The Atlantic Canada Fish Farmers Association (ACFFA) is calling for the Canadian government to rethink its planned investments in wild Atlantic salmon conservation and restoration that would allocate money to the Atlantic Salmon Federation (ASF).
The ACFFA is an industry-funded association representing the fish-farming industry in Atlantic Canada, with members including Mowi Canada East, Cooke Aquaculture, Skretting, and Ocean Trout Canada. In an open letter to Canada Prime Minister Mark Carney and Canada Fisheries Minister Joanne Thompson, the association is calling for Canada to remove all public funds sent to the ASF.
“At a time when Canada must strengthen its food security, economic resilience, and rural communities, it is indefensible to allocate taxpayer dollars to an organization actively working to dismantle a responsible, highly regulated food production sector,” ACFFA Executive Director Tom Taylor wrote.
At issue is CAD 81.7 million (USD 59.1 million, EUR 50.5 million) in funding that will go toward wild Atlantic salmon, a species which is currently endangered in the U.S. and Canada. Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) pledged to support four projects working on Atlantic salmon conservation and restoration; one of those projects is a habitat connectivity assessment and barrier prioritization project led by the ASF. For the project, DFO promised CAD 286,000 (USD 207,000, EUR 177,000).
Taylor said that funding is going to an organization that has directly attacked Canadian aquaculture operations and companies through campaigns like “Off the Table,” which calls for consumers to never purchase farmed salmon.
“Campaigns such as ‘Off the Table’ and salmon.info are not neutral public education initiatives,” Taylor said. “They are deliberate, well-funded communications strategies designed to spread misleading and incomplete information about farmed salmon, with the explicit goal of discouraging its consumption and shutting down the sector.”
He said the salmon industry in Canada is heavily regulated, with multiple layers of oversight from both provincial and federal agencies, as well as regular environmental evaluations.
Taylor further explained that companies in the industry also contribute regularly to wild salmon recovery efforts, including the Fundy Salmon Recovery program, which created the world’s first wild salmon marine conservation farm on Grand Manan Island in New Brunswick and helped reverse wild salmon declines and rebuild the population.
“This initiative is delivering groundbreaking, measurable results: More than 13,000 mature wild salmon have been successfully returned to inner Bay of Fundy rivers, with over 700 tagged fish returning – the highest returns seen in decades,” Taylor said. “This is what responsible, science-based conservation looks like: collaboration, transparency, and outcomes. It stands in stark contrast to the approach taken by the ASF.”
Taylor and the ACFFA are calling for a formal review of ASF’s charitable designation and claims the organization’s activity causes concern under the Competition Bureau, an independent law enforcement agency regulating competition in Canada.
“As you know, the Competition Bureau has expressly included the raising of funds for charitable or nonprofit purposes as a business activity that is subject to the deceptive marketing provisions of the Competition Act,” Taylor wrote.
He wrote the ASF’s campaigns against Canadian salmon farmers could fall under that umbrella and called for the government to reexamine funding the organization.
“Atlantic Canada’s fish farmers are responsible stewards of the ocean, advancing innovation, protecting wild salmon, and providing stable, year-round employment that sustains families and communities across the region. Our work strengthens Canada’s food security, economy, and global reputation as a producer of safe, high-quality protein,” Taylor wrote. “We call on the Government of Canada to ensure taxpayer dollars fund true conservation, uphold the integrity of our food systems, and reject organizations whose activities threaten both our rural communities and our nation’s ability to grow its own food.”
