Aquaculture improving?..The Fish Farm Thread

Got rid of all the nonsense again. It's like rinse and repeat with you guys. We are getting close to ban territory again.
 
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Unfortunately the status-quo of unresolved heightened public dialogue with no regulatory response only benefits the industry that wants the status-quo maintained.
Nope - Experience...

The exception here is sea lice.

If there was no public outcry about sea lice circa 2002 or so - where would we be today wrt sea lice knowledge and treatments? Hard to say - but the follow-up question is:

"Why have open net-pens NOT been listed in the Regulations Designating Physical Activities, known as the “Project List”, currently under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, 2012 (CEAA 2012) – NOR have they had any “scoping” done?"

Guess there was no behind-the-scenes lobbying and undue political influence that prevented that inclusion, eh? Just an unfortunate "oversight" or "by chance"? Right...

What about the so declared new, proposed Aquaculture Act?

AFTER the government lost yet another court case (Morton, 2009 - https://www.canlii.org/en/bc/bcsc/d...bW9ydG9uIHVsdHJhIHZpcmVzAAAAAAE&resultIndex=5) - the industry lobbyists turned to upper-levels of DFO and the Deputy Minister - all captured on email within the exhibits in the Cohen Commission: (http://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/206/30...OCALHOS/EXHIBITFILES/EXH_1626___CAN384486.ZIP).

It's pretty clear that the upper levels of DFO have defended & promoted the industry for years.
 
“The mandate letter is clear that I have to come up with a plan by 2025 and that’s what I will be doing,” – Minister of Fisheries, Bernadette Jordan.
 

After being in denial for over 10 years, they are finally admitting their existing Open Net Pen Fish Farms are not a safe and proper way to raise salmon and something needs to be done!!

"Marine Harvest pursuing radical new salmon farm designs
Marine Harvest is proposing to build radical new salmon farms that could answer nagging concerns about sea lice infestations, virus transfer and escapes from conventional Atlantic salmon farms."
 

This is a very important news item and I recommend that everyone read it and then follow the link to the DFO report.
http://dfo-mpo.gc.ca/aquaculture/publications/ssat-ets-eng.html#toc-1

Two things to keep in mind are (1)that fish farms what to follow the hybrid model and (2)everyone else wants the RAS on land model. I look at it that if the fish farms want a future with expansion here in this province and gain certainty for long term planning, then they have a small window of time it get on board with RAS. If they don't do it they will have a Kodak moment where other companies make them non-relevant. There is no reason that the province could not just ask another company to set up shop here in BC like these guys. After all they are looking for sites that have the ideal locations that we have here in BC.
https://www.fishfarmingexpert.com/article/pure-salmon-picks-france-for-site-of-european-ras/

Please DFO don't have a Diefenbaker moment.
 
This Vancouver Sun article is from 2018, written one year before the report to DFO and BC. That’s okay but let’s put things in perspective. What was the situation in Norway in 2018? New net pen salmon farms were getting hard to come by as the government there brought in new regulations for them and began encouraging industry to experiment with new technologies just like the ones examined in the 2019 Gardner Pinfold Consultant’s report. Perhaps DFO will take the same carrot and stick approach with their transition plan for BC.
“Fourteen salmon farmers have spent a total of NOK2.9 billion (£270m) to buy new biomass licences in auctions held by the Norwegian government.”
https://www.fishfarmingexpert.com/article/norwegian-salmon-licence-auctions-raise-nok29bn/
 
The ahhhhhh point of the article was to reinforce

“The mandate letter is clear that I have to come up with a plan by 2025 and that’s what I will be doing,” – Minister of Fisheries, Bernadette Jordan.


And


"Marine Harvest pursuing radical new salmon farm designs
Marine Harvest is proposing to build radical new salmon farms that could answer nagging concerns about sea lice infestations, virus transfer and escapes from conventional Atlantic salmon farms."


If you have a different approach to the future of salmon farming then fine.
But there are more choices to closed containment than putting them on land and this design like I have said here before has the lowest ROI than others and will not operate at a 30% premium like land based systems.
 
This statement should apply here in B.C. as well. “Washington state needs to stop giving away our public waters and wild species to private interests—factory fish farms do not belong in Puget Sound,” said Amy van Saun, senior attorney with Center for Food Safety’s Pacific Northwest office, and co-counsel in the case. “Washington officials are accountable not just to industry, but to the people of Washington, who want wild coasts and invaluable species protected from companies that do not respect our special places.”
 
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