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The recent offer by Norwegian salmon-farming corporation Grieg to pay offB.C. shrimp fishermen—as part of an industry-wide intention to massivelyexpand salmon aquaculture production in B.C. in the next five years— is only

Kuterra aquaculture by ‘Namgis FirstNation raises hope for wild salmon—and some hacklesBy Tyee Bridge in News, Culture | July 23rd 2015

Aquaculture tank at the Kuterra facility on northern Vancouver Island. Image Kuterra/J.R. Rardon.

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the latest imbroglio in the long and bitter controversy over net-pen salmonfarming.

The debate has raged for over 25 years in British Columbia. Along the way ithas embroiled conservationists, fishermen, scientists, federal and provincialgovernments and the aquaculture industry itself— sparking multiple lawsuitsand protest marches in Vancouver, Victoria and coastal communities.

But there’s a new X factor at play in the long-running controversy.

The ’Namgis First Nation, with advice and support from a large number ofgroups, including Tides Canada, conservation groups, and funding agencies,has launched Kuterra, a land-based, “closed-containment” aquaculture projectthat keeps their Atlantic salmon out of contact with the larger marineecosystem.

The company launched in the summer of 2014. Initially sold only in SafewaySobey’s stores in BC and Alberta, their fish are now available as far east asManitoba.

“Individual 'Namgis members and the Nation as a whole have long beenconcerned about the effects of open net-pen aquaculture on the marineenvironment and the life in and around it, especially wild salmon,” says‘Namgis Chief Debra Hanuse.

“Our primary motive for pursuing land-based closed containment aquacultureand founding Kuterra is environmental. We feel the most effective way to acton those concerns is to propose an alternative that we see as being moresustainable.”

“Aquaculture is not going to go away”

Net-pen salmon farms are ocean-based enclosures containing hundreds ofthousands of fish (usually a type of Atlantic salmon). The floating pens canexcrete as much waste as a town of 7500 people.

The farms appear like a massive buffet to seals and sea-lions, who have oftenended up dead for their interest— by drowning in nets, or by “nuisance kills”in which overly curious marine mammals are shot with rifles by salmon farm

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staff.

But what most concerns conservation groups who have fought to regulate thenet-pen salmon farm industry—including the David Suzuki Foundation,Watershed Watch, Living Oceans, and Fraser Riverkeeper— are farm-bornesea lice and diseases, which can infect wild salmon stocks.

Disease and lice impacts put the net-pen industry at the centre of the $26.4million Cohen Commission inquiry into the decline of Fraser River sockeyethat closed in 2012. One Commission researcher stated in his technical reportthat every year salmon farmers reported an average of 30 high-risk “fishhealth events” that could endanger wild salmon.

Justice Cohen noted at the close of the commission that the potential harm toFraser sockeye by farm-borne diseases is "serious or irreversible," and thatnet-pen farms along sockeye migration routes have the potential to "introduceexotic diseases and to exacerbate endemic diseases."

Despite these impacts and risks, members of the BC Salmon FarmersAssociation (BCSFA) have plans to increase their primarily net-pen salmonfarm production over 40 per cent by 2020.

But not all salmon farm operations are created equal, and the ‘Namgis havetaken Justice Cohen’s conclusions to heart by putting their operations onland.

“All evidence is that aquaculture is not going to go away,” says Hanuse, “andin fact is growing very rapidly globally. The question then becomes how topractice aquaculture sustainably.

"We believe that land-based closed containment aquaculture is the nextevolution and will become the method of choice for new operations in thefuture. We see the mission of Kuterra as catalyzing a change in the industry.”

A new economic and ecological model?

Eric Hobson has been involved with salmon conservation issues since 2006,and is formerly the president of SOS Marine Conservation Foundation, agroup that sought to change the net-pen industry to protect wild salmon.

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Hobson and SOS had been working with the ‘Namgis on their concerns aboutnet-pen salmon farms, and in 2009 he approached the ‘Namgis about pilotinga land-based closed containment Atlantic salmon aquaculture system.

“At SOS, we had a three-pronged strategy for protecting wild salmon andaffecting related salmon farming issues,” says Hobson. “One was short-term,investing in science and research to get the operating practices of theindustry to evolve.”

The second “medium-term” goal, notes Hobson, was to work with provincialauthorities and Fisheries and Oceans Canada (the DFO) on farm-siting criteriathat would keep the farms away from migrating wild stocks, and on otherregulations.

The third, long-term goal “was to try to build a pilot project to assess thetechnical, biological and economic viability of growing Atlantic salmon on landrather than in the oceans, removing all interaction between the farm andmarine environment.”

Now that the project is in full swing, the SOS foundation has merged itsoperations with local conservation research organization Watershed Watch,and Hobson is now the Chair of the Kuterra board.

“We’ve had great support from Sustainable Development TechnologyCanada, Tides Canada and many others, but the ‘Namgis are the ones thathave really stepped up, contributing land, capital and hard work to make thishappen,” says Hobson.

“It’s not easy being on the leading edge of something innovative. They wantto see it happen for obvious reasons – local economic development and toemploy their people, but the fundamental reason is they want wild salmon tosurvive. That’s the basis of their culture."

“Useful idiots”: land-based salmonaquaculture raises hackles

Part of the measure of the project’s success will be if the net-pen salmon farmindustry actually does emulate Kuterra’s land-based technology.

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Currently three Norwegian multinational corporations—Marine Harvest,Mainstream and Grieg Seafoods— own 90 per cent of net-pen salmon farmsin BC. When asked if he thinks the project is having the hoped-for impact onthe thinking and practices of these companies, Hobson notes that it is yetearly days for proving profitability.

“But back at head offices in Norway they’re now looking seriously at land-based closed-containment facilities, with the Norwegian government andindustry actively investing in the kind of research we’ve been doing in BC, andI think there are some projects on the drawing boards.”

When asked for an opinion on the Kuterra project and if any members areconsidering moving to closed-containment, Sabrina Santoro, acommunications manager for the BCSFA stated in an email that theorganization's membership includes "land-based fresh-water facilities" as wellas ocean and lake-based net-pens.

Santoro noted however that while "the province can be home to a diversifiedsalmon aquaculture sector,” the BCSFA believes that net-pen salmon farmingin the ocean remains "the most efficient and effective manner of growingsalmon."

The BCSFA representative did not respond directly to the question of whetherany of their members have taken a cue from Kuterra,but did attach a letter thatwas extremely critical of closed-containment or "recirculating aquaculturesystems" (RAS) salmon farms.

The letter (to industry website Intrafish) was written in September last year byKarl Iver Dahl Madsen, a Danish aquaculture researcher and entrepreneur—inresponse to positive reports on land-based salmon farming.

One of the articles that apparently upset Madsen was a feature article in FishFarming International on Kuterra (and another Canadian land-based salmonaquaculture business, AgriMarine)— titled “What if land-based salmon works?”

In his letter Madsen rips into RAS proponents and predicts failure for any land-based salmon aquaculture system, citing overhead costs. He believes RAScould work for “expensive species that carry the costs” like eel and pike perchbut that it is unsuited for salmon aquaculture.

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Madsen also included the following broadside about the proponents of RASprojects:

"We have to be aware, though, that we are up against powerful and verywealthy players, particularly US NGOs who hate salmon culture and would likeit stopped, so salmon again can become a luxury item for rich sportsfishermen.

"As these players has [sic] not been successful in directly stopping salmonculture, which has been a tremendous success among consumers, they try to[do] the next best thing, which is calling for salmon to be produced in amanner which is obviously not economically feasible. In this venture, they areinvolving 'useful idiots' in green NGOs all over the world."

International interest in an ongoingexperiment

Hobson, for his part, appears unruffled by such criticisms.

Calling Madsen’s letter “very dated,” he notes that it's the job of the BCSFA to"promote their members’ views on the benefits of the open net-penaquaculture industry, and not the costs to the marine environment.”

Hobson pointed to a more recent industry article featuring aquacultureconsultant Kjell Bjordal, who comments that rising costs in the Norwegian net-pen salmon-farming industry “are prompting an ‘open invitation’ to newtechnologies,” and that on-land RAS systems “are the only technology thatcan be a ‘serious threat’ to traditional salmon farming.”

Vitriolic attacks like Madsen's, according to Hobson, are not typical.

“We have a good relationship with the major salmon farmers,” says Hobson.“They supply Kuterra with smolts and expertise is shared at an operationslevel. They’ve been very good to work with.”

As for long-term viability, Kuterra has now been growing salmon for two yearsand selling them for one year, says Chief Hanuse, and indeed the economicfeasibility of the project has yet to prove out.

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“We expect the answer to that next year,” she says. “We consider it a successso far that so many people are waiting for that.”

Kuterra has had conversations with government representatives, regulatorsand “potential investors from BC, across Canada and globally,” says Hanuse.The ‘Namgis and representatives of Kuterra have also fielded interest from“new and potential producers,” including other First Nations groups, as well aspotential buyers from many other countries.

If it can turn a profit, the chance for Kuterra to be a global influence lookspromising.

“We’ve had invitations to talk to researchers, aquaculture students andenvironmental groups in Norway, Sweden, US and elsewhere in Canada,” shesays. “No matter what path Kuterra takes in the future, this heightenedawareness and the increased land-based closed containment development inBC and elsewhere is an achievement.”

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July 23rd 2015

Culture, farmed salmon, land-based salmon, kuterra, News

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