Late last Friday afternoon, well after closing time in Ottawa and the day before the B.C. election campaign was to begin, the draft salmon aquaculture transition plan for British Columbia appeared in my email inbox. No media release, no fanfare.

The draft plan – seven weeks later than promised – arrived along with an invitation to meet this week with a new multi-agency task force that includes representatives from Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Economic Development and Innovation Science Economic and Pacific Can, the federal economic development agency for British Columbia.

The draft plan does not include a lot of detail about the transition and the meeting on Tuesday had little more to offer. The task force is still forming with the consultation period planned over the next few months.

Stan Proboszcz

I can tell you the plan is divided into four parts, the first two led by ISED and Pacific Can:

1. Support for First Nations, workers and communities in the transition
2. Economic supports for the adoption of new aquaculture technology

The next two parts deal with open net-pen farms, and will be largely driven by DFO:

3. Phasing out open net-pen salmon farms
4. Monitoring open net-pen salmon farms before the 2029 ban takes effect

A factory fish farm in Nootka Sound.

The big worry with this transition is the timeline. We still want open net-pen salmon farms removed from B.C. coastal waters much sooner than 2029 and until that happens, this plan seems like just more promises. It’s worth noting the plan states: 

“Fisheries and Oceans Canada intends to introduce amendments to the Pacific Aquaculture Regulations to ban open net-pen salmon aquaculture.” 

Enshrining the ban in regulations would help make it more resistant to being lost in the event of a change in government following next year’s federal election. However, doing so would still take about 18 to 24 months. Also note the use of the word “intends”. It’s clear we’ll have to continue to push to ensure this actually happens. 

Another thing we will have to watch are the new forms of salmon aquaculture that will be allowed in B.C., like closed-containment salmon farms. We are less concerned with land-based closed-containment fish farms, because the chance of them spreading parasites and viruses to wild fish is very low. However, the federal government is considering in-ocean closed-containment aquaculture, which we firmly oppose. No such large-scale systems exist that grow-out fish completely. Attempts at smaller-scale in-ocean closed containment have failed miserably, including a trial farm run by Agrimarine near Campbell River over ten years ago. 

Also, the open net-pen salmon farm ban doesn’t technically apply to other species like sablefish. A task force lead asked about our thoughts on this, and we made it clear that farming other species in open-net systems would cause similar issues.

After the meeting, it’s clear our work to eliminate all open net-pen salmon farms isn’t done. We’ve removed about 40 sites from B.C. waters but over 60 remain. This won’t be easy, but we’re committed to seeing the ban through to the end.

A large number of wild herring were killed at a fish farm in 2023. Credit: Clayoquot Action