Salmon farmers slam ‘unrealistic’ land-based transition news report
“The idea that 70,000 tonnes of BC salmon can be produced on land in five years is unrealistic and ignores the current capabilities of modern salmon farming technology.”
By Fabian Dawson
SeaWestNews
A reported plan to force Western Canada’s ocean-based fish farms to land-based facilities in five years does not reflect a “realistic, responsible and achievable” plan to transition the sector, states the British Columbia Salmon Farmers Association (BCSFA).
Neither is it supported by science, including that of the government’s own scientists, who have repeatedly stated that salmon farming in BC poses no more than minimal risk to wild Pacific salmon, the association said in response to an article in the Globe and Mail today.
According to the news report, the Liberal Government is poised to announce that open-net salmon fish farmers in coastal BC waters will be given five years to adapt to a Transition Plan and replace them with land-based operations.
Quoting unnamed sources, the report said the five-year time frame demonstrates that Ottawa is being responsible in helping the salmon farming industry adapt to land-based operations.
The official transition announcement, expected this week, comes as 66 fish farm licences in BC are set to expire at the end of this month.
“The plan forward communicated in the article does not reflect a realistic, responsible and achievable approach to a transition, as Fisheries Minister Diane Lebouthillier has publicly stated,” BCSFA said in a statement.
“The idea that 70,000 tonnes of BC salmon can be produced on land in five years is unrealistic and ignores the current capabilities of modern salmon farming technology, as it has not been done successfully to scale anywhere in the world,” said Brian Kingzett, BCSFA’s executive director.
“This plan will lead to further increased food prices, heightened food insecurity across North America, and it will be a disaster for rural British Columbia and the First Nations striving to build a future with salmon farms in their traditional territories.”
“The BC salmon farming sector, with the First Nation’s support, has repeatedly presented practical, realistic, and responsible plans to demonstrate its willingness to invest in technologies that will further reduce any potential risks to wild Pacific salmon,” he said.
“While the federal government has not yet released a decision, we expect one to be released very soon, as the remaining licences expire on June 30, 2024.
“These unsubstantiated claims of a move to land would significantly impact the sector, potentially resulting in the loss of more than 6,000 jobs. This potential decision will also have ripple effects on Atlantic Canada, as it will send a clear message that Canada is not a country in which to invest.”
Bowing to unfounded claims by activists in exchange for their votes and denying the scientific findings of its own fisheries experts, the Liberal Government has already shut down 40% of salmon farms in BC since 2020, wiping out hundreds of jobs that are the lifeblood of rural, coastal and Indigenous communities.
Farm-raised salmon generates over $1.142 billion of direct economic activity in BC annually, providing approximately 6,000 direct and indirect jobs and contributes more than a billion dollars to the GDP.
Global fisheries, aquaculture and climate scientists have labelled the activism around moving all BC salmon farms to land based operations immediately as unrealistic, reckless, and destructive because growing the global supply of salmon on land would require the same amount of energy per year needed to power a city of 1.2 million people and contribute to higher CO2 emissions.
Raising land based Atlantic salmon also costs 12 times more than ocean farming, they said.
Moving the current production of Atlantic salmon to land based tanks on Vancouver Island will result in an increase of 22,881,000 kgs of Greenhouse Gas (GhG) emissions, a recent study said. That is equivalent to the energy needed per year to power a population of 52,200 or a city the size of North Vancouver.
A BC government-commissioned report has projected that replacing BC’s current salmon farm production with recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS), also known as land-based or closed containment operations, would require a direct investment of between $1.8 billion to $2.2 billion.
It mirrors an earlier government report – The State of Salmon Aquaculture Technologies study released in February 2020 which warned RAS technology requires the use of large amounts of land, water, and power, and thus has a significant environmental footprint, in particular greenhouse gas emissions.
The Coalition of First Nations for Finfish Stewardship (FNFFS), which is fighting to retain its traditional rights to farm fish in its territorial waters, said salmon farming in BC directly and indirectly employs over 700 Indigenous people and provides $120 million in total annual economic benefits to First Nations, with $42 million going directly to Indigenous communities. Today, 100 per cent of BC’s farmed salmon is raised in agreement with Rights Holder First Nations.
The coalition has said that moving to land-based salmon farming is not an option for its members.
“Some Nations in this coalition have completed feasibility studies on land-based salmon farming in their territories for many years, and they came to the same result: it is not possible, and if it was, they would have moved to land-based salmon farming years ago,” FNFFS said.
The Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance (CAIA) said while farm-raised salmon remains the most popular seafood choice of Canadians, it is increasingly being replaced by salmon flown in from other countries at higher prices and a larger carbon footprint.
A new study from Dalhousie University said the activist-driven government closures of fish farms in BC has left Canadians facing soaring salmon prices and a whopping increase in carbon emissions.
The BC salmon farming sector, with the First Nation’s support, has repeatedly presented practical, realistic, and responsible plans to demonstrate its willingness to invest in technologies that will further reduce any potential risks to wild Pacific salmon, said Kingzett.
“We are calling on the Trudeau Government to stand up for BC jobs, stand up for meaningful economic reconciliation with First Nations who support salmon farms and stand up for rural coastal communities,” he said.
Dr. Brad Hicks, who has been working in the fish farming industry for over 40 years, said he doesn’t think there are any suitable sites in BC for large scale land-based aquaculture.
In addition to the huge power and water requirements, Dr. Hicks said the issue of how the effluent from land-based operations are discharged will likely end up being an environmental flashpoint in BC.
“If the government keeps thinking it can do it based on what the activists are claiming, taxpayers will be on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars,” he told SeaWestNews in an earlier interview.
(Image courtesy of Grieg Seafood BC Ltd shows one of its salmon farming operations in British Columbia)