First Nation boasts of land-based fish farming success

The Namgis First Nation says a fish farm they own near Port McNeill shows the potential of land-based aquaculture in British Columbia.

It is known as a closed loop system, leased and operated by a company called Kuterra.

The facility was originally used to farm Atlantic salmon, but has since switched to sea trout farming.

“We’re currently harvesting four tons a week. That’s about 2,000. So there’s about 2,000 fish in that tank,” said production manager John Burton, pointing to one of several large tanks at the facility.

To limit potential negative impacts on wild salmon, the federal government has given salmon farms along the coast five years to transition to closed systems.

Namgis’s facility is one potential option for what this could look like.

The First Nation commissioned the facility 14 years ago to show that closed-containment systems could work.

The Namgis authorities have long openly opposed salmon farming in open nets.

Formerly elected Chief Coun. Don Svanvik is one of many who believe open chain farms are partly responsible for the decline of wild salmon populations.

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans will soon release a draft transition plan, and Svanvik is concerned it will not be developed enough to protect wild salmon stocks.

“Our creation story is with wild salmon. It’s absolutely in our DNA. Our health is affected by it, you know,” he said.

He and many others in his country are waiting for DFO’s draft plan, worried about what the details will mean not only for aquaculture but also for wild salmon.