Cooke receives key approval for planned New Brunswick post-smolt RAS

Cooke Inc. subsidiary Kelly Cove Salmon has received a key approval for its planned post-smolt recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) facility in New Brunswick, Canada.

The project, slated to be built in Bayside, New Brunswick, Canada at a cost of CAD 72 million (USD 53 million, EUR 48 million), received a Certification of Determination to Proceed by the New Brunswick Department of Environment and Local Government. The new facility, Kelly Cove said, will be a land-based RAS serving as a post-smolt aquaculture facility.

The approval, Kelly Cove Salmon said, follows the successful completion of an environmental impact assessment (EIA).

“Hybrid systems, involving a mix of land and marine-based fish farming, will continue to be part of our future. We have been operating land-based salmon hatcheries and marine farms sustainably for 38 years,” Cooke Vice President of Public Relations Joel Richardson said. “Innovative scientific technologies bring a new opportunity for greater production in ocean waters by shortening time Atlantic salmon spend in marine cages.”

The company began planning the project in 2017, and received approval for its EIA earlier this year for the ground-source wells needed to supply the facility with water. The farm also has two water pipeline corridors and a marine loading facility, Kelly Cove said.

The company said it expects the project will take three years to complete, and will create “more than 340 direct construction jobs and 222 indirect and induced jobs.”

The facility adds to investments that Cooke is working on in Charlotte County, New Brunswick. The company recently constructed a CAD 21 million (USD 15 million, EUR 14 million) freshwater hatchery in Pennfield, and the company also completed a CAD 50 million (USD 37 million, EUR 33 million) expansion at its processing plant in Saint George.

The project is not the only land-based facility Cooke Inc. is working on in Atlantic Canada. Kelly Cove is also planning a land-based salmon hatchery near Centreville on Digby Neck in Nova Scotia, Canada, which garnered Nova Scotia Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture approvals in 2021. The company announced in 2022 that it entered a contract with AKVA Group to design and build the land-based facility.  

Photo courtesy of Cooke Inc.