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Committee Recommends Inventing New Technology for Closed-Containment Fish Farms

Posted on: Wednesday, 16 May 2007, 21:00 CDT

By SCOTT SUTHERLAND

VICTORIA (CP) - A B.C. legislature committee says current fish farming practices are simply too risky to continue and innovation is needed to move all fish farms into a new, ocean-based closed-containment method.

The committee found scientists continue to bitterly disagree over whether raising Atlantic and chinook salmon in pens that are open to the ocean is dangerous to wild fish and the ecosystem in general.

So rather than wait for consensus, the report says, the provincial government needs to step in.

"From a public policy point of view, we must act and act immediately," said the report, released in the legislature Wednesday.

The problem is that the suggested alternative - farming fish in giant tanks on land - is simply not feasible, partly because it would require huge amounts of energy to properly control the temperature and water flow.

The idea "makes little sense in a world where we are trying to reduce energy consumption," the report said, noting it found no land-based, commercial-scale closed-containment farms for Atlantic salmon in operation.

Instead, the committee suggests a technology that hasn't been developed yet: ocean-based, closed-containment pens.

These are defined as a "floating barrier technology that ensures no contact between wild and farmed fish and minimal release of waste into the marine environment."

There are some forms of this already available, but the committee rejects them as not being durable enough.

The B.C. and federal governments, as well as the industry, must begin immediately to fund the development of the technology so that within three years, the industry can take another two years to transition, the committee recommends.

"It is our expectation that ocean-based closed containment technologies developed in B.C. will be licensed and sold around the world," the report said.

The committee also recommended the north coast remain fish-farm free at least until the new technology is developed.

This recommendation, if accepted, would mean at least one aboriginal band would not be permitted to develop a fish farm, despite its application.

The committee noted the chief and council of Kitkatla were optimistic about the economic benefits of an aquaculture operation.

But members also heard from other aboriginal groups that worried fish farms in the area would harm their way of life.

The committee made 52 recommendations. In a political move, the governing B.C. Liberals gave the Opposition NDP the majority on the committee.

Fish farms, a growing part of the B.C. economy, have been a divisive issue within the NDP.

The salmon farming industry nearly doubled in size between 1997 and 2005 and early figures for 2006 show a further 15 per cent increase in production.

Meanwhile, the size of the wild commercial salmon industry declined significantly over the same period, decreasing by more than 30 per cent, the report noted.

Among other recommendations:

-No new species of finfish should be introduced for ocean-based aquaculture.

-No additional finfish aquaculture tenures should be approved.

-The government, as regulator, must conduct random checks of fish farms without giving owners prior notice.

-Minimum fines for infractions must be established.

Source: Canadian Press

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