The Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries given Mariculture a partial rejection of the giant fishery, “Smart Fish Farm”, twice the size of “Ocean Farm 1”. SalMar owns 51 percent of the shares in the company, Mariculture.
Originally, 16 development permits were requested, but the Directorate will proceed with the processing of the application up to a maximum of eight permits.
In its decision, the Directorate of Fisheries asked how many permits are necessary to complete the project.
“With investment costs of NOK 1 458.7 million (EUR 150.2 million) the Directorate of Fisheries considers that an allocation of eight permits should provide sufficient profitability for the project to be carried out” it stated in its resolution.
Marine Harvest May not build “The steel Egg”
In last December, Marine Harvest received six development licenses for the “Egg”, after applying for a total of 14.
In August, the company sent a request to the directorate to build the shell structure in steel, rather than the material highlighted in the application. The company asked for a statement by the Directorate of Fisheries that the undertaking could be changed so that the use of steel constitutes an acceptable choice of materials.
According to the Directorate of Fisheries, such a change as outlined in the inquiry from Marine Harvest will entail a new application pursuant to the provisions of the Salmon Allocation Regulations for development licence.
However, since the deadline for new applications has expired, Marine Harvest will not be allowed to build the “Egg” out of steel.
Partially decides own decision after complaint from Lerøy
In January this year, Lerøy Seafood Group partially was rejected its application for nine development licences for “Pipefarm” concept, but the directorate continued processing the application with a view to awarding one licence of up to 450 tonnes of maximum permitted biomass.
The rejection was appealed in March. The Directorate has assessed five statements in the complaint from Lerøy, and partially changed its own decision after the complaint and appeal.
“The Directorate of Fisheries partially resigns its own decision for a partial rejection of 19 January 2018, rejecting the application from Lerøy Seafood Group ASA regarding 6,120 tonnes of maximum permitted biomass (MTB) of a 720 tonnes of MTB used, cf. section 28b of the Salmon Allocation Regulations. In line with what appears above, the Directorate of Fisheries will proceed with the processing of the application up to a limit of 900 tonnes of MTB”, it stated in the draft letter.
