October 3, 2019 — Justin Trudeau calls for shift from open net-pen farming to land-based systems in British Columbia
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party has released its full party platform, which calls for a “transition [in British Columbia] from open net pen salmon farming in coastal waters to closed containment systems by 2025.”
October 2, 2019 — A promise from Canada’s Liberal Party that if they’re elected they’ll introduce legislation to move net-pen salmon farming in the province of British Columbia to closed-containment systems by 2025 caught many in the salmon farming sector by surprise.
Timothy Kennedy, president and CEO of the Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance (CAIA), said that’s because industry representatives had long been engaged with the government and other stakeholders to discuss technological improvements to salmon farming that would have satisfied many concerns.
That process determined that “hybrid” technologies to grow larger smolts on land and reduce the time farmed salmon spend in the ocean as the medium and near-term solutions that were the most feasible, he said.
“There’s a lot of opportunity and a lot of investment going into that,” he said. “This sort of commitment within an artificial time frame is really challenging and very undermining of the process and the intent of those who were involved in the process.”
October 1, 2019 — Representatives of Canada’s salmon farming industry are hitting back hard at plans unveiled in the recently released Liberal party platform headed by incumbent Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to transition salmon farming in British Columbia from ocean netpen farms to land-based operations.
The Liberal platform has potentially serious and far-reaching negative consequences for Canadian jobs and the environment, said the Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance (CAIA), which represents the interests of Canada’s aquaculture producers.
“This is a reckless policy, not grounded in science, and it will threaten good middle-class jobs across Canada,” says Timothy Kennedy, CAIA president and CEO.
If implemented, Kennedy added, farmed salmon production would simply be driven to other countries, undercutting efforts the industry has made to improve sustainability.
September 30, 2019 — Since its inception in the 1970s, the global salmon farming industry has struggled to manage the severe economic, animal welfare, and ecological impacts of sea lice infestation, which are preventing salmon farming from reaching its true potential. The economic impact has been estimated at between USD 400 to USD 600 million (EUR 366 million to EUR 549 million) per year.
Sea lice (Lepeophtheirus salmonis and members of the Caligus genus), settle on their host as free-swimming larvae, attaching firmly to and feeding from the salmon. They cause physical damage and stress in the fish, and adversely affecting growth and performance. Severe infestations can lead to secondary infections and mass mortalities.
September 30, 2019 — The following was released by the Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance:
The Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance, together with its regional counterparts, BC Salmon Farmers Association, Ontario Aquaculture Association, Atlantic Canada Fish Farmers Association, Aquaculture Association of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland Aquaculture Industry Association, today issued the following joint statement:
The Liberal platform commitment to moving all salmon production in British Columbia to “closed containment by 2025” is highly irresponsible with potentially serious and far-reaching negative consequences for Canadian jobs and the environment.
“This is a reckless policy, not grounded in science, and it will threaten good middle-class jobs across Canada,” says Timothy Kennedy, President & CEO of the Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance.
Salmon farming is the most environmentally sustainable large-scale farmed animal production in the world. It’s a solution to climate change. British Columbia farm-raised salmon production has been recognized as being a global top sustainable performer: the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s “Seafood Watch” recognized the provincial production as “a good alternative” last year, the only region so recognized in the world, and the FAIRR Global Index lists BC salmon producers as the top sustainable global producers of animal protein. It is a critical solution to the world’s growing demand for low impact, low-carbon emissions, high-protein food supply while alleviating pressure on threatened wild fish stocks.
Seafood farming provides 26,000 full-time jobs across Canada. It generates $5.4 Billion in economic activity in Canada. Salmon farming makes up close to 90% of this economic value. This is a young, highly innovative sector that is providing full-time jobs across Canada where these jobs are needed most: in indigenous, remote, and coastal communities.
The Liberal party has consistently said it will base decisions on science. There is no evidence that B.C. salmon farms are harming wild salmon populations. While pilot projects to grow salmon to full size in closed containment are happening around the world, this work needs to continue in partnership and without any artificial mandates and timelines.
No other nation has proposed this requirement of their salmon production. If implemented, this requirement will only move local, top-quality production to other countries that may not have the high environmental standards Canada already employs.
“While we are already a top global performer, our sector is committed to constant improvement. Our farmers need support and confidence to continue to invest in Canada. This irresponsible policy platform seriously undermines this confidence,” Kennedy concluded.
September 27, 2019 — A veteran of Cargill’s aquafeed trading wing, Petter M. Johannessen last year took over as director general of IFFO, which represents global fishmeal and fish oil producers and their trade associates. The London, United Kingdom-based organization will hold its 59th annual conference on 4 to 6 November, 2019, in Shanghai, China, at a time of rising Chinese demand for feed inputs, but also increased interest in alternatives to fishmeal and fish oil. Johannessen spoke to SeafoodSource about preparations for the Shanghai meeting, and more broadly, the state of the industry.
SeafoodSource: What are the priorities for the upcoming IFFO annual conference in Shanghai?
September 25, 2019 — The following was released by the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership:
Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP) is pleased to introduce the Aquaculture Improvement Project (AIP) Toolkit, an online resource to support new AIPs and accelerate the adoption of better management practices across aquaculture industries.
Similar to fishery improvement projects (FIPs), an AIP is a multi-stakeholder process that addresses the cumulative environmental impacts and the shared risks associated with aquaculture. These projects utilize the power of the private sector to promote positive changes toward sustainability and seek to make these changes endure through policy change. If the industry works to develop AIPs in the same way it has worked to develop FIPs, SFP believes the aquaculture industry will thrive by addressing some of its key challenges, such as disease outbreaks and poor water quality.
“Compared to FIPs, the concept of an AIP is relatively new, less familiar, and far less established within the seafood industry,” said Dave Martin, deputy division director, programs at SFP. “However, they are an equally important mechanism for the supply chain to support industries along the journey toward sustainability.”
The new AIP Toolkit provides step-by-step guidance on how to initiate, implement, and report an AIP, and ultimately improve aquaculture policy and management strategies that result in improvements on the water. To make it more familiar and easy to use, SFP has adapted the AIP toolkit from the established guidelines for FIPs created by the Conservation Alliance for Seafood Solutions, and the AIP Toolkit’s style mirrors SFP’s existing FIP Toolkit and Resources. The toolkit includes an introduction to AIPs, general guidance on how to start an AIP, as well as templates and example documentation to support project implementation.
“We aren’t reinventing the wheel here. We’ve taken a model that is well-known to industry – the FIP model – and adapted it to the unique challenges of aquaculture,” said SFP CEO Jim Cannon. “Many of the steps in an AIP mirror the core attributes of a FIP: public supply chain commitments, published needs assessments, workplans with time-bound objectives, and regular public reporting of progress.”
The AIP toolkit notes that, in line with the FAO’s Ecosystem Approach to Aquaculture (EAA), an AIP should operate at a scale beyond the farm level and focus on improved management at the resource, watershed, or landscape level (commonly referred to as zonal or area management). A report co-published last year by SFP, Conservation International, and the University California Santa Barbara’s Sustainable Fisheries Group is a complementary resource to the AIP toolkit that provides implementation guidance on three key principles of the EAA. All of this information, and more, can be found on SFP’s website at www.sustainablefish.org.
September 23, 2019 — A consortium of 14 shellfish geneticists from 12 East Coast universities and government agencies has won a 5-year, $4.4 million grant from the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission to develop new tools to accelerate and localize selective breeding in support of oyster aquaculture.
The project team was assembled by Stan Allen, professor and director of the Aquaculture Genetics and Breeding Technology Center at William & Mary’s Virginia Institute of Marine Science; Ximing Guo, distinguished professor and shellfish geneticist at Rutgers Haskin Shellfish Research Laboratory; and Dina Proestou, a scientist with the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service. Guo will serve as the consortium’s principal investigator.
Allen says, “Our respective breeding programs at Rutgers and VIMS are at the core of the new consortium approach. The project is a terrific opportunity to develop further ground-breaking approaches with Ximing’s team and our other East Coast collaborators, and will hopefully deliver all the more results for industry.” Guo and Allen previously partnered to create the world’s first tetraploid oysters at Rutgers in 1994.
September 20, 2019 — The University of Maine at Orono received a $1.6 million grant to advance sustainable aquaculture in Maine.
According to a release from the university, Maine Sea Grant researchers at the University of Maine were granted the money from the NOAA National Sea Grant to lead four projects in collaboration with the aquaculture industry, management, and community partners.
“Thousands of Mainers rely on marine industries for their livelihoods, and aquaculture is a promising area for growth,” said U.S. Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King.
According to NOAA fisheries, the United States imports 85% of its seafood, which has resulted in a $14 billion trade deficit- leading to new opportunities in aquaculture to meet demands of seafood consumption.
September 20, 2019 — In 2017, the governor of Washington State ordered all agencies to ban salmon farming in state waters after a net-pen failure at a Cooke Aquaculture-owned Atlantic salmon farm caused a fish escape into the surrounding Pacific.
That event in the Northwest became an obvious opportunity for the Northeastern U.S. state of Maine, which was once home to an Atlantic salmon fishery. While the wild fishery has been nonexistent for years due to wild populations of Atlantic salmon being deemed endangered in the state, aquaculture operations continue to see results.