One of the challenges ahead for Josie Osborne, minister of the B.C. government’s new Ministry of Land, Water and Resource Stewardship, will be overseeing the mandated phase-out of open-net salmon farms in B.C. in areas where First Nations support the industry and are invested in it.
She and federal Fisheries and Oceans Minister Joyce Murray will have to wrestle with the question of whether First Nation consent includes the right to say yes.
While some First Nations in B.C. have become increasingly hostile towards salmon farming over concerns about its potential impacts on wild fish stocks, others are involved in the industry and now stand to lose investments and jobs, as Victoria and Ottawa move in tandem to “transition” open-net salmon farms to some yet-to-be-defined alternative.
It may be that the “transition” will be geographic, with salmon farms shutting down in B.C. only to pop up in Atlantic Canada, where there is no federal mandate to phase out open-net salmon farms.
In B.C., 79 federal licences for salmon farms expire on June 30. The salmon farming industry fears some may not be renewed.
Their fears are not baseless. The Justin Trudeau government has already shut down most of the 19 salmon farms in the Discovery Islands area. An estimated 1,535 jobs will be lost as a result, according to a recent impact study conducted by RIAS Inc. on behalf of the BC Salmon Farmers Association (BCSFA).
Later this month, 80 fish processing plant workers in Surrey will lose their jobs when the plant shuts down – a direct result of the eviction of salmon farms from the Discovery Islands, which accounted for about 25% of total farmed salmon production in B.C.
Failing to renew all 79 federal salmon farm licences would cost B.C. $1.2 billion in economic activity, $427 million in GDP, and more than 4,700 jobs, according the RIAS study.
The Aboriginal Aquaculture Association recently added its voice to the salmon farming industry’s concerns that federal licences might not be renewed. B.C. salmon farmers have partnership agreements with 17 First Nations in B.C. The BCSFA estimates that 250 First Nations people are employed on salmon farms in B.C.
Richard Harry, former chief of the Homalco First Nation and executive director of the Aboriginal Aquaculture Association, is a commercial fisherman who now runs a family-owned net cleaning service that serves the fish farming industry.
He has already seen the commercial fishery slowly die and now fears governments will kill the salmon farming industry too.
“The last three years, with all the investment we’ve made, I’ve fished two days,” he said. “We were heading for bankruptcy.”
He said governments only appear to be listening to First Nations and environmentalists that oppose fish farming and not listening to First Nations who make a living from it.
“The time has really come where they need to get the input from the Fist Nations that have agreements with industry and they need to respect that.”
Ruth Salmon, BCSFA interim executive director, said it’s hard to tell which way the federal fisheries minister might be leaning on the licence renewals.
“We’re having good dialogue with DFO Pacific Region, and also there’s contact with Minister Murray’s staff,” Salmon said. “We’ve yet to actually meet with Minister Murray. Hopefully there will be an opportunity to meet with her directly.”
The Tlowitsis First Nation is one B.C. First Nation that is supports salmon farming. It has a net cleaning contract with Grieg Seafood (FRA:GR8), and the nation has jointly submitted an application for a new salmon farm. Its tenure would be owned by the Tlowitsis and leased to Grieg.
But the application is being made at a time when the future of salmon farming in B.C. is highly uncertain.
The John Horgan and Trudeau governments are on the same page when it comes to open-net salmon farms: Both aim to phase them out because of concerns they may be having an impact on the health of wild salmon.
In B.C., the responsibility for aquaculture leases will move from the Ministry of Agriculture to the new ministry of Land, Water and Resource Stewardship. The new ministry has a mandate to work with First Nations to co-manage land, water and resources. The minister also has a mandate from Horgan “to develop and implement a responsible plan, including technology based solutions, to transition from open-net finfish aquaculture.”
Similarly, Trudeau’s mandate to his federal fisheries ministers (there have been three since 2019) is that he or she must have a plan in place by 2025 to “transition” away from open-net salmon farms.
So even if federal licences are renewed, it may be for shorter lease periods, in anticipation of the phase-out plan. Typically, federal licences are renewed for up to six years.
Both federal and provincial governments have touted land-based salmon farms as a possible alternative to open-net systems. But so far, land-based systems have proven to be costly, energy intensive and unprofitable.
The biggest land-based system built thus far in North America is the Atlantic Sapphire (OTCMKTS:AASZF) Bluehouse land-based system in Florida. The company posted a net loss of US$86.7 million in 2020 and US$51.5 million in the first half of 2021, according to its latest financial statements.
To date, no major investments in land-based aquaculture in B.C. have been announced, and even if there were, it wouldn’t help the Tlowitsis First Nation. As Tlowitsis Chief John Smith points out, land-based systems require a significant land footprint and large amounts of electricity.
“It would certainly take us out of the business, because there’s no flat ground in our territory and no hydro,” Smith said.
Despite the uncertainty over the salmon farming industry in B.C., Grieg Seafood continues to invest in B.C. in technology that addresses some of the concerns around salmon farming.
Grieg is putting the finishing touches on a $25 million expansion to its Gold River hatchery. The expansion will allow farmed salmon to spend more time on land and less time in the water.
It takes about three years to raise a farmed Atlantic salmon from fry to harvest maturity. The fish are raised in closed containment systems on land for about a year, then transferred to open-net pens for 18 to 24 months.
The expanded hatchery will nearly double the company’s smolt-rearing capacity, and allow fish to be kept in land-based tanks for several months longer.
“This type of technology that we’re moving towards could allow us to cut the time in the sea by half at some point,” said Grieg’s B.C. managing director Rocky Boschman. “So instead of being in the ocean for 18 to 24 months, we could be in the ocean for only 12 months, because more of the production is taking place on land.”
Grieg is also investing in net-pen systems that have retractable curtains that can be raised, creating a barrier, when wild salmon are migrating in the area – the marine environment’s equivalent of social distancing.
Asked what it would take to move production entirely to land, Boschman said it wouldn’t be feasible. The recent $25 million expansion allows for an additional 400 tonnes of salmon smolt production per year, he said, whereas a single Grieg open-net salmon farm grows 4,000 tonnes annually.
“So just to replace one of our farms – we have 16 – we would have to build this out by a factor of 10,” Boschman said.
“Simple math – if this was to replace just one farm, it could be up to a $250 million investment. So to do 16 farms, it becomes something that’s really hard to imagine, that kind of investment.” •
