Sustainability Gains Strengthen Canada’s Salmon Farming Sector

The 2025 CAIA Sustainability Report documents reduced antibiotic use, improved fish survival, stronger feed sourcing standards, and expanded environmental reporting across Canada’s salmon farming sector.

By Fabian Dawson
SeaWestNews

Canada’s salmon farming sector has cut antibiotic use in half, adding hard evidence to a national aquaculture debate that is being shaped by activist assumptions rather than biological and operational data.

This finding sits at the centre of the Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance’s (CAIA) newly released 2025 Sustainability Report, which documents sector-wide improvements in fish survival, feed sourcing, and environmental monitoring.

The report shows antibiotic use fell to 0.036 kilograms of active ingredient per tonne of live-weight fish produced, down from 0.065 kilograms the year before.

The reduction is attributed to expanded vaccine use, earlier disease detection, and a wider shift toward preventative health practices rather than medical intervention after outbreaks occur.

Those changes are reflected in survival rates. Fish survival in the marine environment rose to 85 percent in 2023, up from 82 percent the previous year. While still below the sector’s stated 90 percent target, the improvement marks steady progress in an area that regulators and critics have long used as a key metric of farm performance.

“Aquaculture farmers know that growing food for Canadians must be environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable,” said Timothy Kennedy, president and chief executive officer of CAIA.

“These results show salmon farming companies have adopted science-based methods that have improved the standard of salmon farm sustainability overall in Canada.”

Fish health gains are occurring alongside tighter controls on operations, said CAIA, which represents seafood farmers who generate over $5.3 billion in economic activity, contribute $2 billion to GDP, and employ over 17,550 Canadians.

Non-medicinal treatments now account for nearly half of all sea lice interventions, and the number of cases requiring remedial action dropped by 50 percent compared with the previous year, the latest data shows.

The report also documents fewer fish escape incidents, with eight reported nationwide in 2023, down from 13 the year before, moving the sector closer to its zero-escape objective.

On feed sourcing, the sector is approaching full compliance with its sustainability commitments, the industry reports.

Ninety-seven percent of fish meal and fish oil now comes from certified, sustainably managed fisheries. Fish-based ingredients make up less than one-fifth of total feed inputs, with plant-based alternatives such as algae and canola oil increasingly replacing marine sources. All ocean farms now use underwater cameras or sensor systems to control feeding and reduce waste.

Climate performance showed a more uneven picture. Greenhouse gas intensity rose slightly to 0.64 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per tonne of harvested fish, largely because more companies expanded their reporting to include both direct emissions from vessels and equipment as well as indirect emissions from purchased electricity.

Four companies reported taking active steps to adapt to and reduce climate impacts, down from five the year before, highlighting that progress on emissions is moving more slowly and less consistently than gains in fish health and feed sustainability.

Despite this, salmon farming remains the most carbon-efficient form of animal protein production available at scale globally. In B.C., for instance, ocean-based salmon farms emit only 2.2 kilograms of carbon dioxide for every kilogram of edible fish produced. That is less than half the footprint of any land-based animal protein, including 5.1 kilograms of CO₂ per kilogram of chicken, 6.4 kilograms for pork, and 37.2 kilograms for beef.

The new sustainability report frames salmon farming as part of Canada’s domestic food security system. Almost 90 percent of harvested salmon was directed to human consumption, and companies donated tens of thousands of meals and more than a quarter-million dollars to food security initiatives, including partnerships with First Nations.

While the data point to operational improvements across the industry, the report’s release lands against growing policy uncertainty, particularly in B.C., where the federal government is standing by its plan to ban ocean salmon farms by 2029. Industry leaders argue the performance trends documented in the latest report raise questions about whether regulatory decisions are keeping pace with on-the-water evidence.

“The results clearly reinforce that ocean farming, innovation, increased production and job creation need to be supported by governments to build investor confidence,” said Kennedy.

Assessments by Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the sector’s federal regulator, have consistently found that the farm-raised salmon sector poses no more than minimal risk to wild salmon, and that companies have followed all Canadian laws and regulations, he said.

These core findings have been reinforced by global experts and volumes of independent peer-reviewed research.

Earlier this month, a major group of international aquaculture experts said Canada’s plan to ban ocean salmon farming in B.C. is based on outdated assumptions, sidelines decades of scientific progress, and offers little benefit to struggling wild salmon runs.

Their new paper, published inReviews in Aquaculture, argued that governance failures, not farm-level science, have driven Ottawa’s push to close B.C. salmon farms by 2029.

Last July, six senior fish health experts who analysed more than 20 years of scientific data concluded that marine net-pen salmon farms in B.C. have no more than minimal impact on wild salmon populations, concurring with federal government scientists.

The peer-reviewed landmark paper, published in Aquaculture, Fish and Fisheries, said two decades of monitoring showed “no evidence that pathogens from farms are having more than minimal impact on wild stocks.”

A second long-term analysis, published in Diseases of Aquatic Organisms, tracked nearly 3,000 juvenile salmon over nine years in the Broughton Archipelago. It found that sea-lice levels in young wild salmon often increased after farms were removed. As the researchers noted: “The belief that sea lice disappear when farms are removed is not supported by the evidence.”

“Canada has the most cold-water aquaculture potential in the world. We can be a global leader, but to build Canada strong, this opportunity needs to be realized,” said Kennedy.

“Right now, there is a window for Canada to re-set policy to embrace the seafood farming sector as part of the fabric of a competitive, innovative and sustainable Canadian agriculture and agri-food sector and protect Canadian workers and the over 3,000 supplier companies linked to the sector,” he said.

According to BC’s salmon farmers and their First Nations partners, an evidence-based policy environment at the federal and provincial level would enable sector expansion, with potential economic impacts of $2.5 billion annually, $930 million in GDP, and 9,000 Canadian jobs.

They say this is consistent with Prime Minister Mark Carney’s vision for strengthening Canada’s food security, advancing Indigenous reconciliation, and reinforcing the country’s economic foundations.

Main image courtesy of Mowi Canada West