New Zealand King Salmon focus on move to open waters to future-proof against climate change

One in five of the company’s salmon died last summer due to warmer waters.

New Zealand King Salmon CEO Grant Rosewarne told NewsHub that he was looking at open ocean salmon farming in the face of climate change.

It was a difficult summer for the company as NZ experienced extremely warm water temperatures.

Last summer’s mortality rate was 8 percent, more than double the year before. “We’re trying to turn that around and in a good year 95 percent will survive, and in a bad year, 80 percent,” said Rosewarne.

NZ King Salmon said they were looking towards Norway such as SalMar’s flagship project Ocean Farm 1, the world’s first deep-sea salmon farm.

“The water is deeper, it’s colder, the currents are flowing faster so they are better conditions,” Mr Rosewarne said.

Though it would take at least 10 years for that to happen, he added.

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