Together with the Cawthron Institute, New Zealand King Salmon (NZKS) has launched a research project to assess the viability of certain open ocean locations around NZ for salmon farming.

This is the first step in our aspirational vision to expand towards more sustainable, open ocean farming and increased economic development in the Top of the South.

Monitoring buoys and hydrophones will be used to assess certain aspects of water and location viability. These will primarily measure temperature, currents, wave height and marine mammal presence along with other biological, chemical and physical characteristics. There are of course many other location factors to consider such as birds, fish, landscape and navigation, this research will follow in due course.

The main monitoring buoy (pictured below) went into the Cook Strait last weekend and is located circa 5 nautical miles north of Cape Lambert in the Marlborough Sounds, in an area outside current shipping routes. This surface buoy joins submerged hydrophones which have been collecting data for several weeks now.

There is a long way to go before NZKS can achieve our open ocean farming vision and we’ll be working closely with our research partners, Government, communities and iwi as our plan develops.

For more information around the benefits of open ocean farming and New Zealand King Salmon’s proposal, please follow the link below: https://www.kingsalmon.co.nz/our-environment/potential-relocation/

Monitoring buoy ready to be launched into the Cook Strait