Federal government announces ban on open net-pen salmon farms

By: Mason Mattu, Peak Associate

On June 19, the federal government announced a ban on “open net-pen salmon aquaculture in BC coastal waters by June 30, 2029.” This comes after many Indigenous communities and environmental groups have called for its end due to environmental concerns and a decline in wild salmon. Licences for open net-pen salmon farming have also been renewed for five years for an industry transition.

Open net-pen salmon farms are “large cages and nets placed in coastal waters” by fish farm technicians holding “hundreds of thousands of fish,” which hatch from eggs within the pen. Over 90% of open net-pen salmon farms are owned by three Norwegian companies. According to the sustainable seafood partnership SeaChoice, open net-pen farms are a high-risk method of salmon farming as they do not filter what comes in or out of the farm, allowing a “free exchange of waste, chemicals, parasites, and disease.” SeaChoice “is a partnership among the David Suzuki Foundation, Ecology Action Centre, and Living Oceans Society.” This combined with the “high density of foreign fish packed into a farm pen” increases the risk of infection and contagious viruses in the water for local marine life. The farming infrastructure itself ruins sensitive coastal ecosystems, producing “the same amount of waste as a city of half a million people” and trapping wild fish in the nets.

In a draft transition plan by the federal government, they describe plans to make Canada “a world leader in innovative and clean aquaculture technology.” The transition plan aims to retrain workers currently employed by the industry, support the construction of land-based closed containment salmon farms, and work with Indigenous communities to “develop new economic opportunities that align with each community’s particular needs and values.” Land-based closed containment salmon farms help keep aquatic environments safe without causing risks to “the surrounding aquatic environment.” The estimated cost to replace BC’s current open net-pen farms “could be as high as $1.8 billion” and quite a bit of extra electric power, making some believe that the plan is unrealistic in a five-year window.

“Because of the work and dignity that comes with the salmon farming industry, we have had no suicides in my community of Klemtu for the past 18 years.” — Isaiah Robinson, deputy Chief councillor, Kitasoo Xai’xais Nation

“Our wild salmon are already facing so many risks. This is a precautionary measure, and by isolating the threats [in closed containment pens], we are taking away some of that risk to our wild salmon,” said Johnathon Wilkinson, minister of energy and natural resources, in a speech.

Fishing is “part of the culture and identity that sustains First Nations peoples.” The First Nations Fisheries Council of BC stated, “Fisheries have formed the basis of economies for many Nations, first through trade with other Nations and early settlers, and later through commercial activities.” The move to ban open-net farms is supported by the BC Assembly of First Nations, the First Nations Wild Salmon Alliance, and other environmental advocates. Over 123 First Nations in BC supported the ban in a letter to the Prime Minister citing the farming method’s “impact on their cultural, economic and spiritual way of life.” Salmon have not only long been a source of food, but an important figure in spiritual and cultural traditions.

Some Indigenous communities have raised concerns about the impact this transition will have on their livelihoods.

For one, the Klemtu community of the Kitasoo Xai’Xais Nation has a “99% employment rate with 51% of those being tied up in aquaculture.” Isaiah Robinson, deputy Chief councillor of the Kitasoo Xai’Xais Nation, requested to extend the open net-pen salmon farming practice by at least six years. “Because of the work and dignity that comes with the salmon farming industry, we have had no suicides in my community of Klemtu for the past 18 years,” he wrote in an open letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. “It makes no sense to shut it down. There is no industry that can fill that space.”

The Coalition of First Nations for Finfish Stewardship, representing 17 Indigenous communities in the province, stated that “due to the impact of colonization on wild salmon stocks, we have had to include salmon farming alongside salmon stewardship to fill the economic gap caused by the decline of wild salmon.” During British and French colonial rule in Canada, natural resources such as salmon were exploited en masse. The group claimed that around “700 Indigenous people provincially work in salmon farming, which is a sector that brings in $133 million per year” for Indigenous communities.