Joint venture proposes 50,000 MT salmon-farming project in the Falkland Islands
Unity Marine has said that the waters off the Falkland Islands, which is 300 miles northeast of Argentina, are ideal for salmon farming | Photo courtesy of Jeremy Richards/Shutterstock
Ajoint fish-farming venture has submitted a proposal to the Falkland Islands government to produce up to 50,000 metric tons of Atlantic salmon per year off the waters of the remote South Atlantic archipelago.
Unity Marine, a joint venture between Danish consultancy F-land ApS and Falklands Islands-based seafood brand Fortuna, is now awaiting government approval of its plans.
“We are asking the Falkland Islands government to introduce enabling legislation as it has for the hydrocarbon industry, along with a licensing system that requires operators to fund proper [environmental assessments] and scientific research so we can assess and manage environmental risks,” Unity Marine Managing Director James Wallace told SeafoodSource. “Our company or other interested parties could then apply for licences, judged on individual merit and subject to environmental impact assessments.”
The idea of farming fish on the islands, which are 300 miles northeast of Argentina, has been tossed around for several decades. A pilot project for open net-pen salmon farming was carried out on the islands between 1987 and 1992, proving that salmon could be grown at a commercially acceptable rate in Falkland waters. The Falkland government then introduced a Fish Farming Bill in 2006 that provided a legislative framework to enable licensing and regulation of the practice, but it was not until 2017 that Unity Marine was formed and aimed to prove the viability of a sustainable large-scale project.
Initially, the island territory’s government engaged external consultants to review global best practices in salmon farming in the context of the Falkland Islands’ existing legislation. The review led the policy-making body of the government to disallow large-scale fish farming and refuse a public consultation on Unity Marine’s proposals.
That decision was revised last year…
This article was published in various UK and International Newspapers.
