New Zealand King Salmon sites failed to meet environmental standards last October.
Stuff reports that a council has stood by its decision to issue King Salmon two fines and a warning after inspectors found five in nine farms were non-compliant.
Last October Cawthron Institute’s inspection of New Zealand King Salmon’s farms found five out of nine were non-compliant. Cawthron is the country’s largest independent science organisation specialising in aquaculture. The main area of non-compliance was pollution under pens.
At the time, NZ King Salmon boss Grant Rosewarne said he was “concerned” by the results and then engaged the services of another company to take a more “thorough look”.
On Monday, King Salmon chief executive Grant Rosewarne told the publication that new samples showed the Forsyth Bay farm was “abundant with life” and this included the discovery of more than 70,000 bristle worms.
But a council spokesman said last week the new samples could not be used to check compliance because they were taken outside the annual inspection’s sampling parameters. The compliance status of King Salmon’s farms and their penalties remain unchanged.
