SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON SUSTAINABLE AQUACULTURE
Some extracts from the
Campbell River meeting: --- (my choosing)
R. Kwakseestahla: Our position on the fish farm has been zero tolerance. ... I was anchored with my captain on the vessel I worked on in Kanish. ...
-- There used to be tons of oysters and tons of clams, ... I went into that lagoon, and I was totally flabbergasted. ... "Go look at Granite Bay, and look what happened to the oysters and the clams in the lagoon that we call Kanish."
P. Marshall: In closing, I would support both the provincial and national chambers of commerce resolutions on this topically. Basically, they recommend that governments (1) fairly interpret and apply existing regulations as they pertain to salmon farming projects, (2) ensure that the relevant regulations and programs be implemented to support the development and expansion of aquaculture and new programs be developed that recognize unique features of this segment of Canada's food production system and (3) base regulation and expansion of the industry on legitimate and responsible research into the environmental impacts of water farming.
V. Egan: My name is Van Egan. I'm from Campbell River. I've lived here for 50 years. I've seen the gradual decline of the salmon resource during that time. I feel that fish farms are one more obstacle to their survival.
-- Just to refresh your minds about the scientific studies that have been carried on regarding the problem of sea lice proliferating around open-net-cage fish farms and the danger of sea lice and their larvae wreaking havoc on out-migrating salmon smolts. In this matter, I would like to think that the findings of these studies by reputable people of the scientific community will bear more weight with you than some of those mind-numbing pronouncements of the industry's professional public relations people.
-- We should all be aware that science does not have all the final answers to problems, which we might like, especially those problems where multiple variables exist, but good scientific research provides us with the best answers we have at this time. These interpretations of collected data should be the basis for decision-making. In the matter of open-net-cage fish farms the evidence is clear that they are deathtraps to out-migrating salmon smolts. It seems to me that we should be questioning whether fish farming is sustainable at all. I would say it isn't, even if placed in closed containment systems on land.
-- To provide the feed for farm fish requires four pounds of oceanic food obtained from the aquatic life of lesser immediate value to us to raise one pound of farm salmon. To make the food pellets for farm salmon requires fishing down the ocean's food chains. Multiple tonnes of the ocean's food web must be extracted to grow one quarter the amount of farm salmon. Is this a smart move? Is this good management of the world's resources? I think not.
-- It's true that much of this fishing down on the food chain takes place elsewhere on the globe, but are you aware that 500 tonnes of krill have been netted each year out of the Strait of Georgia during the past decade?
-- The Strait of Georgia is not showing signs of being the great, healthy fishing pond it once was. It may not be the only factor in diminishing those not-so-long-ago days when coho and spring salmon were abundant, but it seems conceivable that to continue these krill harvests will jeopardize any efforts to bring back the wild salmon of the Strait of Georgia - nor will the continued existence of open-net-cage fish farms.
J. Ritchlin: The thing about the closed systems is that by controlling all of the environmental factors of the growing conditions, you reduce - in some cases significantly, 10 percent to 20 percent - the amount of feed required to run your operation. This is also an economic benefit, since feed is usually one of the largest cost inputs for fish-farming operations - feed and labour in North America and clearly feed in South America.
-- Eco-farm is a company in Europe that won a $500,000 U.S. prize from the French government to build land-based, fully closed systems on the coast of Normandy in a highly sensitive zone of cultural and natural heritage to the French government. They're also building systems in the Faroe Islands. These will be for salmon as well as other species.
-- AquaOptima is a joint government-industry private research effort in Norway. They're growing a number of coldwater salt species in closed tanks, as well as freshwater species.
P. Gibson: It's very important for us to be economically viable, and it's of no interest to us to make mistakes and to destroy the environment that we're working in. Fish always have been and always will be a primary indicator of the health of the environment, and farm fish are no exception to that.
-- It's extremely important to us to keep the fish healthy, keep them clean of lice so they feed well, and we don't waste resources.
B. Milligan: Currently we monitor sea lice monthly. That's part of the regulations. It's audited quarterly by the ministry. We have set thresholds for action. During times of smolt out-migration, which are typically March, April, May and June, you have a set action level of three. So at three motile lice per fish, you have to then treat, harvest or have some other management decision in place.
-- The rest of the year, when you don't have out-migrating smolts, it's six. At six motile lice per fish, you then have to impose some action. Currently, during this smolt out-migration period we've been far less than three motile lice per fish, so there hasn't been any action in place at all in this period.
J. Gordon: The scientific community has collectively proven that we should treat human sewage before dumping it into our ocean, and even this treated sewage is pumped out into fast currents, away from the delicate shoreline. But nothing is being done to treat fish-farm waste, which has, I assume, more drug residue and growth enhancers than human waste, not to mention the pesticides used to kill sea lice.
B. Walker: ... people think either you can support the wild fishery or you can support salmon farmers but that you can't do both. We say: "Wrong." Not only can we do both, we absolutely must do both
E. Blueschke: We're engaged in a court-mandated consultation, and what brought us there was the application by Marine Harvest to place Atlantic salmon into the farm at Church House. Their application went in, in April of 2004, and the provincial government did not notify us of that application until July of 2004.
-- In that notification, it said to us that the decision for authorization would be handed down on December 8 of 2004. They didn't tell us, but we found out through court afterwards that the authorization actually happened on December 7, and they promptly began to put Atlantic stocks into that farm.
-- We were notified on Friday, December 17, at 4:50 - the last day before the Christmas holiday - and our offices close at 4:30. Luckily for workaholics like me, I was still at work, and I saw this fax coming through the machine. We promptly contacted our legal counsel, who were on their way home for the Christmas holiday as well.
-- We filed an injunction, and on December 24 we were successful. We had a judicial review.
R. Stevenson: Why are we being hit so hard with regulations when it is only shellfish, you say? Go figure. But I can tell you that I give talks all over the province about shellfish farming. I always like to refer to this one talk in front of the legislative buildings with all that grandiose and all the people with the cameras - CBC and whoever. Someone behind a very large camera said: "How do you guys handle escapements, anyway?" You know, I tried to keep a straight face, but shit, it was hard.
J. Holder: If we continue to exploit the wild fishery to the extent we do today, it will not survive. Salmon farming will allow it to regroup, and if government implements the proper safeguards it will flourish alongside the farming industry.
-- With fish, up to a quarter of the high protein food consumed is excreted as feces.
