B.C. is a hotbed of innovation in aquaculture
“There
is really nothing more important than the environment when it comes to fish
farming,” – expert panel discussion at
the BC Seafood Expo
By Fabian Dawson
SeaWestNews
British Columbia is a hotbed of innovation
in aquaculture, providing new technologies to protect the environment and make
seafood farming more sustainable, a plenary discussion at the B.C. Seafood Expo
heard yesterday.
“If you don’t protect and maintain the
quality of the environment, you won’t succeed in aquaculture,” said Jeremy
Dunn, director of public affairs for Mowi Canada West, one of the speakers at
the session, which looked at innovations and advances in farmed, harvest and
wild fisheries.
“There is really nothing more important
than the environment when it comes to fish farming,” said Dunn.
The B.C. Seafood Expo 2019 held over two
days this week in the Comox Valley, is one of the largest seafood industry
trade shows in the Pacific Northwest and part of the 2019 BC Seafood Festival
which runs from June 7 to 16.
“If you don’t look after the environment
from the waters to the bottom of the ocean, the environment will bite you
back,” said Steve Atkinson, president of Taste of B.C. Aquafarms in Nanaimo,
which raises Steelhead Salmon at its Little Cedar Falls fish farm in Nanaimo.
Atkinson said there is a lot of
misinformation about the ocean-based fish farming industry in B.C. and more
needs to be done to correct the falsehoods that has confused consumers.
He said there is a common perception that
the technology currently exists to take the salmon farms out of the ocean and
move them on land.
“It simply is not so,” said Atkinson,
adding that Atlantic salmon has not been successfully raised at commercial
scales on land at a profit anywhere, other than at hatchery stage.
“You can’t be sustainable if you are not
profitable,” said Atkinson, whose family-owned farm harvests two metric tonnes of
Steelhead Salmon weekly, using a (RAS) Recirculating Aquaculture System.
Atkinson, who operates one of the very
first closed containment salmon farms in production in North America, credited
the cooperation between ocean-based and land-based fish farmers for making B.C.
a global leader when it comes to fish farming.
He said land-based salmon farming has a
future in B.C. as a complement to ocean farming, not a replacement.
Sean Wilton, CEO of Agrimarine Holdings
Inc., who raises Steelhead Salmon in the mountain-fed waters of B.C.’s Lois
Lake, said local fish farming success stories are often overshadowed by
unsubstantiated claims by certain groups.
“We are not hearing enough of the
aquaculture innovations that started here and have been refined here,” he said.
Wilton wants to see a better climate for
aquaculture investment in B.C. and more fact-based debate about fish farming as
it will raise opportunities for greater innovations and advances in technology.
“People here care about the environment and
that is great and that is why our seafood attracts buyers and consumers around
the word.”
“We just wish we had more to sell to the
world,” said Wilton, commenting on the increasing global demand for B.C.
seafood.
The 2019 B.C. Seafood Expo, which ends
today, has attracted the largest buyers’ delegation in the 13-year history of
the event.
Chef Chris Andraza of Fanny Bay Oysters
Restaurant, another of the panel speakers, said B.C.’s seafood industry needs
to be more active on social media.
“At my restaurant we try and get the
message direct to the customer by educating our servers about the menu items,
its origin and sustainability,” he said.
Andraza wants to see a unity in promoting
B.C. seafood globally.
“We need to stop the negativity about
farmed, wild, frozen or fresh…more of the energy needs to be spent promoting
our excellent seafood and stop the depletion of wild stocks with unsustainable
practices,” he said.
(IMAGE
– L to R) – Steve Atkinson, president of Taste of B.C. Aquafarms, Jeremy Dunn,
director of public affairs for Mowi Canada West and Sean Wilton, CEO of
Agrimarine Holdings Inc. and Chef Chris Andraza of Fanny Bay Oysters Restaurant.
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