BC Salmon farmers open to further dialogue: "closed containment systems [may be] viable in future?

December 10, 2009
Seafood Intelligence.com

Responsibility for regulating British Columbia’s aquaculture industry will soon (as of February 2010, theoretically) come under the authority of the federal Canadian government, instead of being shared between the Province and the government of Canada. This results from the British Columbia Supreme Court ruling of February 9th 2009, finding that whilst the land beneath a BC fish farm is indeed the property of the provincial government, the latter does not have the right to regulate salmon farms; thus making the BC regulation of fish farms unlawful, unconstitutional and invalid... The court has suspended the ruling – which can be construed as a 'legal victory' for biologist and salmon farming critic Alexandra Morton who brought on the case - for a period of 12 months to allow the federal government to bring in proper legislation. Now (rather late some will argue for such a momentous change), in preparation for the transfer of powers, the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) is holding meetings in Campbell River (the capital of salmon farming in BC, and Canada) to get input on a number of regulatory considerations. The BC Salmon Farmers' Association (BCSFA) outlined yesterday (December 9th) 'what it wants DFO to know'. Interestingly a BCSFA comment relates specifically to one of the key demand of environmentalists opposed to currently practiced open-cage salmon farming: that it instead be operated in “closed containment”. “Although there are no commercially viable closed containment systems growing market sized Atlantic salmon operating anywhere in the world right now, we feel advances in technology may make closed containment systems viable in the future,” the BCSFA said. 

Read further on Seafood Intelligence.com