Cooke Aquaculture forced to delay planned $150 million expansion

Cooke Aquaculture may be the biggest aquaculture company in Canada’s Atlantic Provinces, but a moratorium on new aquaculture sites in Nova Scotia has delayed the planned expansion of their operations in the province by several years.

In 2012, the Nova Scotia government committed $25 million to help Cooke finance expansion of their operations in the province, including a processing plant, a new hatchery and an expanded feed mill. Cooke representatives have said that in order to justify the expansion they were looking to double their salmon production. However, in 2013 the government issued a moratorium on new aquaculture operations and ordered a report forming the basis for a new regulatory framework on aquaculture in the province. (See Report on Aquaculture in Nova Scotia, March/April issue of Aquaculture North America.)

Cooke had originally planned to have to their new facilities in operation by 2015, but those plans may be delayed as far back as 2018.

— Matt Jones