Grieg Seafood is buying 34 acres of Vancouver Island real estate to build a hatchery in Canadian province, British Columbia, where there’s a moratorium on new open-net salmon-farming licenses, news reports say.
Grieg’s BC managing director, Rocky Boschman, reportedly said the “multi-million-dollar” purchase was “a vote of confidence” by Grieg in the future of salmon farming along the BC coast”. A zoning application Grieg filed with the town of Campbell River would first have to be rezoned from “industrial” to “aquaculture”, writes Hatchery International.
The Campbell River Mirror reported the city is pondering rezoning en masse — for land-based aquaculture. A recent public hearing heard that two applicants, including Grieg, have already filed to have sites converted “for aquaculture use”, while another 41 sites in the northern reaches of Campbell River are being considered for “land-based” aquaculture, only, “because ocean-based aquaculture use would require additional zoning and (ocean-front) amendments from council”, Andy Gaylor, acting development services supervisor for the city, was quoted by the Mirror as saying.
He told Town Council that converting industrial plots to land-based aquaculture allotments would be possible for properties “at least 0.5 hectares in size. Grieg was contemplating using four of its hectares for a site about the size of two football fields.
Grieg still requires Council permission for a Wharf and water use, as well as provincial license to run the hatchery and smolt facility.
