Why not have some fish for dinner?

            

Opposition voices continue to demand change in fish farming and are calling on the B.C. provincial government to decide on radical methods involving hundreds of netpens by March 2008. The pens growing fish currently would be banned in favour of an unproven theory that people can grow high density populations of salmon in ocean situated aquariums, the so-called closed containment pens.

 

According to voices outside of the fish farm opponent, which is loud, clear, and seemingly organized, the idea of closed containment pens is a non-existent alternative and therefore no alternative whatsoever. The opposition’s proposal contains no practical value on the commercial scale in a world market for growing 6 to 8 kg salmon.

 

Ideas exist, for example, Agrimarine Industry continues to research the placement of concrete pens in the ocean, a floating platform for growing salmon on a commercial scale. Read this account of Agrimarine going public.

 

Ian Roberts, communications manager for Marine Harvest Canada, said, "It would take an area the size of 135 soccer fields with bags measuring 10 metres deep," (a really, really big enclosed bag), "to implement the sustainable aquaculture committee's proposal," in their operations, and the 135 soccer fields applies to to MHC production, equal to 45,000 tonnes.

It is another way of saying it would be impossible to produce the amount of fish grown in Marine Harvest Canada farm sites. No technology and none exists on the horizon to produce 45,000 tonnes of salmon in aquariums.

The waters of coastal British Columbia invite the production of fish far sooner than experimental concepts of rearing fish in bags. Until the past two decades a crop of real tough wild salmonids roamed around (presumably in the North Pacific) eating everything that moved and these mobs returned to the home stream bed after four years to spawn in creeks, streams, and river systems on the west end of the North American continent.

These tough breeds of salmon seem to be rapidly disappearing and nobody seems to know why. (Read this report 0n the Fraser River Salmon Table Society meeting in Prince George last autumn.)

Blame is sometimes put on aquaculture. It hardly seems likely, but arguments like one made by Bill Vernon in Northern Aquaculture do not exactly still the beating the heart either. Vernon is saying a few of the major runs of wild sockeye, schools of millions, arrive to find their ancestral pastures occupied and divested of food. Vernon suggests billions of Alaskan, Korean, Japanese, and Chinese so-called 'ranch' salmon are causing starvation to occur to wild salmon. It is the kind of argument that almost makes sense.

If fish farming is often touted as an unwelcome reality people should realize that all the farms in Canada operating at present would fit on the runways of Vancouver International Airport. It is not currently and could never be a major displacement in the coastal environment.

Roberts noted, "Chile produces about eight times what we do in Canada," 640,000 tonnes versus 80,000 tonnes, "and Norway does the same as Chile." Even at the relatively truncated scale operating in Canada, thousands of jobs and millions of dollars have been invested since the 1980s, and it all hangs in the balance.

A cash crop of $500 million would disappear from Port Hardy, Campbell River, and many other communities, including entirely First Nation communities like Klemtu and Ahousaht.

Somebody should write a book about what went so wrong in the planning process for economic development in fish farming. Maybe it will be me. but, indeed questions remain whether the industry can proceed much further on the west coast. Dealing with people working in the industry sometimes reveals the stress, and in the coastal cities everybody employed or engaged feels it.

It is hard to do a good job on something when everyone keeps telling you how bad it is for you to do that job and you should not be allowed to do that job the way you do it.

Ian Roberts explained, "I chose this as a career 15 years ago and completely believe in what I do." A lot of west coast Canadians believed investing in ocean production of salmon would be an honest day's work. In fact, in studying the process, Roberts said, "Of all the farm production methods and footprints on the environment the most efficient to culture is salmon."

Where do people who work in the industry stand on the necessity for change? "There are things we would like to do." Early licensing practices placed salmon farms close to the land in low current sites. "We would like to move out," said Roberts. "We have been discussing it for 20 years, the need to move," to sites that accommodate the fish and the environment.

He noted, however, the fight is from local areas, often a symptom of a leadership vacuum. Nobody is able or willing, or trying to unify the diversity of interests on the coast.

In the case of these territorial waters, a number of coastal First Nations are working to exercise power while everybody needs to participate in a collegial economic environment. It is the missing collegiality in the present system that speaks to a lack of leadership at the highest levels. It is wrong to suggest that First Nation issues are intractable. It is correct to suggest the way forward is certainly not yet apparent.

Roberts said the fish farm industry would like to work in a flexible manner on existing operations, and even wait happily for the possibility of expanding the number of sites. Why, they have grown used to waiting, for it’s been 20 years of speaking to deaf ears. The Canadian growers would be content to feed a North American market with as little as 3 percent expansion a year.

In reality, Roberts said, the good news comes from morale of employees, an increasing number of whom are from First Nations communities. "We had seven people from Alert Bay hired in past six months. They are working on-site, a couple of girls and couple of guys." Roberts is completely aware that people in west coast communities including towns like Alert Bay are looking to make a career in producing fish. It is a good reason to keep driving to work each day.

People like Alfred Vincent have made careers with Marine Harvest. Alfred has a seven year history as a fish technician on MHC sites including presently drawing a paycheque on the site in the Nodales Channel outside Campbell River. He likes the job, the company, and the opportunity for gainful employment so close to home.

A fish technician on Marine Harvest sites outside Alert Bay answer to the Broughton Area Manager, "He's taking care of about six sites and coordinating hiring with the Human Resources managers in Campbell River and Port Hardy. We also have a busy processing plant in Port Hardy," a huge employer for the town, 200 onsite year round."

Marine Harvest works in other areas around the B.C. coast, and enjoys one of the most intriguing and fruitful relationships in business in Canada today, with a company called Kitasoo Seafoods Ltd.. The company, Kitasoo Seafoods Ltd., is owned and operated by the First Nations in joint-venture with Marine Harvest.

This business story continues to evolve, both parties continue thriving, and the rest of Canada could learn an object lesson on cultural regional economic international harmony. In fact, according to the latest demographics, Canada had better learn fast.

COUNTER