Growing the farm and preserving the wild
Globe and Mail, From: BC Salmon Farmers Association, Oct. 20, 2015
B.C. is showing the world how salmon farming, coastal communities and wild stock can thrive side-by-side
British Columbia has become a world leader in salmon farming, according to veterinarian and former salmon farmer Brad Hicks. The evidence, he says, can be found in the social fabric of coastal communities that have been reborn, thanks to the industry.
“We’re already into second-generation farmers in B.C. – and there are lots of them,” notes Dr. Hicks, a partner of Taplow Feeds, an aquaculture food manufacturer in Chilliwack, B.C. “For me, that spells the stability and social element that build strong communities. Who is the largest employer in Campbell River? Who is the largest employer in Charlotte County, New Brunswick? It’s the salmon farming industry.
“People can buy houses; they can have families and reliable incomes. It’s all good stuff.”
Dr. Hicks, who went back to school to become a veterinarian specializing in fish health, credits the industry for doing a world-class job in building a “very educated workforce.”
British Columbia is setting the global standard for
best practices in salmon farming.
Supplied
There are plenty of educational opportunities on the island for training people for the industry, he points out, referring to the spate of degrees and diplomas offered in B.C., at Vancouver Island University in Nanaimo and at North Island College on Vancouver Island.
Not only is education good for the industry, it’s also good for people like Dr. Hicks, who took advantage of those opportunities and stayed in B.C. to help build the industry and who speaks from his own experience.
“Before salmon farming, B.C.’s coastal population was basically transient,” he says. “It was seasonal fishers or seasonal loggers. Now you have communities that are stable. It’s completely different here now.”
A strong economy, a well-trained workforce and stable coastal communities are all evidence of the best practices in salmon farming that are being developed in the province.
Canada is also a world leader in disease management, disease reporting – “probably the best in the world,” says Dr. Hicks – and the continuous improvement of management systems in salmon farming. As well, B.C. farmers have made improvements to fish feed and breeding programs.
Predators such as seals and sea lions were causing significant damage to salmon farms. B.C. farmers responded by upgrading the netting material and changing the distance between nets – a best practice that was shared internationally. “It may sound simple, but it solved the problem,” says Dr. Hicks. “That improvement gets spread around the world.”
Most telling about the industry’s commitment to achieving the world’s best practices is the goal of having all farm-raised Atlantic salmon certified by 2020 by the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC), the Netherlands-based organization that manages international standards for responsible aquaculture.
Over the next five years, British Columbia aims to be the first region in the world to have all of its farms reach this gold standard of environmental certification.
That’s groundbreaking, notes Jose Villalon, who was instrumental in leading the salmon aquaculture dialogues that led to the development of that ASC standard.
“I believe that collectively the salmon farmers of B.C. have made an unprecedented regional commitment to responsible production,” says Mr. Villalon, the director of sustainability at Nutreco, a global leader in animal nutrition and fish feed.
He welcomes such a commitment in a “region that has been historically heavily scrutinized” and says it aligns with the aspirations of the Global Salmon Initiative, launched in 2013 by salmon farm companies representing 70 per cent of the international farmed-salmon market.
“It creates an example of how the industry can take leadership control to address common societal and environmental concerns where perhaps governmental regulation would take more time to implement and enforce,” adds Mr. Villalon.
Earlier this year, Marine Harvest Canada’s Marsh Bay farm became the first salmon farm in North America to be certified by the ASC.
B.C. now has three ASC-certified salmon farms, joining more than 60 salmon farms around the world in achieving the ASC standard, which was first developed by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and is the most demanding international global sustainability certification program.
Back in B.C., Dr. Hicks, who comes from a family in Ontario with a longtime tradition in farming, compares aquaculture to agriculture.
Farms have been in families for 300 years, says Dr. Hicks. “It’s a natural evolution to farm the aquatic environment, just like it happened on land for a very good reason,” he explains, pointing out that if people relied on just hunting, there would be very few animals left on land.
“Over half the world’s fish consumed now comes from farms. There’s no way the oceans could produce that [much fish]; there’d be nothing left.
“Salmon farming has reduced that pressure, including the pressure on forage fish.”
