Commercial Salmon Licences, a Weird History

If you want to see just how weird the history of commercial aalmon licences in BC has been, just read this article: https://www.hakaimagazine.com/features/fishery-closures-and-the-ghosts-of-past-mistakes/?mc_cid=933472e405&mc_eid=5777c92bcd.

It nicely brings together the historical complexities of DFO changes and the intended and unintended results since then.

And here is the most cogent quote from the article:

DFO wasn’t the only one offering cash for licenses. The Mifflin Plan didn’t regulate the total number of licenses anyone could hold, which created an opportunity for some of the largest processors to accumulate licenses, Silver says.
I
n Silver’s 2019 paper, she points out how the Jim Pattison Group now controls a massive chunk of the industry, because it owns 424 licenses—239 through its subsidiary the Canadian Fishing Company, 134 directly, and another 51 through a handful of companies. The next-largest owner is the Northern Native Fishing Corporation with 254 licenses. Around 1,360 people own just one license.

Today, there are 2,109 salmon licenses: 1,457 gill net, 376 troll, 276 seine. There are also a number of First Nations licenses permitting the use of mixed gear types, not including gill nets.

Davis says DFO is very aware of its past mistakes, but fishers aren’t convinced the PSSI will unfold without consequences.
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So there you have it. Lots of work went into this Haikai Magazine piece written by Michelle Gamage.

And just how much are these many licences worth?

Gamage says this: "An analysis of commercial fishing licenses, published on December 31, 2019, calculated each salmon seine license to be worth $530,000; a troll license, $167,000; and a gill net license, $56,000. If DFO hypothetically bought all salmon licenses at these prices, it would take up 45 percent of the PSSI budget—meaning there’s considerably less money going toward habitat restoration, Lawson says.

And, here are the First Nations impacts: "Earlier this year, the Nuu-chah-nulth won a court case in the BC Court of Appeal that confirmed First Nations rights to commercial fisheries. For the Ahousaht, Hesquiaht, Mowachaht/Muchalaht, Tla-o-qui-aht, and Ehattesaht First Nations on western Vancouver Island, their right to fish salmon is second only to conservation efforts, Sayers says."
And this is why the Sparrow Decision of the '90s has been so important to Indigenous peoples: "

"She also points to the 1990 Sparrow case when the Supreme Court of Canada ruled the rights of First Nations to fish are second only to conservation. The BC Court of Appeal declared that right for the five Nuu-chah-nulth nations, but other Nuu-chah-nulth nations have asserted they have the same rights, Sayers said."

Note, this story is parallel to the fish farm industry. It means that the wild salmon story has more problems than simply in-ocean fish farms. Both commercial licences and in-ocean fish farms have had very large negative effects on wild salmon.

Narwhal - Some Corrections to Sept 10 Article on Fish Farms in BC

DC Reid. I do extensive work on fish farms.

On-land is common. My list has more than 370 on-land fish farms around the globe, meaning the 75 listed in the Narwhal is vastly low. See:: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2016/05/152-different-on-land-fish-farm-systems.html.

In-ocean fish farms have so many problems that I am up to over 6500 problems in the past five years. Grieg is one of the least stable of the large companies and has lots of problems around the world: Take a look at one post: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2021/07/bad-news-bites-16th-post.html. It also links to the other 15 posts I have made to add up the problems.

In-ocean BC is going to be put out of business by on-land in the USA, as 85% of its product goes there but Americans now want environmentally sound, on-land fish farms. Atlantic Sapphire, just one company, is headed beyond 220,000MT to 260,000MT which is triple the output of BC in-water. The reality is that BC needs to come on-land or be put out of business.

And just so that you know, BC fish farms vastly over rate their employment and revenue. They say 7,000, but the BC Govt's own report says it is only 1800, or 25%,and has been declining for almost 20 years. See: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2019/03/mar-21-2019-bc-stats-report-2016.html. We don't need this very small industry destroying our wild salmon and aquatic environment.

I have found almost 1200 articles on the benefits and good points of on-land fish farms. This means they are not just common but they comprise an avalanche of good news. See: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2021/05/good-news-post-now-more-than-thousand.html.

BC - Trudeau Getting Fish Farms Out of the Water

Trudeau wants Closed Containment by 2025. Little does he know that the same is true from green parties all over the world, that is how bad in-ocean is.

From my good news post on on-land, see:

222. Greens Want Closed Fish Farms - Norway, by 2025: https://www.fishfarmingexpert.com/article/norway-greens-want-salmon-farms-enclosed-by-2025/?utm_source=netflex&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter__09_09_2021.

And read it and cheer, while Mowi reads it and weeps. Too bad, you've destroyed the oceans all over the world for far too long. And the people who have to live with in-ocean fish farms finally want them out.

Here is the news article:

Norway’s Green Party (MDG) wants all fish farms to be required to use closed technology by 2025, it says in its manifesto for the country’s general election on Monday.

By Editors

The MDG also wants to restrict new licences to closed fish farms only, and to ban growth of existing farms before 2025 unless they have zero emissions, zero lice, zero escapes and low mortality.

The party’s other proposals include intensifying the supervision of aquaculture activities by all relevant authorities, strengthening independent research on how aquaculture affects ecosystems in fjords and sea areas, and introducing both a ground rent tax and an environmental tax on farming.

One seat

The MDG currently hold just one of the 169 seats in the Norwegian Parliament, which is elected by proportional representation, but small parties can wield influence beyond their size because of the need for parties to form alliances to govern.

The proposal to used closed technology by 2025 is similar to a policy being pursued by Canada’s minority Liberal administration in British Columbia. The Liberals, who are also fighting a general election, want to “transition” net pen salmon farming in BC into some form of unspecified closed containment by 2025.

In Scotland, the Greens – who have formed an alliance with the ruling Scottish National Party and have two ministers in government - also want to transition salmon farming into land-based facilities, although the SNP doesn’t support that policy. In an interview earlier this year,Scottish Greens co-leader Lorna Slater, who is now Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity, admitted that she didn’t know where Scotland’s salmon farms were located.

More text to follow. This surely is against what fish farms want in BC, which is to be left alone in the ocean, when 75% of BC residents want them out of our ocean. If they want to go on land, that is fine.

Giving Narwhal Some Correct Information

The Narwhal has a long, well written post on the in-ocean/on-land fish farm industry in BC: https://thenarwhal.ca/bc-salmon-farming-transition/. However there are some errors here and there:

Here are some comments:

1. Atlantic salmon could compromise Pacifc Salmon genetics. False. Atlantics cannot interbreed with any strain of Pacific Salmon. In fact, no Pacific species can interbreed with another Pacific species. We wouldn't have five species if this could have nappened over 10,000 years of Pacific evolution.

On the other hand, the 'leakage' number is 153,000 per year, and John Volpe did river swims, showing the outrageous number of 97% of Van Isle Rivers with multiple Pacific salmonids have Atlantics, and multiple generations of Atlantics, meaning they have spawned in BC: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2021/06/escaped-atlantic-salmon-invade-bc.html.

2. The Precautionary Principle should be used. This is true, and the person to talk to on this one is Tony Allard, a lawyer who has written on the Principle in BC. The link to his take is in this post: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2020/11/dfo-is-biggest-threat-to-wild-bc-salmon.html.

3. There are not 75 on-land fish farms in process or completed. My list has 372 on-land fish farms around the world. On-land is common: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2016/05/152-different-on-land-fish-farm-systems.html.

4. Atlantic Sapphire in Florida is aimning at 220,000MT. False, they are aiming at 260,000MT which is triple the size of BC's in-ocean fish farms, in only one on land. If BC fish farms won't come out of the water, they will be put out of business by all the plants coming on sream in the States, including many in both Maine and California. The reality is that consumers will choose on-land for environmental reasons and BC loses 85% of its market which is the US. Look at my post on the avalanche of news on the on-land industry around the world. I'm up to about 1200, yes 1200, articles/papers from the fish farm/seafood indusry press, good news about on-land: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2021/05/good-news-post-now-more-than-thousand.html.

5. Contrary to what the fish farms industry and DFO says, employment is low in in-ocean fish farms. They say 7,000, while the BC government's own BC Stats Report on the 'fishing sectors', says only 1800, making the indstry claim 390% too high. In other words, they can't 'lead the recovery' as they are much too small.

The BC Stats Report is analyzed here: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2019/03/mar-21-2019-bc-stats-report-2016.html.

6. Terry Beech is working on a fish farm paper for government. My take on what they should do is:

1. Start a program to retrain the workers from in-ocean to on-land.

2. Charge $1M for an in-ocean licence, with on-land at zero. Then the in-ocean should be systematically raised to what these same companies pay in Norway, $32- to $40-million.

3. Give on-land farms $1Million to set up on-land.

4. Alternatively, give them use of Crown Land for free for, say, ten years.

7. Fish farms say there is no sewage, while Karen Wristen, of Living Oceans, says there is lots. I did the calculations to derive a conservative sewage cost to BC residents of in-ocean. The conservative end of the conservative numbers is a massive $10.4Billion: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2017/02/fish-farm-sewage-huge-cost-to-bc.html. Note that this post shows the amount of work I put in to calculate a number on a fish farm issue.
8. Terry Beech says the industry is a multibillion dollar industry. False. The revenue goes back to Norway, for distribution to shareholders, and fund global in-ocean.

Next time, Narwhal, you might do just a bit more homework to cover all the bases. Meaning, your writer might like to do a bit more. They can contact me if they want to. I cover all the bases. Or you can just have me do the article.

Giving the Vancouver Sun some Stats on how Small the Fish Farm Industry is.

Look at the Van Sun article: https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/dfo-report-suggests-alternatives-to-open-net-salmon-farms-in-b-c-but-next-step-unclear?mc_cid=fe3237f704&mc_eid=5777c92bcd.

Now read my response to TI Crawford who wrote the article and which I ground proofed. And note my four point plan to put fish farms on land as noted below.

Hi TI Crawford.

Contrary to industry/DFO assertions, fish farms are much smaller than their claims. For example, the employment claim is 7000 jobs in the industry.

This is directly contradicted by the Province’s BC Stats Report. It says only 1800 so the industry claim is almost 400% too high.

See my post: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2019/03/mar-21-2019-bc-stats-report-2016.html.

You will note that jobs have been declining since 2000, at 5.3%.

Fish farms like to claim that on-land is not possible for monetary or other reasons. Well, my list now has found 372 on-land fish farms all around the world. So on-land is common.

See my link: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2016/05/152-different-on-land-fish-farm-systems.html.

And despite fish farms claiming that jobs in the Discovery Islands are 1500, my calculations puts the number at only 212, or only 13.1% of the industry claim: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2021/01/another-sleepless-night-thousands-of-bc.html.

Note that I have a four point plan to put fish farms on land in this post. Also, when all the US on-land plans come to fruition, they will wipe out the BC industry as 85% of their product goes to the States.

You might want to cruise my site when you are looking for stats on fish farms. And point out my four point plan.

DC(Dennis) Reid

Poll - 75% of BC Residents Against In-ocean Fish Farms

Insights West, the Pacific Salmon Foundation and Wild Fish have done a poll of environmentall issues in BC and found uniformly high response to all of them.

See: https://www.insightswest.com/news/pacific-salmon-july2021/.

Of the five major environmental issues facing the province that we asked BC residents about, British Columbians are most concerned about declining salmon stocks and endangered species, even more so than climate change and single-use plastics. The level of concern about declining salmon stocks (86%) and endangered species and at-risk ecosystems (82%) are the top two concerns, concern for climate change (76%) and single-use plastics (75%) rate 10 points below. The negative impact of logging on nature and climate (72%) also rates highly but below the others.

And: "Recently, the Canadian government mandated all open-net fish farms be transitioned to closed containment pens by 2025, and the vast majority (75%) of BC residents support this decision."

And: Steve Mossop, President of Insights West [says] “Our polling results show that perceptions of open-net pen fish farms are very negative, and the vast majority would like to see the transition to land-based fish farming in BC.”

Added to this Tony Allard, chair of Wild First, says: “Concern for declining salmon stocks is 10 points higher than other well known environmental issues in BC at 86%. Importantly, British Columbians express very high support, at 75%, for transitioning away from open net pen fish farms now. I couldn’t agree more.”

This survey agrees with a past one, that 75% of BC residents want fish farms out of the water.

It is in a major post on fish farms, and is reference 8 in that post: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2019/07/dfos-public-consultation-on-framework.html.
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Here is another article on the recent Insite poll: https://www.insightswest.com/news/pacific-salmon-july2021/.

Here is their lead stats: "BC Residents Are Extremely Concerned (86%) About Declining Salmon Stocks As Well As Climate Change (76%) and Single Use Plastics (75%), and Most British Columbians (75%) Believe That Open-Net Salmon Pens Need to Be Transitioned to Land-Based Pens.

Minister Jordan Intends to get Rid of In-Ocean Fish Farms - Alex Morton's Take

Hello All,

I think it is important that everyone on this list know that this Minister, Bernadette Jordan, is taking unprecedented steps to get salmon farms out of the ocean. On December 17 2020 she prohibited restocking of 19 salmon farms in the Discovery Islands. Since then Mowi and Cermaq have repeatedly sued her and repeatedly re-applied to move millions of Atlantic salmon into the Discovery Islands where the Fraser and many Washington State salmon are heavily exposed to farm pathogens. Last week Minister Bernadette denied Mowi’s applications and Cermaq’s, again!

Because the farm fish are growing and cannot remain where they are, the companies are increasingly desperate. These decisions by the minister are sending shockwaves through the salmon farming industry.

As well three Nations of the Broughton Archipelago banded together to remove 17 salmon farms from the Broughton Archipelago. These are being removed a few every year, but this year they are removing three, two ahead of schedule. The reason for the slow removal was to prevent the companies from going to court. These nations have and continue to put enormous effort into this.

As it stands now all the federal salmon farm licences on the BC coast will expire next summer and this should trigger consultation with all First Nations who are hosting this industry. I work with many nations and they are advising the Minister of their intent when consultations begin. It is not for me to discuss what they are saying, but depending on the position they take, this industry could be shut down coast wide next year.

I have never seen a minister of fisheries stand up to the salmon farming industry in my 35 years of fighting this impact on wild salmon, but now we have one… until the election is called and we move to a care-taker government, which was absolutely disastrous the last time this happened.

As I chronicle in my new book Not on My Watch (national best seller), DFO staff is compromised on this issue. They are lying by omission, covering up the damage and mis-informing the minister. Jordan has somehow realized what is going on and key aquaculture staff are jumping ship. The lead aquaculture vet for DFO just left for new Zealand and the DFO Director of Aquaculture suddenly left after 20 years in the department. The new Director is a lawyer, who doesn’t answer questions.

So, if you are going to write to the Minister, maybe signal your support for her unprecedented actions. The young wild salmon migrating past Campbell River this year from the Fraser and elsewhere looked beautiful for the first time since I began research there in 2005. I did not actually know how plump the little salmon are, that their bellies are rounded, not flat-sided.

I am hoping the closure of these farms did not come too late, David is right there are more to the north and west Vancouver Island, but I know there is no hope if we get a weaker minister.

Thanks all,

Alexandra Morton

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And here is what I would add to this:

I should add that the Discovery farms do not employ 1500 people as Mowi claims. And it claims 7000 province wide. For all companies.

The BC Govt's own figure is only 1800 province wide and it has been dropping slowly for years. I calculated the Discovery employees based on salmon produced and the loss is only 212 jobs. That's how far out fish farms are - more than 700% too high.

And the revenue does not end up in BC. It goes back to Norway for the company and shareholders, whereas the sport, commercial and processors work here and revenue is used here.

And a few links for you to follow the stats up:

My analysis of the BC Stats Report on the, as they like to say, 'the fishing sectors' is at this link: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2019/03/mar-21-2019-bc-stats-report-2016.html.

It gives you many more stats than I have listed above, but the point is that fish farms have been losing jobs since 2000, at 5.3% per annum despite what they claim. I calculated the 212 Discovery jobs in a different post: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2021/01/another-sleepless-night-thousands-of-bc.html.

If you are really keen, the Ruth Salmon and Milewski article below the BC Stats tables of figures is the best single article I have ever read on the issues of employment in Canada and the social indicators. I suggest you read it.

One more thing:

July 26, 2021, in the Tasmanian press, the industry makes the same point that I have about decreasing job numbers in the link with the Milewski paper, and when the technology is brought to Canada from Norway where they produce almost ten times the salmon we do, with about twice the employment, leading to an 80% decline in Canada:

"I ask whether this doubling in value will result in a doubling of jobs. “No,” Amos says. “If you’re improving your technology it improves your profitability, it doesn’t automatically lead to increasing employment.” "

See: https://www.smh.com.au/national/the-battery-hen-of-the-sea-the-fight-to-clean-up-tassie-salmon-farms-20210624-p58433.html?fbclid=IwAR2k2dou1z5qVGEPIDFiy_R8kG23-ptAYnRVYDpc9v3HbRxMLsFrIEppXGY.

One more thing:

In 2020, Mowi produced 440,000 tonnes of salmon, with farms in Norway, Chile, Canada, Scotland, Ireland and the Faroe Islands.