Salmon farms in the Marlborough Sounds fell short of best management practice guidelines laid down by the Government and Marlborough District Council, environmental monitoring revealed.

Cawthron noted pollution under pens and seabed enrichment, caused by fish waste falling on the seabed and uneaten fish food.

New Zealand King Salmon promised they would meet the standards by 2024 but the Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) branded that "not acceptable".

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The guidelines covering operations and the seabed, provide a framework to deliver a world-leading environmentally sustainable salmon industry.

One option was the potential relocation of some existing "low-flow" farms in Queen Charlotte Sound to more environmentally appropriate locations in high-flow sites, believed to be in Tory Channel.

Farms at Forsyth Bay, Waihinau Bay, Ruakaka Bay, Otanerau Bay in Queen Charlotte Sound met the terms of their resource consents.

Clay Point in Tory Channel had a minor non-compliance for exceeding permitted enrichment levels.

But Forsyth, Ruakaka and Otanerau were still not running in a way that enables them to meet the agreed best management practice guidelines.

New Zealand King Salmon environmental compliance manager Mark Gillard said in a letter to the Marlborough District Council that implementation of best management practice for seabeds was a "challenge" that would be solved by 2024.

The company were working with the council and MPI to explore improving environmental outcomes for salmon farming, he said.

Ministry of Primary Industries aquaculture manager Dan Lees told council's environment committee New Zealand King Salmon had to come up to scratch sooner.

"It is not acceptable to wait until 2024 to implement best practice guidelines across all the farms," he said.

"The community have said additional salmon farms are not appropriate in the Marlborough Sounds. We have to manage the farms we do have."

Internationally renowned marine scientist Professor Kenny Black previously said farms were better in high flow sites, Lees said.

These sites with cooler water temperatures, were better for growing salmon, could improve environmental outcomes, and support better biosecurity management.

There were no firm views in where these "high flow sites" would be but options would be brought back to council, Lees said.

In Blenheim on Friday, Prime Minister John Key said the key challenge for New Zealand King Salmon was gaining flexibility to move their farms more regularly to help with their environmental impact.

"Salmon farms are hugely profitable. The hectare returns from salmon farms is thousands of times greater than dairy farming. We want aquaculture farms to be successful. We need to work on that taking into account the wishes of the community."

Marlborough Mayor Alistair Sowman said there were continued questions if some of the farms would ever achieve full compliance.

"Some marine farms went into the water 30 years ago – and what was seen as appropriate then is no longer considered best practice for modern salmon farming. New technologies have also made it much easier for us to better monitor sites and to use this information to continually improve."

Suggestions there were more suitable Sounds sites than Queen Charlotte Sound for salmon farms would require consultation with iwi and the community before a decision was made, he said.

Environment committee chairman Peter Jerram said council had spent tens of thousands of dollars getting Black to help set up the guidelines process.

"If this was a land-based operation it would be called overstocking. We call it running hot. When the enrichment gets too high it fouls the environment. Effectively they are too many animals on each site. If this was a dairy farm operation it would be shut down."

Jerram questioned if there was room in the Sounds to move farms into high flow sites.

Shifting farms to Tory Channel only served to spread the problem over a bigger area, he said.

'DEVOID OF LIFE'

Cawthron's report said the site at Forsyth Bay continued to perform poorly with "excessive enrichment" under the pens.

The seabed under the salmon pens was heavily polluted and almost devoid of life.

In response to the guidelines New Zealand King Salmon had destocked the farm and further monitoring would be rolled out.

Otanerau showed excessive enrichment which would have triggered a "major alert response" under the guidelines and forced the company to improve enrichment levels within two years.

New Zealand King Salmon said they will likely move the pen within the consented area.

At Ruakaka both pens stations' sediment chemistry had deteriorated and sulphide levels were extremely high.

This would have triggered a minor alert under the guidelines and a management response.

New Zealand King Salmon said "operational constraints" meant they could not cease production but they intended to reduce their feed by altering their rearing strategies.