Canada’s federal government announced an investment of 1.2 million taxpayer dollars towards aquaculture promotion including a “salmon public relations campaign.” This investment in image management is a testament to the widespread negative public opinion of the net-cage salmon farming industry, as well as an astonishing failure on the part of government to invest in real solutions that address the source of the industry’s declining reputation – unsustainable salmon farming practices. (more…)
Farmed and Dangerous Blog
Posts Tagged ‘closed containment’
Canadian government invests 1.2 million in aquaculture marketing initiatives rather than sustainable salmon farming technology
Tuesday, July 27th, 2010Aquaponics and the future of sustainable cities (Part 1)
Tuesday, July 20th, 2010As the development of closed containment technology continues to gain momentum, I thought I’d take a look at another type of land-based fish farming – aquaponics. During my search I came across some inspiring examples of small-scale urban operations and I got to thinking, could this emerging trend, like general urban agriculture, be an integral part of the sustainable city of the future?
Tax dollars subsidizing new net-pen technology
Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010Here’s an interesting quote from the backgrounder to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans’s (DFO) June 11th Aquaculture Innovation and Market Access Program (AIMAP) announcement:
“Marine Harvest Canada received $200,000 in AIMAP funding to test alternative offshore salmon cage nets (pen nets) against traditional nylon nets. A side-by-side comparison of the net types will test for biofouling, net durability and fish growth. This project, which has leveraged nearly $1.6 million in additional funds, will be carried out in Marsh Bay (northern Vancouver Island).”
Queen Charlotte Strait
For a little perspective on where these tests will take place, Marsh Bay salmon farm – actually on Canada’s mainland north across Queen Charlotte Strait from Port Hardy – is situated inside a DFO-designated Rockfish Conservation Area where fishing is limited to only those types of gear that have no impact on demersal rockfish stocks. Elevated levels of mercury have been found in rockfish caught near salmon farms. Marsh Bay is also right on the path of out-migrating Sakinaw and Cultus Lake sockeye – two stocks of concern recommended for emergency listing as endangered populations by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC). Cultus Lake sockeye, by the way, are a part of the Fraser River sockeye stocks that collapsed in 2009. A judicial inquiry into what caused the collapse is now underway.
Some changes were proposed for the salmon farm just over a year ago and included using a different type of cage structure more suited to the harsher, open-ocean type of marine environment that can affect Marsh Bay. A tenure expansion was needed to place the new anchors for the structures and Living Oceans Society received a referral from the Provincial Integrated Lands Management Bureau (ILMB). And, because the application may require DFO to issue a permit under Section 35(2) of the Fisheries Act for harmfully altering, disrupting or destroying fish habitat, it triggered a requirement under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act for DFO to conduct a review. DFO has still not completed its Environmental Assessment (EA) for Marsh Bay making the approval for funding these tests questionable. I prepared comments for Living Oceans Society and brought our conservation concerns, including those mentioned above to both the ILMB’s and DFO’s attention and since the application is still under review, there is still time for public comment. The other important decision from the ILMB on the tenure expansion is also still pending.
Since there is no shortage of open net-pen salmon farms in Canada that are not undergoing EAs where this alternative technology could be tested, I was surprised to read that DFO awarded AIMAP funds to this particular project when their EA is still in the works and Justice Cohen’s Commission of Inquiry into the collapse of Fraser River sockeye is just beginning. By awarding the funding, DFO is either presuming that the Marsh Bay EA will result in a positive outcome and that the Cohen Inquiry will totally exonerate salmon farming as a contributor to the Fraser River sockeyes’ collapse or else the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing.
But what surprised me the most was, considering the mountain of scientific evidence showing the negative effects associated with farming salmon in open net-pens on wild salmon migration routes, I would think that the feds should be more inclined at this time to spend taxpayers’ money supporting real innovation like the closed containment pilot project trial being proposed by Marine Harvest Canada than to continue testing alternative types of open net-pens.
Arguments against closed containment aquaculture off base
Tuesday, May 18th, 2010It was amazing for me to be at a well-attended conference last week where almost everyone in the room was really excited about the possibilities of closed containment salmon farming. There were environmentalists, professors, entrepreneurs who want to build closed containment systems, feed manufacturers and manufacturers of closed containment equipment. Most were there because there is a real opportunity to be first off the mark making money in a new industry that can legitimately claim to be far more sustainable, with clear proof of zero impact to wild salmon runs. (more…)
Open net-cage farms don’t follow the rules of responsible behaviour in the wilderness
Tuesday, May 11th, 2010All level-headed Canadians know leaving food out while camping isn’t smart. Not only will you lose your dinner, but you’ll encourage animals to return for easy meals, and by doing so you endanger them and yourself. Provincial and National wilderness parks across Canada provide steel containers in order to prevent wildlife from accessing food and waste for the good of all—problem solved. The ocean too, is an underwater wilderness filled with a wealth of animals—all looking for a free lunch. Hence, sticking tonnes of free food (in the form of farmed salmon and fish feed) in some of our most remote wild areas will likely cause problems, and I think everyone will agree open-net salmon farms have problems. (more…)
Thousands rally for wild salmon in Victoria
Monday, May 10th, 2010Nearly 5,000 people followed Alexandra Morton on the final length of her 500 kilometre ‘Get Out Migration’ to the BC Legislature buildings in Victoria Saturday – demanding that the government get net-cages out of the water and onto land in closed containment systems in order to save wild salmon. Local MP Denise Savoie declared the rally “the largest environmental protest in BC history.” (more…)
Earth Day dinner special: The fish that can change salmon farming
Thursday, April 22nd, 2010If you’re looking for a special way to celebrate Earth Day let me make an unexpected recommendation: buy farmed salmon. Yes, I really mean it, but you have to go to the right place.
To mark Earth Day, and the first year of their commitment to a sustainable seafood program, Overwaitea Food Group has become the first Canadian grocery chain to make sustainable farmed salmon broadly available. OFG is now the exclusive North American retailer for coho salmon sustainably farmed by SweetSpring, a land-based closed containment operation in Washington State. [Applause and whoops of excitement please.] (more…)
