Gus Angus is a fish farmer with a vision. His farming operation in Jervis Inlet, just west of Egmont, has been in business since 1977 -- first farming oysters and then, starting in 1977, Pacific (not Atlantic) salmon species.

He and some of his colleagues are in the final stages of negotiations to have a set of organic food standards applied to the industry, and it's Angus' intention to gain organic certification for his farming operations once those standards are in place.

Hardly the kind of guy you'd think might draw the concentrated ire of environmentalists and fishermen -- but he is Target No. 1 at the moment.

Angus runs the only B.C. farming operation that has been producing, on a commercial basis, farmed sablefish. He's been doing this for the last four years, and will happily talk your ear off about the potential for this particular fish to revolutionize farming on the B.C. coast.

And that's why he's in the spotlight. The Canadian Sablefish Association, which represents a small group of B.C. fishermen who specialize in catching wild sablefish (90 per cent of which goes to Japan), is pulling out all the stops to blow this nascent industry out of the water.

The association argues strenuously that not enough is known about the environmental impact of sablefish farming. Their concern is that, while Angus is the only fish farmer in commercial production, more than 40 other B.C. fish farmers have a sablefish component in their farming licences.

The CSA emphasizes the environmental aspects of their campaign. But the real risk, should a farmed sablefish business prosper on the B.C. coast, is that the currently very lucrative wild fishery will experience significant price erosion as a result of the farmed competition.

At the moment, the annual wild harvest of B.C. sablefish averages 3,000 tonnes (the 2004 allotment is 4,500 tonnes), while the Alaskans take a much bigger haul, at more than 20,000 tonnes.

Pacific sablefish, or rock cod, is unique to the Pacific Northwest, living in the waters between Washington and Alaska. It exists nowhere else. It is an oily whitefish much in demand in Japan -- but almost totally unknown in North America and Europe. Angus is slowly developing a North American market for his small --1,200 pounds per week -- production and you can find it on the menus in such high-end places as the Chateau Lake Louise and the Banff Springs Hotel.

A report done for the B.C. government in 2001 outlines a large potential market for farmed sablefish, up to 16,000

"I think it could easily become B.C.'s most important species," says Angus. "There's so much salmon produced in the world that salmon farmers here haven't made any money. But no one else in the world has black cod."

Dr. Gidon Minkoff runs SableFin Hatcheries on Saltspring Island. His is the only sablefish hatchery, and expects in five years' time to produce about two million juvenile fish a year for farming operations such as Angus', and Minkoff too sees the potential for significant growth.

"There's huge potential there," he says. "Generally, the big white chunky fish are disappearing off the table. Atlantic cod is decimated; North Sea cod is near total shutdown; the large hake fisheries in Ireland are gone; and Chilean sea bass has been overfished. Black cod [sablefish] can fill some of that."

But not if the Canadian Sablefish Association has its way. In the early days of developing the concept of sablefish farming, a number of the association's members actually entertained the idea of participating in the venture.

But after a stormy parting of the ways, the association now has its sights set on stopping it dead in its tracks. The CSA has applied for (and been granted) a judicial review of a federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans decision to approve the transfer of juvenile fish from SableFin Hatcheries to Angus' fish farm.

They also sought in July (but were turned down) an interim injunction halting the transfer of this year's juvenile sablefish to the fish farm.

The full review is expected to take place in the spring. The CSA wants further transfers halted on the basis that they could do irreparable harm to their wild fish stocks.

"They haven't slowed us down at all," says Minkoff. "They also tried to stop us from obtaining permits to get wild brood stock that we need. They've fought us every step of the way. They objected to regional health authorities that we were going to use domestic septic systems for fish wastes; they tried to stop us getting a subdivision application, [and] a waste management permit. They appealed every permit we've ever received."

And now, to help with their cause, they are apparently enlisting support from Alaska. That's no surprise, given that Alaska has banned all forms of fish farming and opted instead to do fish ranching, in which juveniles raised in the hatchery are allowed to disperse into the ocean rather than kept in net pens. Alaska would love to see any competition from B.C. held in check.

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