Salmon farms rely on technology

As the industry faces tighter regulations, companies are counting on innovation to meet a growing demand

By Eric Plummer Ha-Shilth-Sa Editor

Campbell River, BC - As the government tightens restrictions on salmon farming, an aquaculture company on the West Coast is relying on technological advancements to meet a growing global demand. In late February Grieg Seafood announced that RAS 34, its new hatchery facility in Gold River, is almost complete. The $25-million project is designed to grow 400 tonnes of Atlantic salmon annually, adding to the 500 tonnes of farmed fi sh that Grieg can already produce at its adjacent hatchery in Gold River. The new facility’s six tanks are being fi lled with almost two million litres of water, capacity to house up to four million salmon. The fi rst fi sh are expected to be added to RAS 34 in April. What makes this hatchery diff erent from Grieg’s pre-existing facility is the ability to grow fi sh longer on land. Currently the standard practice is to transfer a twoyear-old smolt to ocean net pens once they reach 100 grams. Rocky Boschman, Grieg’s managing director for its B.C. operations, said the RAS 34 hatchery could keep salmon from 500 grams to one kilogram until they’re moved out to the ocean. “More of our production is moving onto land,” he said. “Currently our production could be between 18 months and 24 months in sea in B.C. We could see that in the future going down to 12 months.” This shortens the amount of time the farmed fi sh could be near wild salmon, thereby lessening the transfer of sea lice and other pathogens between the diff erent species. This winter Grieg introduced another innovation to its pens in Esperanza Inlet to mitigate the environmental hazards of fi sh farming. These semi-closed containment systems use pen barriers than can be lowered when wild salmon are migrating by the farms, designed to reduce the risk of sea lice passing between the wild and farmed species. “I hope that it off ers people an idea of what the future could look like,” said Boschman of the semi-closed systems, which were previously introduced to the Sunshine Coast. “In some cases we’ve reduced our lice treatments to zero…We found that in a subsequent trial in Esperanza as well.” Cermaq also introduced a semi-closed containment system to Vancouver Island’s west coast in the fall of 2020. Using a barrier that eliminates lateral interaction between farmed and wild salmon, Cermaq’s system was successfully trialed in Norway before being introduced to the Millar Channel in Ahousaht territory, but one year in the project had to be ended “due to a technical fault and related fi sh welfare,” stated the company. “SCCS is immature technology under development, therefore it is not surprising when you are trialing new technology you will run into challenges,” said Dr. Peter McKenzie, Cermaq’s director of Fish Health in a statement from the company. “This was our fi rst attempt to grow fi sh of varying sizes in a semi-closed environment and unfortunately, due to water quality issues, fi sh performance was affected and resulted in fi sh mortality.” Despite these challenges, such advancements could off er valuable hints as a burning question faces salmon aquaculture in B.C.: How will an industry projected to grow by 4.2 per cent annually manage to remove all open net pens from the ocean by 2025? The removal of open net pens was an election pledge the Liberals used to retain its minority government in last fall’s federal election. It’s also part of Justin Trudeau’s mandate to new Fisheries Minister Joyce Murray, requiring a plan to transition from oceanbased open net pens within three years. The topic was addressed during the Nuu-chah-nulth Council of Ha’wiih Forum on Fisheries in February, an online meeting that included a large contingent of staff from Fisheries and Oceans Canada. As government and the industry tries to fi gure out how the aquaculture transition will work, First Nations are being consulted – although some may not be in favour of a government-mandated transformation of the industry. Most fi sh farms on the B.C. coast are being run through an agreement with the local First Nation, an arrangement that will become a requirement in the province as of this summer. “We are aware that there are diff erent views among First Nations communities on aquaculture on this coast,” said Amy Marr, regional manager with the net-pen transition team for DFO’s aquaculture management. “We do intend to engage bilaterally over the next year to understand what are their views and interests in aquaculture - not just for marine fi nfi sh, but other types of aquaculture.” “I was shocked to listen to First Nations that are 100 per cent behind fi sh farms,” said Mowachaht/Muchalaht Hereditary Chief Jerry Jack during the fi sheries forum. Grieg Seafood run sites in Jack’s territory, where he has seen the company attend to the prevalence of sea lice among farmed salmon. “Grieg is bringing in another ship from Norway, they’re going to have two huge ships here dealing with the sea lice issue,” said Jack. “I don’t really agree with them 100 per cent, but at least they’re acknowledging that there is a problem and they’re dealing with it.” Meanwhile an aquaculture act is being developed, legislation that some who watch the industry believe is long overdue. “Right now the rules are purposely vague - there’s quite a bit of loopholes that industry is aware of,” said Jared Dick, a fi sheries biologist with the NTC’s Ua-a-thluk department, who also sits on an aquaculture committee with the First Nations Fisheries Council. “Right now is a time for First Nations to engage with DFO and say, ‘Listen, these rules don’t protect our needs and aren’t suffi cient to protect our wildlife.’ Right now is a time to rewrite these rules and make them more stringent.” Boschman welcomes the guidelines that an aquaculture act would bring. “I think all companies in salmon farming in B.C. would hope to see some sort of stable regulatory regime that would allow us growth,” he said. “The world market for salmon is growing astronomically. Last year the United States grew by 13 per cent.” But how that growth will be possible amid new restrictions to the industry remains to be seen. The industry suff ered a major blow in December 2020, when former fi sheries minister Bernadette Jordan announced that 19 farms in the Discovery Islands will not be renewed past June 30 of this year. Another 79 sites – representing most of the pens on the B.C. coast - are up for licence renewal on June 30. Boschman pondered how aquaculture in B.C. could grow to meet the world’s demand without more farms being added in the future. “There are only a couple of ways of doing that. One of them would be to increase the size of the farms,” he said. “You would have to increase the number of pens. You can’t really increase the density.” The BC Salmon Farmers Association expects that the province’s industry would suff er if additional farms are not added to the coast. “We will lose market share to imported farmed salmon – most likely from Chile,” stated the association in an email to HaShilth-Sa. “It’s really up to the federal government – in consultation with our First Nation partners – to change regulations around making a farm, instead of 2,500 tonnes, making it 4,000 tonnes by adding those extra cages,” added Boschman. “In same places you could do that because you’re really confi dent you’re really not increasing any negative impacts to the environment.” But amid calls to move the farms onto land, Boschman noted that the industry couldn’t currently aff ord this transition. “There’s no business case to support it,” he said, referencing the cost of building the RAS 34 over the last three years to increase land hatchery production. “You see that it’s 400 tonnes for $25 million. If you do the simple math, one of our farms can be about 4,000 tonnes out in the ocean. We have 16 farms.”

Photo submitted by BC Salmon Farmers Association Workers tend to a semi-closed containment salmon farm in the Millar Channel.

Documentary argues wild salmon and old-growth forests have evolved together over time to be interconnected

By Denise Titian Ha-Shilth-Sa Reporter

Vancouver, BC – A new fi lm featuring Nuu-chah-nulth eff orts to save salmon habitat on the west coast of Vancouver Island is made its premiere at Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival (VIMFF) on March 2 in Vancouver. Filmed in Mowachaht/Muchalaht territories, Salmon Parks, an 11-minute documentary, was fi lmed in 2021 by director Carter Kirilenko. The fi lmmakers say that wild salmon and old-growth forests have evolved together over time and without one, the other couldn’t survive. “The loss of salmon populations would be disastrous not just for the people and wildlife that depend on them as a food source, but also for the many Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities whose livelihoods depend on salmon,” stated British Columbia’s chapter of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society. The answer may lie in the creation of salmon sanctuaries called salmon parks, says the wilderness society. In April 2019 Roger Dunlop, who was formerly an NTC fi sheries biologist and now serves as Mowachaht/Muchalaht land and resources manager, spoke to Ha-Shilth-Sa about the concept of salmon parks during an interview about funding received for studies and watershed restoration. In that interview he noted that watersheds in the territories of Mowachaht/ Muchalaht, Ehattesaht/Chinehkint and Nuchatlaht were heavily damaged due to 60 years of industrial logging in the area, to the detriment of Chinook salmon survival. “Salmon Parks follows an Indigenousled plan to recover wild salmon and restore critical watersheds amidst the looming threat of industrial scale logging,” reads the VIMFF press release. “The fi lm reveals the fascinating interconnectedness between wild salmon and ancient forests while aiming to help secure the establishment of Salmon Parks in Mowachaht/ Muchalaht and Nuchatlaht traditional territory, as a matter of Nuu-chah-nulth law, with recognition by federal and provincial governments.” It was a conversation with Nuchatlaht Chief Walter Michael that sparked the idea of salmon parks in Dunlop. Chief Michael wanted to protect his sockeye stream from logging. They began the work of mapping streams and reached out for support from surrounding communities, businesses and organizations in an eff ort to save wild salmon. “Nothing is more important than restoring the health of our Ha-houlthee including the forests and the streams they nurture,” Chief Michael wrote in his support letter on behalf of Nuchatlaht. CPAWS-BC is a non-profi t conservation group who say their work is to safeguard large parks, protected areas and wildlife corridors. They contributed to the making of the Salmon Parks fi lm, which they say tells the story of Indigenous leadership and hope. “Salmon Parks is an impact-driven documentary exploring the ‘Salmon Parks’ restoration plan to protect and recover key streams and rivers and restore wild salmon within the Ha-houlthee of northern Nuu-chah-nulth nations and led by Uu-a-thluk, an aquatic resource management department of the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council,” read the media release.

Photo submitted by Salmon Parks On March 2 the documentary Salmon Parks made its premier at the Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival.

Have You Moved?

If you should be getting a copy of the Ha-Shilth-Sa paper delivered to your home and you are not, please contact Holly Stocking at 250-724-5757 or email holly.stocking@ nuuchahnulth.org

Last year a fi shery in southeast Alaska caught over 11.5 million salmon, including stocks that some believe could have kept Canada’s restric

By Melissa Renwick Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Pacifi c Salmon Treaty (PST) is under fi re following a report suggesting that Alaskan fi sheries are impacting struggling salmon populations by intercepting a signifi cant number of B.C.-bound fi sh. Commissioned by Watershed Watch Salmon Society and SkeenaWild Conservation Trust, the report was released on Jan. 11, in conjunction with the U.S. and Canada’s annual review of bilateral management under the treaty. Advocates say this came as no surprise and that in order to see change, the public needs to apply pressure on both sides of the border. Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation Natural Resources Manager Saya Masso said the issue of Alaskan fi sheries intercepting B.C.’s endangered populations is something that’s addressed “rather poorly” on Canada’s behalf at the Pacifi c Salmon Treaty. “We’ve been aware of this management issue for a while,” he said. In recent years, B.C. salmon numbers have hit record lows. Only two wild chinook salmon returned to the upper Kennedy watershed in 2021, meaning the population has seen a 98 per cent decrease, according to the Central Westcoast Forest Society. Aaron Hill, Watershed Watch Salmon Society executive director, said the report has ignited conversations with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), but he isn’t hopeful the government will tackle the matter. The issue has now fallen into the hands of Global Aff airs Canada, which is “balancing a whole raft of issues,” said Greg Taylor, Watershed Watch fi sheries advisor and one of the report’s authors. “To have expectations that suddenly Canada is going to make a change, or coerce Alaska into making substantive changes into its fi shery, would be naive,” he said. More than funding needed for a solution Claire Teichman, press secretary for Fisheries Minister Joyce Murray, said the department knows “how important it is to protect and restore the pacifi c salmon population.” “That’s why our government has committed $647 million to the Pacifi c Salmon Strategy Initiative,” she said. “This is the largest investment Canada has made in salmon.” Hill said it will take more than funding to solve the problem. “The solution for these interception fi sheries in southeast Alaska is to move them to areas where they’re only targeting Alaskan fi sh,” he said. “[Alaska’s] constitution prohibits overfi shing. They need to apply that same principle to the B.C.-origin fi sh that are migrating through their waters.” Under Alaskan law, it would be illegal “if they were doing to Alaskan fi sh what they’re doing to our fi sh,” said Hill. Doug Vincent-Lang, Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) commissioner, criticized the report saying it was an “unfair and biased attack on Alaska salmon fi sheries.” Management of southeast Alaska salmon fi sheries is consistent with the Pacifi c Salmon Treaty, he said. Taylor said the report doesn’t dispute that. “If you look at the world through the lens of the treaty, they are abiding by the treaty,” he said. “They’re probably fi shing less than what the treaty would allow … but if you look at it from a conservation point of view,

Submitted photo

Salmon are processed on a boat near Ahousaht. Sockeye salmon (below) swim up Alaska’s Kenai River to spawn. they’re very much fi shing very heavily on our populations, to the point where they’re taking major proportions of our populations, and limiting or eliminating our fi shers’ abilities to fi sh.” No endangered salmon in Alaska Of the 62 salmon populations Canada’s Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife have assessed, 41 per cent are classifi ed as endangered; 18 per cent are threatened, 14 per cent are special concern; 5 per cent are extinct, and only 18 per cent are not at risk, said Taylor. Alaska, on the other hand, doesn’t have any stocks listed under the Endangered Species Act, said Dani Evenson, ADF&G fi shery scientist. “Part of that is because we were developed later,” she said. “But part of it is also that we have very aggressive poli-

shery in southeast Alaska caught over 11.5 million salmon, including stocks that some believe could have kept Canada’s restricted commercial boats on the water

cies in the state of Alaska.” Since 1959, sustainable fi shing in Alaska has been the law after the state wrote it into its constitution. “We monitor all of our stocks,” Evenson said. “We know exactly what’s happening in-season, post-season [and] we do forecasts so we can target our fi sheries accordingly. Under the treaty, our obligations are a little bit diff erent.” The treaty requirements for each species and region are diff erent, but all are designed to accomplish the same thing; “to share the burden of conservation and the available harvest,” she said. Despite that, Evenson said the report required “more due diligence.” “It’s one-sided,” she said. “They didn’t report on the Canadian intercept of U.S. stocks.” According to the Pacifi c Salmon Commission, mixed stock commercial Chinook fi sheries continue to operate in Northern B.C. and off the West Coast of Vancouver Island. “Interception net fi sheries [in B.C.] have been largely discontinued to protect Canadian salmon,” Taylor said. “What fi sheries remain have been moved more terminal to reduce interceptions.” Interceptions on both sides of the border The Pacifi c Salmon Commission (PSC) is a regulatory body that was formed to assist in the Pacifi c Salmon Treaty’s implementation. Employed by both the U.S. and Canada, the commission relays information between the countries, convenes meetings and publishes reports. In 1999, PSC Executive Secretary John Field said the treaty switched from rigid harvest limits to abundance-based management, refl ecting the countries’ focus on sustainability. Field said that while there are no listed endangered Chinook populations in the state of Alaska, there are many listed populations of chinook in the Puget Sound and the Columbia River. “It’s those Puget Sound and Columbia River-listed stocks that are intercepted in the Canadian fi sheries,” he said. “Canada intercepts Washington and Oregon fi sh, and Alaska intercepts B.C. and southern U.S. fi sh.” Because of Alaska’s geography, Field said the state typically doesn’t see their fi sh intercepted as heavily in southern locations. “This picture that’s being painted of Alaska as this unstoppable juggernaut that’s intercepting everyone’s chinook from Canada is just false,” said Field. “They have taken steps in Alaska to protect Canadian origin salmon to the degree of shutting down fi sheries for years at a time by the Yukon.” Fisheries science isn’t rocket science, said Field. “It’s much harder,” he added. It doesn’t serve Alaska to over-harvest other stocks, Evenson said. “We want to harvest in proportion,” she said. “The goal is to ensure the long-term sustainability of all of these stocks because that’s what pays dividends in the fi sheries.” Both 2019 and 2020 saw two of the smallest Fraser River sockeye runs within the last 100 years, according to the PSC. These staggering numbers prompted former fi sheries minister Bernadette Jordan to close 60 per cent of B.C.’s commercial salmon fi sheries in June 2021. But as Canadian fi shing boats sat idle, the report argues that in recent years, commercial catch of Canadian-bound salmon is higher in Alaska than it is in Canada. At the Pacifi c Salmon Commission’s annual meeting in Vancouver in late February, Field said Xeni Gwet’in First Nation Elected Chief Jimmy Lulua addressed the commission about the report during the public comment period. “That was the only time the report emerged during the commissioners’ discussions at the meeting,” Field said. Teichman maintained that “DFO offi cials are actively engaged with their U.S. counterparts through the Pacifi c Salmon Commission to exchange information on fi shery harvests, environmental changes and the achievement of conservation objectives under the treaty.” The treaty was formed to balance interceptions, Taylor argued. It wasn’t formed to conserve or restore depleted populations, he added. “We’ve got a process as a treaty that’s really not designed to do the job anymore, and it cannot,” said Taylor. “To expect it to do so, in its current format, would be foolish.” ‘Interception fi shery’ caught millions in 2021 The District 104 fi shery, which is located on the outside of the Alaskan panhandle, is what Hill described as the “worst culprit” for catching a large ratio of a variety of Canadian salmon species. In 2021, around 10.7 million pink salmon, 495,000 sockeye, 20,000 chinook, 130,000 coho, and over 212,000 chum were caught in the District 104 fi shery alone, read the report. “The proportion of Canadian salmon in the catch, and the certainty of the estimates, varies by species,” the report added. Taylor said the District 104 exists as a “mixed-stock fi shery and an interception fi shery.” The Alaska pink salmon migrate past the District 104 fi shery while traveling to their spawning streams further inside water, he said. Even if the fi shery moved, Taylor argued, District 104 would be able to fi sh the population it claims it’s targeting. “The only thing they wouldn’t catch any longer is our fi sh,” he said. But moving the District 104 fi shery to inside water so it can focus on Alaskabound runs would present a “signifi cant challenge” because it would be unable to target the more abundant wild Alaska pink salmon, said Evenson. “That’s where the pink salmon are and where the harvest potential is,” she said. “Moving this fi shery into inside waters would likely mean picking up other stocks of all species.” When a treaty has only two countries in it, there’s an inherent veto power vested in each country when negotiating language and mandates, Field explained. “In the case of District 104 fi sheries, the agreed [to] treaty language allows Alaska to pursue their fi sheries in particular areas,” Field said. This puts the Canadian government in a “very diffi cult situation,” said Taylor. “We’re not going to make these changes through the Canadian government, we’re not going to make these changes through the treaty – but maybe we can make them through the marketplace,” he said. Taylor has worked in the B.C. seafood industry for over 30 years and said this is the fi rst time he’s come across a “pretty simple solution to reducing by-catch of Canadian fi sh by 50 or 60 per cent.” “It doesn’t cost Alaska anything in terms of harvest of its own fi sh,” he said. “But the impact would be signifi cantly reduced on Canadian fi sh.”

Photo submitted by Nootka Sound Watershed Society Tree planting is undertaken along the Sucwoa River, which is located east of Tahsis. Habitat restoration nearly fi nished in Nootka Sound

The Li le Zeballos River held more than 400,000 chinook salmon at one time before industrial logging took hold

By Karly Blats Ha-Shilth-Sa Contributor

Nootka Sound, BC - The Nootka Sound Watershed Society (NSWS) is nearing completion of its three-year riparian restoration project for watersheds located within traditional Nuu-chah-nulth territories. After being awarded a project worth $904,010 from the Fisheries and Oceans Canada Coastal Restoration Fund, the NSWS has coordinated the planning, implementation and monitoring of silviculture treatments on the Sucwoa, Tahsis and Leiner-Perry Rivers near Tahsis (Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nation), the Little Zeballos River near Zeballos and Chum Creek near Oclucje (Nuchatlaht First Nation, and Ehattesaht First Nation). The purpose of this project is to contribute to the restoration of salmon populations by creating habitat and environmental features that are critical for the fi sh. This was done using a variety of forestry practices to improve bank stability and salmon habitat. Dave Miller, Ehattesaht/Chinehkint fi sheries manager, said a project like this is important for wild salmon stocks to have a healthy and clean pathway up the river, which will promote cleaner and more sustainable food and resources for the community. “Habitat restoration in the Little Zeballos has been a concern of ours since the impacts of old logging practices and commercial fi shing activities came into our territory,” Miller said. “We now want to have a better understanding of the impacts on our wild stocks and improve habitat restoration activities. The fi sh feed our forests, this is very important. A circle of life event… our elders have spoken to this time and time again, it’s now happening, we are taking action.” More than 135 hectares of riparian area received silviculture treatments. These treatments were aimed at accelerating natural forest processes by planting and promoting coniferous tree species (western red cedar and Sitka spruce) which create a long-term root network that helps to stabilize stream banks and provide future large woody debris input into streams. They also help to create old growth attributes, supporting diverse ecosystems that contribute to healthy forests and streams. In all, more than 21,000 trees were planted throughout the three years of the project. The NSWS hired strategic natural resource consultants to oversee the project with direction from their governing board and Western Forest Products. Two silviculture contractors were involved in the project including Nootka Reforestation Ltd and Adanac, who hired local forestry crews from Tahsis, Gold River, Tsaxana, Zeballos and Campbell River. According to a NSWS press release, historical logging practices did not regulate the harvesting of streamside vegetation; however, current-day forestry legislation requires riparian zones on all fi sh-bearing streams to be protected and left in their natural state. These protection measures help to maintain and support critical habitat that supports populations of Pacifi c Salmon, steelhead and trout. Managing forests stands along streams in this manner will ensure the long-term contribution of large wood to streams, reduce sediment released into streams and contribute needed organic components and insects to the river adding building blocks of stream food webs. Miller said that historically, the Little Zeballos River held more than 400,000 chinook at one time pre-1940. “I was told by my grandfather, late Sam Adams, this did not include chum, sockeye or coho numbers, so you could imagine a river like Little Zeballos and what it could produce before cannery’s and commercial activities came into our territories,” Miller said. “It’s important to us, fi shing is a way of life. It’s in our blood.”