Nordic Aquafarms said it hopes to get permission from the Norwegian Fisheries Directorate to switch from land-based salmon production to yellowtail kingfish farming at its Fredrikstadt, Norway, site this summer and have all approvals in place by the end of the year.

The company is hoping to begin farming kingfish "sometime next year," Nordic Aquafarms CEO Bernt Olav Rottingsnes said during the North Atlantic Seafood Forum in Bergen, Norway last week.

The company has three facilities in operation in Scandinavia and two 25,000-metric-ton salmon sites under development in Maine on the US East Coast and in Humboldt, California, where Rottingsnes said he expects all permits to be in place by the end of this year.