Aquaculture

Navigating New Zealand's aquaculture regulatory, design, and implementation processes are complex; you need the right people working with you. The team at WSP can support you with a group of experienced aquaculture professionals based throughout the globe and New Zealand; WSP offers a comprehensive and diverse source of consultancy expertise to guarantee the best outcome for your business or project.

Hāpaitia te ara tika pūmau ai te rangatiratanga mō ngā uri whakatupu

Foster the knowledge pathway to strength, independence & growth for future generations

Aotearoa New Zealand's Aquaculture Strategy has set a goal to create a sustainable, productive, resilient, and inclusive aquaculture industry generating $3 billion in annual sales by 2035.

WSP is here to support our Aotearoa Aquaculture industry and government to achieve these aims. Having offices around the globe and 55,300 staff gives WSP a massive range of capabilities. The WSP offices in Norway and Chile have considerable experience in the Aquaculture industry for some of the biggest clients in the global trade. This sets WSP apart from other suppliers

How we can help

Aquaculture is one of the world's fastest-growing food-producing sectors. It now accounts for nearly half of the world's fish production. WSP's expertise in the aquaculture sector is global. WSP can assist with aquaculture no matter where it is based - land, freshwater, canals, ponds, rivers, sea-based, including the open ocean. Our dedicated staff and industry experience will find the right solution at the right time and can deliver value to any project or venture.

Future Ready fisheries

At WSP, being future-ready is part of our DNA. With Future Ready, we see the future more clearly and challenge our teams worldwide to advise and design for this future as well as today.

It's vital as many of the schemes we work on have design lives of decades. In decades, when society will have different needs, technologies will change. For example, decades of climate change will bring more extreme weather and a phase-down of fossil fuels. Future Ready puts WSP at the heart of delivering a sustainable, prosperous, resilient society, setting us apart and bringing lower total ownership costs and peace of mind to our clients.

An example of the WSP future-ready mindset is regenerative aquaculture farming which is closely coupled with counteracting a future with fewer resources and biodiversity loss. Regenerative aquaculture farming contributes to recycling nutrients from land to the ocean and back again in the form of seaweed and mussels. This is one example of our future ready focus and need for marine proteins for a growing global population. We analyse future-ready trends through four lenses or Pou.

WSP Future Ready and UN Sustainable Development Goals in relation to WSP global aquaculture strategy.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are the blueprint for achieving a better and more sustainable future. They address global challenges related to climate, environmental degradation, lack of food, sustainable use of resources and intelligent industry development. 6 SDGs show both general aquaculture contributions and exceptional contributions in Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS) that can be applied to a global industry and WSP strategy to be a leader in this industry.

Sustainability Reporting

WSP proactively engages sustainability in all services that are delivered and recognised nationally for their frameworks and systems.

Outlined below are vital deliverable services that the team are available to deliver:

- Tailored sustainability frameworks
- Targets, measuring and reporting
- Sustainability standards and certifications
- High-performing sustainable building analysis, design and operation
- Low-carbon infrastructure procurement and lifecycle design- consideration of carbon use on projects
- Climate risk and resilience studies

The team has a range of additional services which will be useful to Aotearoa New Zealand Aquaculture.

These are summarised below and are not exclusive:

- Sustainable Infrastructure
- Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies
- Life Cycle Analysis and Foot printing
- Regulatory Compliance

Tangata whenua Services

At WSP, we promote and foster mana-enhancing partnerships by collaborating with Mana Whenua to support Māori environmental, economic and cultural wellbeing.

Our purpose is to build partnerships that enhance mana for future generations. Mana-enhancing associations are working relationships that increase the strength and success of all parties involved.
These relationships recognise and respect Te Tiriti o Waitangi and value the enhancement of Māori social, cultural, environmental, and economic wellbeing.

Our services empower our clients and internal staff to increase their understanding of te Ao Māori, build cultural foundations across projects, and provide holistic and sustainable solutions which reduce project and business risks. We facilitate services through a te Ao Māori worldview lens provided by our community, the Rautaki Māori team, and the wider WSP whanau.

Our services also extend to providing support and understanding too MFish Act and Aquaculture Amendment Act and that our Team has strong networks with Iwi fisheries companies as well as solid quota management and commercial fisheries.

WSP's Service is driven to provide an inclusive future and is centred on Aotearoa, New Zealand. Our relationships and knowledge of Te Ao Māori drivers allow us to guide our clients in future-ready thinking.

He waka eke noa
We are all in this together

Find out more by going to Maori business advisory services.

Aotearoa New Zealand is globally recognised as a world leader in sustainable and innovative aquaculture management across the value chain.

Aquaculture Aotearoa New Zealand's Vision

Ports and Marine

WSP has a highly skilled International Ports and Marine team, conducting work for most of Aotearoa, New Zealand's ports Working in the coastal infrastructure environment, the WSP Ports and Marine team has a solid capacity to assist Aquaculture Aotearoa New Zealand in achieving its industry goals.

We support the industry by transferring specialist skills that are relative to the aquaculture industry in particular;

Support Design and Construction
Provide Diving Services
Deliver Ground Investigation and Geotechnical Services
Seismic Resiliency Planning and Design
Inspection and Repair of Marine Structures
Wharf, Breakwater and Berth inspection and Design Bulk Material Handling and Storage Facilities Biosecurity advice

To find out more about port and marine engineering

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Open Ocean Aquaculture

Open Ocean Aquaculture is currently one of the most exciting but complex challenges facing the national and international aquaculture industry.

WSP Aotearoa New Zealand has strong coastal, ports and marine teams. These teams bring substantial experience in maritime structure design, project management, and coastal modelling.

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Extending into high-value land-based aquaculture

WSP has experience in the design and project management of large-scale aquaculture plants. The Transfer Center Pargua is a 40-tank salmon hatchery producing 19 million smolt per year of about 150 g each. These 40 tanks require a flow of 100 litres of water per second, collected from deep freshwater wells and deep seawater wells. The tanks are equipped with individual recirculation aquaculture systems (iRAS) designed by WSP. When the project was designed, the individual recirculation system tanks were a pioneering industry concept that were successfully implemented. iRAs systems provide a greater level of facility resilience and flexibility.

Aquaculture is an innovative industry – it doesn't stand still for long

Over the past few decades, as aquaculture has rapidly expanded to provide over half of the seafood consumed worldwide, it has also frequently innovated and introduced new practices. One of these has been the introduction of closed systems – more commonly known as RAS.

Recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) are used in home aquaria and for fish production where water exchange is limited, and biofiltration is required to reduce ammonia toxicity. Other types of filtration and environmental control are often also necessary to maintain clean water and provide a suitable habitat for fish. The main benefit of RAS is the ability to reduce the need for fresh, clean water while maintaining a healthy fish environment.

Systems offer many advantages to traditional aquaculture farming systems;

Land and water resources are conserved
RAS conserve both water and land.
As a result, they maximise production in a relatively small area of land and use a relatively small volume of water.

RAS offers location flexibility
RAS are beneficial in areas where land and water are expensive and not readily available. They require relatively small amounts of land and water.
Species type and Harvest manipulation flexibility
RAS is currently being used to grow a large variety of shellfish, crustacean, and fin fish species, including algae, in addition, RAS affords growers the opportunity to manipulate production to meet demand throughout the year and to harvest at the most profitable times during the year.

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Aquaculture Planning Services

WSP is the largest resource management planning and environmental services provider to the private and public sectors in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Our planners are known for their strategic approach, commitment to collaboration and getting good results, and ability to explain complex issues and develop sustainable solutions quickly. The success of our planners has been recognised by the New Zealand Planning Institute, with their projects regularly featuring in their annual awards.

Our planners apply their technical knowledge, creativity and the principles of sustainability to all projects as part of their practical approach to planning and environmental management. The planners work across various industries to identify, manage and mitigate current and future environmental and regulatory risks and liabilities. In addition, they take a long-term collaborative approach to business relationships based on reliable project delivery and a desire to understand and contribute to your success.

Our Aquaculture Planners have significant experience in:

Maritime and terrestrial spatial planning
Aquaculture Zoning and constraints
Aquaculture legislation
Aquaculture Deemed Coastal Permits review
Aquaculture consenting, including monitoring
Fisheries Act 1996
Aquaculture Reform (Repeals and Transitional Provisions) Act 2004
Māori Commercial Aquaculture Claims Settlement Act 2004
National Environmental Standards for Marine Aquaculture 2020

They are consistently keeping up to date with the Resource Management Act Reform, including Climate Change Resilience and Adaptation, and will be able to provide advice and guidance on proposals in this changing time.

They are also able to assist with:

Planning scoping assessment of proposals
Stakeholder Engagement
Obtaining Resource Consents and Coastal Permits, including preparation of applications and assessment of environmental effects
Consent Compliance monitoring and advice
Spatial Planning
Master planning

Find out more about planning services here