Northern Harvest Smolt, owned by Mowi, wanted to boost annual smolt production from 4.5 million to 6.7 million.
Judges have upheld a lower court ruling on Newfoundland salmon hatchery decision in Newfoundland, Canada. The news was first reported in SaltWire.
The Indian Head Hatchery came with the Mowi’s Northern Harvest Sea Farms USD 248 million acquisition in 2018.
In 2018, Mowi submitted plans to add 2.2 million additional salmon into its existing sea-cages and the expansion was given the green light by the then Environment Minister Andrew Parsons.
Environmental groups represented by Ecojustice, made the argument that the minister made an error in considering only the assessment for the land-based hatchery and that sea cages should also have been included in the full assessment.
Supreme Court Justice Daniel M. Boone agreed with this, and that the province’s minister of environment violated the Environmental Protection Act by exempting the expanison from further environmental assessment.
The ruling was confirmed in 2020, but upheld on May 4th.
Mowi Canada East director of compliance and stakeholder relations Jason Card told the publication that company is reviewing the decision of the appeal court.
“Naturally, we are disappointed with the outcome of the appeal decision, however this decision does not affect our ability to reach stated production targets,” he said.
“The decision was to refer the matter back to the Minister (Bernard Davis. Minister of Environment and Climate Change Minister Responsible .ed) for further consideration, not start a new assessment,” Card told SalmonBusiness after the publication of this article. The original headline has been changed.
