Just in from Clayoquot Action, Dan Lewis

Instead of moving to get out of the water in BC, Grieg is trying a semi-clowed fish farm design. As it lets out all the sewage and feed of the current nets, it's hard to see how it could be an improvement to avoid being taken out of the water.

GRIEG’S FALSE FISH FARM SOLUTION

Tofino BC, 8 February 2022— Grieg Seafood announced today they will be trialing 3 new “semi-closed” containment fish farms at their Esperanza operations. The new facilities will essentially be open-net pens with sea lice curtains which can be raised or lowered to seal off the sides, but not the bottom of the system.

Cermaq, another Norwegian company, recently trialed their semi-closed containment system in the Clayoquot Sound UNESCO Biosphere Region. After operating the facility in Ahousaht First Nations territory near Tofino for less than a year, Cermaq threw in the towel, citing “a technical fault and related fish welfare”. Cermaq stated on their website: “SCCS is immature technology under development, therefore it is not surprising when you are trialing new technology you will run into challenges”.

“Semi-closed containment systems are a false solution to the threats posed to wild salmon by fish farms,” said Clayoquot Action’s executive director Dan Lewis. “They are more ‘semi-‘ than ‘closed’, and continue to spread pathogens and pollution into the marine environment”.

The federal government has pledged to transition the industry away from open-net pens by 2025. In early 2020, a report was released by Fisheries and Oceans Canada which stated: “floating closed containment requires 2-5 years of further review”. In other words, the technology is not ready, and will not likely be ready by 2025.

“Wild salmon in Clayoquot Sound are rapidly approaching extinction”, according to Lewis. “In the Megin watershed, just north of Tofino in Ahousaht territory, the Chinook salmon population has declined by 98%, with just 21 Chinook returning to the river in 2021”.

Fish farms will be banned in Washington State by 2025, leaving BC the only jurisdiction on the west coast of North America permitting open-net pen fish farms. The federal government must move swiftly to remove fish farms from BC waters in order to protect wild salmon. Their plan must include a just transition for affected workers and communities.

Dan Lewis, Executive Director: 250-726-8136 / dan@clayoquotaction.org