All food production affects the environment
Closed-containment salmon farms not the panacea they are said to be
By Mary Ellen Walling, Special to Times ColonistNovember 12, 2010
More critical thought needs to be given to the studies quoted verbatim by D.C. Reid in his Nov. 10 column, "Science starting to prove Canada better get its fish farms on land, quickly."
His suggestion that I, or anyone in the B.C. salmon farming industry, has said that there is no science about farms or their potential impacts on the environment is simply wrong. In fact, I have said the complete opposite.
There is tons of science -- paper after paper, study after study. What they show, as a body of work, is that there are no clear answers for these complicated topics. The correlation that Reid repeatedly tries to make between salmon farms and the decline in wild salmon stocks is simply not there.
While the industry sees value in a measurement system like the Global Aquaculture Performance Index to encourage good practices and high accountability, there are, for the critical reader, important things to consider.
One of them is that no matter how much people try to stick to numbers, an element of interpretation is always required.
For example, this index has normalized (impact per metric-tonnage) as well as "cumulative" level scores. That cumulative number is penalized by the amount of production, assuming that the scale deteriorates scores.
That logic would say, for example, that having one really bad salmon farm is better than 10 very well-run operations. Canada's Atlantic salmon score drops to 64 from 70 in this rating -- while Norway's, for example, drops from 72 to 33.
Then there are the numbers that are used. Sometimes researchers have to make adjustments for formulas like this one to work. So, for Canada's Atlantic salmon operations, where the escape numbers were so different compared to ranges of other Atlantic salmon producers that they were considered "outliers," the investigators have "assumed that Canada's escapes are in line with the global average."
The numbers didn't fit -- so they made up new ones.
Reid also doesn't mention that of 44 species-country pairs assessed, the B.C. salmon-farming industry ranked fifth in normalized scores.
It's important to recognize the strengths and weaknesses of any of these assessment tools and we think the GAPI shows that our operations are well-run in the world of marine aquaculture.
It's also important to understand that all food production has environmental impacts of some sort -- it's an inevitable part of the process. We agree that it is important to make sure those impacts are as minimal as possible.
It would be interesting to see a GAPI-like assessment done on commercial fishing, or beef and chicken production so that policymakers could make the decisions needed for sustainable, secure, long-term food production.
And while the report's overall ruling is that higher production means negative impact, it's also up-front about the growing need for aquaculture and the role it will play in the future. We think it's good to encourage the industries in countries where regulations are high and as a result, impact is lowest.
Advocating for our industry's end will only see it flourish in the less-successful areas -- which at a global sustainability level, doesn't seem like a very good solution.
As we've explained many times, closed containment isn't the obvious answer that some make it out to be. To that point, however, we are continuing research in this technology which we already have advanced knowledge in -- and, as the industry has proven again and again, when advancements are made, we are quick to adopt them into our regular operations.
We'd be happy to discuss any of these topics rather than continuously replying through the press, but Reid has never contacted us in an effort for broader understanding or balance.
Opinions of course are an important part of news coverage, but they should be well-informed before being shared.
Mary Ellen Walling is executive director of B.C. Salmon Farmers. She is based in Campbell River.
