The High Court Judge Dobson has rejected the appeals by residents group Sustain Our Sounds and the Environmental Defence Society, meaning that the four new salmon farms approved earlier this year will go ahead. At the heart of the matter is whether the national benefits will, in effect, exceed the national risks and costs? The Institute, like many other interested New Zealanders, will be watching to see if the 200 new jobs promised by New Zealand King Salmon Chief Executive Grant Rosewarne, will eventuate. Was this ‘job wash’ or was it not? And whether the Sounds becomes a factory farm environment where tourism dies and the environment suffers. Only time will tell.

For more on this case see the Institute’s Think Piece 16: New Zealand King Salmon – Was it a good decision for New Zealand? and supporting paper Working Paper 2020/01: Notes on the New Zealand King Salmon decision.