Tag Archives: Cermaq Canada

Twelve fish farm applications: are fish farms really leaving BC’s open waters by 2025?

December 2, 2021 Roy Hales

BC Salmon farming companies applied to put in a new fish farm between the Discovery Islands and Broughton Archipelago and expand their existing facilities at 11 other locations around Vancouver Island.

Two of the expansions, at Dixon Bay and Plover Point in Clayoquot Sound, have already been granted.

“We had a promise from federal government whereby they said in mandate letters to the minister of fisheries, they were going to transition the open net salmon farming industry out of BC by 2025,” explained Stan Proboszcz, Science Advisor of the Watershed Watch Salmon Society.

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Rivers & Oceans

Environmental groups concerned about potential open-net pen fish farm expansions

December 2, 2021 Rochelle Baker

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

A coalition of environmental groups is concerned about the potential expansion of open-net pen salmon farming despite a previous promise by Ottawa to phase them out on the West Coast.

Salmon farming companies have submitted 12 applications — two of which have already been approved — to expand the size or number of net pen operations, and/or to increase the amount of fish produced at sites on the B.C. coast, according to a press release issued by four groups.

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Indigenous Nations, Rivers & Oceans

The BC Salmon Farmers Association new ‘independent’ sea lice report

November 30, 2021 Roy Hales

The opinions that follow belong to the people expressing them and are not necessarily shared by Cortes Radio, its board, staff, producers or listeners.

The BC Salmon Farmers Association has just released what they claim is an independent study of ‘Sea lice in the Discovery Islands.’

Their study is filled with terms like – “independent data,” “independently collected data,” “independent professional biological consultants,” “independently collected and analyzed scientific data,” “independent monitoring,” “independent sampling,” and “independent biologists” – but does not say who actually did the research.

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Indigenous Nations, Rivers & Oceans

Ottawa says “no” to restocking fish farms

June 18, 2021 Rochelle Baker

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The federal fisheries minister has denied an international aquaculture company the right to stock contentious fish farms in the Discovery Islands for a second time.

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) has rejected two recent applications by Cermaq Canada to transfer 1.5 million fish to the company’s Venture Point and Brent Island sites following a decision by Ottawa last year to phase out salmon farms in the region by July 2022.

Minister Bernadette Jordan also denied Cermaq’s request to extend its current licences to operate the sites to February 2023 — beyond the deadline set by DFO last December.

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