
It has been five days since the Watershed Watch Salmon Society issued a press release stating Agrimarine’s semi-closed containment fish farm on Lois Lake, east of Powell River, may have been operating illegally since at least July 21, 2021.
A provincial bullet point template of that date, from BC’s Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, states, “DFO has determined that the new infrastructure is not located within the associated FLNR Crown land tenure and therefore (is) in non-compliance.”

Stan Proboszcz, Senior Scientist with the Watershed Watch, explained, “There are a lot of problems with the salmon farm. One of the key points is that a fish farm needs two licenses, essentially a federal one and a provincial one. The provincial one is called an aquaculture tenure, and that allows them to attach their farm to the bottom of the ocean or the lake. The federal government gives them a licence of operation to do aquaculture at the site.”

There are actually two fish farms at Lois Lake. An abandoned open net pen farm is in Agrimarine’s tenure and a newer facility appears to be on the other side of the lake. The Watershed Watch press kit contains a screenshot, from the provincial government’s interactive iMapBC website, showing the locations of these two facilities.
“They set up a semi-closed containment fish farm, in addition to the other one, and it’s outside the tenure. It’s outside where they’re allowed to attach to the bottom. I believe they don’t have a valid provincial license,” said Proboszcz.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) emailed Cortes Currents they are aware of compliance concerns:
“The facility is currently being investigated by fishery officers from DFO’s Conservation and Protection Aquaculture Unit. As this is an ongoing investigation, it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time.”
Proboszcz said, “I started calling around last week trying to get some answers. Everyone, from the province and the feds, started to get really nervous when I started talking about this fish farm.”
The Watershed Watch press release mentions a conversation that Proboszcz had with Brenda McCorquodale, Director of DFOs Aquaculture Management Division, on April 4, 2023.
Proboszcz explained, “She told me that she believed that there were no fish at the facility. And I clarified, ‘do you mean in the lake?’ because there is also a hatchery on land. And she’s like, ‘Yep, no fish in the lake.’ That’s what she believes.”
“I went down there the next day in my kayak and there’s plenty of fish in that semi-close containment fish farm outside the tenure. The one that’s in the tenure is empty.”


The provincial government page for this site was last updated on Feb 2, 2023 and states, “No specific surveys were conducted; however, there have been numerous anecdotal reports (including photo evidence) of large, marked rainbow trout being captured on the lake (up to 25 fish in one day, between a group of 4-5 anglers). Since there is no other hatchery program on the lake, all marked fish present in the system would be escaped fish from the aquaculture facility. In addition, DFO has conducted an inspection of the facility and confirmed several non-compliance issues including inadequate containment.”
“ … There is an immediate threat posed by the escaped, non-sterilized rainbow trout from the Lois Lake aquaculture facility which have the potential to hybridize with resident cutthroat trout populations and compete for resources (e.g., Kokanee as a food source). Increasing the quota for marked fish and removing any size limits is the quickest and simplest method of encouraging the removal of these escaped/invasive fish to minimize the risk to the local natural fish populations (i.e., Cutthroat Trout, Kokanee).”


Proboszcz said, “I also went to a store that sells this farm fish in Powell River, and there’s a photo in that media folder of packaged fresh fish from Lois Lake. I think it was April 3rd it was packaged.”
The image Proboszcz mentions is packaged fish meat with a tag stating it is ‘Lois Lake Steelhead’ and packed on April 3, 2023.
In their press release, the Watershed Watch allege that domesticated Rainbow Trout are raised at the farm and sold to restaurants, such as the Cactus Club in North Vancouver, as ‘steelhead.’
According to the BC Ministry of Agriculture missive from 2021, “Agrimarine is a salmon farming company that raises Ocean Wise certified sustainable trout (Steelhead, marketed as salmon) for Canadian grocers and restaurants.”

Watershed Watch suspects the semi-closed containment fish farm at Lois Lake is operating illegally.
Proboszcz said, “I believe that there is an investigation happening, but they knew about this since July, 2021. What are they doing? It looks like they’re just looking the other way. Something fishy is happening here.”
Cortes Currents was not able to did contact Agrimarine through their website or email, which were inactive.
Top image credit: Relative position of the two salmon farms – Photo courtesy Watershed Watch
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