The Court of Appeal has upheld a lower court ruling against the expansion of a fish farm on the Port au Port Peninsula.

Northern Harvest Smolt Ltd. sought approval to expand its onshore salmon hatchery producing smolt that would later be transferred to sea cages.

The minister of the day released it from further environmental assessment but opponents to the project, including the Salmonid Council of Newfoundland and Labrador and the Port au Port Bay Fishery Committee, appealed to the courts and won.

The company then went to the Court of Appeal but the judges there have upheld the earlier ruling that the minister’s decision to free the project from further environmental assessment was unreasonable.