Participants in one of B.C.’s most successful commercial fisheries say controversial fish-farm hatchery poses grave risks

VANCOUVER – A fish hatchery quietly approved last year by the provincial government and now operating on Saltspring Island was never subject to a proper environmental assessment and may pose serious risks to local waters and one of the province’s most successful fisheries.

The hatchery is the first of its kind in Canada, and is raising sablefish or black cod. The hatchery fish are destined for an as yet unidentified fish farm somewhere in B.C. Plagued by chronically weak farmed salmon prices and ongoing environmental problems, more than 40 salmon farms in B.C. recently received government approval to raise sablefish or halibut instead of salmon.

“This hatchery is the thin edge of the wedge in a secret transformation of fish farming that could devastate marine ecosystems and a commercial fishery that the Department of Fisheries and Oceans ranks among the best managed in the world,” says Eric Wickham, executive director of the Canadian Sablefish Association. The Association invests $2 million annually in black cod stock assessments and West Coast stocks are considered healthy.

Lawyers representing the Association, elders from the Penelakut First Nation and members of Saltspring Island Residents for Responsible Land Use, want the approval of the hatchery rescinded and are arguing their case today before the Environmental Appeal Board in Victoria.

They say that the owners of Sablefin Hatcheries Ltd. never properly demonstrated what would happen to effluent produced from the hatchery, whether it would end up in nearby marine waters, and what impact bacteria, pathogens and microbes in the effluent might have on local fish stocks. The hatchery site rests on an unusual landform known as a tombolo, a sandbar-like land formation joining Saltspring Island to a small outlying island. The site is also a native burial ground and bones were unearthed there during hatchery construction.

Bob Fraumeni, a long-time black cod fishermen in B.C., says the available evidence is that Norwegian fish farming companies, which control the salmon-farming industry in B.C., contributed to wiping out wild salmon stocks in Norway. Now, sea lice outbreaks at B.C. salmon farms are endangering local wild pink stocks. “The netcage model of fish farming for salmon has been a disaster. How can the province even think about allowing sablefish to be farmed? We don’t have a clue what ecological impact sablefish hatcheries or farms will have on these stocks. But I can guarantee you it won’t be good.”

“Black cod is considered a delicacy in Japan, and there’s growing demand for it locally,” Fraumeni adds. “Dumping mushy and poor tasting farmed sablefish onto the market will turn off customers and hurt local businesses. As anyone who has tasted a wild salmon and farmed salmon will tell you, there’s absolutely no comparison. Wild’s best.”

For more information contact: Eric Wickham (604) 915-9117.