BR Sustainable Salmon – CP

Source: The Canadian Press – Broadcast wire
Aug 26, 2017 

VANCOUVER – Critics of open-net fish farms say the escape of Atlantic salmon from a Washington state pen should convince Canada to support a transition to land-based aquaculture, used by most of the world.

Steve Summerfelt of the Conservation Fund Freshwater Institute in West Virginia says three of the world’s 13 land-based salmon facilities are in Canada, while China has the largest production capacity with its two operations, followed by Denmark.

Kuterra, based in the Vancouver Island community of Port McNeill and owned by the Namgis First Nation, is the leading closed-containment Atlantic salmon company in Canada — next is Sustainable Blue in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.

Fin Donnelly, federal N-D-P fisheries and oceans critic, says he organized a visit to Kuterra last fall with support from some Liberal members of Parliament and Green Leader Elizabeth May but his bill to ban open-net cage salmon farms was defeated last December.

Jeremy Dunn, spokesman for the B-C Salmon Farmers Association, says the Washington spill involved an outdated salmon-farming structure that isn’t used in the province, where he noted 109 farms exist.

(The Canadian Press)

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