Norwegian salmon farming giant Mowi has applied for permission to place two of its Neptun III closed post-smolt plant tanks on a site at Vindsvik in the Hjelmeland municipality of Stavanger, part of its latest effort to find a home for the operation.

The plan is to produce large post-smolt for delivery to Mowi's facilities in Rogaland, according to documents seen by IntraFish.

The company aims to place the two tanks on an existing site where it has no need to alter approved biomass capacity.

The company wanted to move the cage to Fisterfjorden, also in the Hjelmeland municipality, but the Norwegian Food Safety Authority rejected the idea, primarily because it would be too close to Fister Smolt's hatchery.

Now the company is seeking to produce the post-smolt in Josenfjorden, further east in the municipality than the locality it applied for earlier this year.

Large parts of the Josenfjord are an important spawning ground for cod, according to the Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries. Nevertheless authorities have recommended the application be granted.

The semi-closed Neptun III cage designed by Aquafarm Equipment has not been without other problems. In 2017, Mowi said sea lice were discovered at the facility.

It was previously destroyed in a storm, and plagued with the fish disease amoebic gill disease (AGD) in 2014.