Advocates of using closed-containment technology to fully grow Atlantic salmon in B.C. should not get too excited by the recent findings of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans’ feasibility study.
Last week, David Lane of T. Buck Suzuki Environmental Foundation and the Coastal Alliance Agriculture Reform hailed the study for showing that closed-containment salmon farming is economically viable. (See “Closed containment fish farms economically viable: report” – BIV Business Today, November 25.)
Clare Backman, who is Marine Harvest Canada’s director of environmental compliance, said his company is currently conducting experiments to see whether closed-containment farming of salmon to a fully grown state is viable.
“It’s not true to say that we’re ready to move everything into that,” he told Business in Vancouver.
“The parallel argument that I’m making is that it’s not necessary to move everything into that. The perceived benefits to wild salmon, or whatever, don’t necessitate moving everything into a more expensive and, let’s say, another culture system which has its own environmental impacts in terms of the amount of energy that’s involved.”