The phase-out of open net-pen aquaculture operations in British Columbia was an action Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party bullish on prior to Canada’s federal election last fall, but the issue has faded into the background in the months following Trudeau’s win, and the path forward remains unclear for the province’s industry.
The party’s platform called for a “transition [in British Columbia] from open net-pen salmon farming in coastal waters to closed containment systems by 2025.” The plan drew sharp criticism from those in the country’s aquaculture industry at the time.
But recent comments by Bernadette Jordan, the country’s new minister of fisheries, suggest the end-date for the transition away from net-pet farming will be pushed back. It now appears the 2025 milestone is the year by which a full plan will be drafted, after Jordan gave the estimate that it will take five years to come up with a plan.
“The mandate letter is clear that I have to come up with a plan by 2025 and that’s what I will be doing,” Jordan told SeaWestNews.
The wording of Trudeau’s mandate led the industry to believe all open net-pen operations would somehow be transitioned into closed tanks on land, but even that has led to some confusion.
“It is not clear to me whether the federal and provincial governments will develop a plan by 2025 to transition the net-pen industry, or whether the transition will be completed by 2025. If the former, then until the plan is finalized, it will not be clear as to how or when the transition will take place,” wrote Garry Ullstrom, the CEO of Kuterra, a land-based salmon farm owned by the ‘Namgis First Nation in the Broughton Archipelago region of the North Island in British Columbia, in an email to SalmonBusiness in October.
Ullstrom explained that “closed containment systems” could refer to a variety of technologies used in aquaculture, including containers that float in the ocean.
“The mandate of the technical working group is to investigate and to provide recommendations that will support the development of alternative aquaculture production technologies which, as stated above, includes various types of closed-containment technology. Cermaq, for example, has indicated that it would like to trial a semi-closed system in British Columbia. So the announcement does not necessarily mean that the net pen industry will be transitioned onto land,” Ullstrom wrote.
Any changes to British Columbia’s rules governing finfish aquaculture would result in aquaculture companies operating nationwide having to abide be separate regulations in the east and west coasts of the country. Jordan has noted that regulations for aquaculture are governed by provincial governments on the East Coast and by the federal government on the West Coast.
In the meantime, the aquaculture industry can do little but wait for a plan to be unveiled.
"We are right now working toward an aquaculture act that we hope will lend stability to the industry as well as address the concerns that people have about aquaculture," Jordan told the CBC.
Photo courtesy of Reimar/Shutterstock
