Atlantic salmon can be farmed on land, but so far not profitably
A recent workshop on Canada’s east coast presents and triggers differing opinions about the technology’s viability
Odd Grydeland, FishfarmingXpert, May 2, 2014
A certain level of common understanding is slowly developing between the camps that promote the production of salmon (and other finfish) in tanks on land and those who use floating net pens in the ocean. Both camps now agree that you can keep Atlantic salmon alive until the fish reach market size using either technology. The conventional ocean-based salmon farming sector routinely keeps fish in captivity until they are sexually mature in land-based tanks, and most of Canada’s farmed salmon smolts come from such facilities. But the experience gained from these activities do not support the notion that the commercial production of Atlantic or other salmon for food purposes is a financially viable business.
As reported by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) this week, participants in a workshop on closed containment aquaculture held by the conservation group Atlantic Salmon Federation in St. Andrews, New Brunswick were told that indeed, Atlantic salmon can be farmed on land. An example of this fact was described by Chief Bill Cranmer from the Namgis First Nation on Vancouver Island, where the first commercial scale, land-based farm producing Atlantic salmon has recently started to harvest its first crop. "It's completely isolated, you know we don't have to shoot any seals or sea lions that are trying to get at our fish. We don't put any contamination into the water, we don't have sea lice,” Cranmer said to the CBC. He also said that “the salmon from his facility are fetching a 30-per-cent premium on the price because it is raised in a way that is environmentally sustainable”.
And according to the article, Steven Summerfelt, the director of aquaculture systems research at the Freshwater Institute in West Virginia and an adviser on the Namgis project, said they are raising and selling Atlantic Salmon 100 kilometres from the ocean. "We think we can produce fish anywhere,” he said. “We have ideal conditions year round, we have ideal temperature, oxygen, the water quality is excellent, they get all the feed they want, there's no predators, no diseases."
But on closer examination, the picture might not be as rosy as it seems. A video clip on the CBC web site that one can only assume was taken from either the Namgis farm or at the Freshwater Institute shows a number of large Atlantic salmon swimming in a tank, and many of them are at an advanced stage of maturity, something that experienced salmon farmers know will happen if you keep such fish in freshwater.
A mature salmon will not be of very good quality for marketing purposes, a fact that supports a subsequent statement to CBC from salmon farming company Cooke Aquaculture that “Land-based aquaculture isn’t commercially viable”. Nell Halse, Cooke's vice-president for communications, said the company has 20 years experience with land-based recirculating aquaculture systems. For the most part, its land-based operations involve small-scale hatcheries for breeding purposes, however, Halse points to its hatchery in Oak Bay that also raises thousands of breeding stock to full size, on land, in freshwater tanks. "It's not just [about] the technology, we know how to do it," Halse said. She says her company's experience has shown consumers would not be willing to pay a premium on the price of fresh salmon raised on land.
So there are still some disagreements between the promoters of the two different producing camps.
