Economic development meets Indigenous reconciliation
Diversity in the west coast seafood sector includes salmon farms, it is an achievement of which Canadians can be justly proud, especially regarding the First Nations factor in west coast salmon farming. Economic development meets Indigenous reconciliation through salmon farming and Indigenous communities on the west coast are working with Canada in a tremendous show of unity to the country, and the world.
Economic development is the play in this sector showing the benefits of being Canadian. Indigenous leaders and business people are committed to the process considering the number of agreements Indigenous leaders and communities have made in the salmon farm industry in B.C., and Canada, in the past three decades.
The fact is, First Nations have long-term focus on issues around seafood, including salmon farming, as much as anybody else. Indigenous leaders and business owners say salmon farms came to the west coast after wild salmon populations fell. The rates of return of Pacific anadromous salmon to spawn have variables according to species, but numbers were shrinking in all five species and the steelhead trout.
The fact is, First Nations have long-term focus on issues around seafood, including salmon farming, as much as anybody else. Indigenous leaders and business owners say salmon farms came to the west coast after wild salmon populations fell. The rates of return of Pacific anadromous salmon to spawn have variables according to species, but numbers were shrinking in all five species and the steelhead trout.
It is perhaps surprising how fast Indigenous leaders made a transition to Atlantic salmon farming. Some people might be surprised to learn, it was First Nations leading the way to salmon farming. When the number of wild salmon declined in the 1970s and 80s (before salmon farms arrived on the west coast), Order of Canada's Percy Starr (RIP) was one of those Coastal leaders who encouraged transition to salmon farms. His goal was to establish salmon farms for the village of Klemtu where it continues to this day.
Starr's initiatives preceded other salmon farm proposals on Canada's west coast.
Other First Nations communities engaged the industry, in fact, today 100 percent of salmon in production on the west coast is produced in agreement with First Nations. "Some 22 B.C. First Nations have partnership agreements for farming salmon in their territories resulting in 80% of all salmon farmed in B.C. falling under a beneficial partnership with a First Nation."
Later Kitasoo Xai'xais leadership worked with Mowi to improve their investment and realize a greater potential in salmon farming. They expanded operations to secondary processing and production, in their central coast location and upgraded the facilities for Kitasoo Seafoods Ltd.. These fisheries experts and business leaders aggressively pursued the industry to bring jobs deep into the traditional territory. It has been a success from the beginning and any government with its head on straight would seize the example of reconciliation.
Meanwhile the push against 6,000 families in B.C. and their financial well-being in working year-round in the aquaculture industry has never been so extreme.
Equally, the push is on within the industry to meet the goals of fish producers and stakeholders of matters, jobs, food production, a healthy environment, a solution for wild fish in need of recovery, not to mention secure year-round employment within a well-established industry making a huge contribution to the gross domestic product.
Salmon farm companies are working with marine engineers and machinists to deploy semi-closed containment net-pens at Esperanza Inlet with the Grieg Seafood B.C. Ltd. sites growing Atlantic salmon.
"In the trials," of semi-closed containment net-pens deployed by Grieg Seafood B.C. Ltd., "farmers noted better growth, lower mortality, better feed conversion rates (meaning the fish are more effective at converting feed into growth), and most significantly - a dramatic reduction in the need for sea lice treatments.."
Grieg, Cermaq and Mowi and others and a number of intersecting companies with B.C. experience are working to grow Atlantic salmon. Some of these smolts grow on land for a longer period before they are put in the ocean. Companies are working with innovative marine engineers, biologists, and machinists to design systems that keep wild Pacific salmon species separate from caged Atlantic salmon, or Chinook salmon, or Sablefish, or Steelhead. The semi-closed containment systems reduce the incidence of Harmful Algae Blooms and sea lice infestations affecting the salmon farms.
But is two years a long enough time to meet the demands of an undefined transition?
Science and skills are delivered in B.C. post-secondary institutions, the provincial education system and private colleges have invested in aquaculture-related skills development. The local knowledge is growing and local business interfaces with the international economy of growing fish, both here in B.C. coastal waters and around the world.
The business community, educators, and related expertise in machinery, biology, and work safety are engaged in the enterprise of producing fish in Canada on the west coast. Why this has to be stopped on the west coast is the biggest mystery of the hour.
Using the courts, the salmon farmers of B.C. have made a stand for the free and democratic rights of people to make a living on the west coast. They have met with success in appearance after appearance. A word about federal government actions. The job of the Minister in charge of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) could be to legislate an end to the strife on the west coast.
Aquaculture on the West Coast is obviously in need of legislation to protect the industry. The Discovery Islands Decision by a previous minister of the DFO was reversed two years after the fact. This speaks to the truth regarding protection of the industry. This is what a minister of oceans could be doing. Proposing laws that protect the citizens of Canada who work in the aquaculture industry.
The judge said they overturned the Federal Fisheries Minister's (Hon. Bernadette Jordan, predecessor to Hon. Joyce Murray) Discovery Islands decision as it was made without supporting reasons. The judge said the phrase 'Social Acceptability' in support of banning salmon farms was essentially a meaningless term with no place in government policy.
It was obvious the Minister went off the beam in legal terms by implementing policies that have such a large impact on the Applicants, including several highly invested salmon farm companies and countless supporting businesses in a $1.6 billion a year economic engine with thousands of employees.
Finally, it returns to reconciliation. The First Nations on the B.C. coast are marine oriented. They know the waters from history living in the territory. When a First Nation takes the initiative to work in the salmon farm industry to put food on plates around the world, permitting wild Pacific salmon to be restored, what place has the Federal government to come in and shut them down? It would create a whole new set of irreconcilable differences, and the need for a whole new round of reconciliations.
Other First Nations communities engaged the industry, in fact, today 100 percent of salmon in production on the west coast is produced in agreement with First Nations. "Some 22 B.C. First Nations have partnership agreements for farming salmon in their territories resulting in 80% of all salmon farmed in B.C. falling under a beneficial partnership with a First Nation."
https://www.fishfarmingexpert.com/article/first-nation-support-for-bc-salmon-farm-expansion/
Indigenous leadership from First Nations on the B.C. coast says the salmon farms and wild salmon can coexist. The opinions and observations of a group called Coalition of First Nations For Finfish Stewardship have called the two-year license renewals 'virtue-signaling' from the federal government.
Indigenous leadership from First Nations on the B.C. coast says the salmon farms and wild salmon can coexist. The opinions and observations of a group called Coalition of First Nations For Finfish Stewardship have called the two-year license renewals 'virtue-signaling' from the federal government.
"Salmon farming has lifted entire coastal Indigenous communities out of poverty. It injects money into our communities, creates meaningful employment for our members, provides opportunities for First Nations-owned businesses to supply the sector, and funds projects that contribute to the wellness of our people and wild salmon," they have stated.
https://firstnationsforfinfish.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/News-Release-Final.pdf
Failure to respect the voices of Indigenous leaders is a slap in the face of reconciliation and a blow to the prospects for employment and economic development where salmon farming has a proven track record.
Certainly the Federal Government decided recently it's okay for the farms to stay on the west coast for two more years because there is no proof of harms being done so . . . now they must transition.
What about the people? They work in waters envied around the world for suitability to salmon farming. They work on the longest coastline in the world. They have 35 years of efficient and continuously researched agriculture production of salmon in their midst. The industry deploys secure net pens installed by marine engineers and machinists proving safe in all weather. They have connected transportation systems that reach the world's fish markets and restaurants in 24 hours or less.
So what are they hoping to transition to? The west coast had an aggressive and efficient commercial salmon fishery at one time. The Inside Passage was the scene of an explosive demand for salmon, and gillnetters and seine boats circled fish packers with their holds full, repeatedly, until by the 1970s the sophistication of this fishery overwhelmed wild Pacific salmon and fish began to disappear from the Inside Passage and up the B.C. coast.
Percy Starr and Les Neasloss were visionary Indigenous leaders who saw farmed salmon as a way to prevent his people from facing starvation, because the wild salmon were disappearing from the traditional territory long before a salmon farm was within 10,000 miles of Klemtu. For the First Nations leaders in the community of Klemtu, the transition to farmed salmon and the reason for it was to save wild salmon. That was the Indigenous wisdom.
https://firstnationsforfinfish.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/News-Release-Final.pdf
Failure to respect the voices of Indigenous leaders is a slap in the face of reconciliation and a blow to the prospects for employment and economic development where salmon farming has a proven track record.
Certainly the Federal Government decided recently it's okay for the farms to stay on the west coast for two more years because there is no proof of harms being done so . . . now they must transition.
What about the people? They work in waters envied around the world for suitability to salmon farming. They work on the longest coastline in the world. They have 35 years of efficient and continuously researched agriculture production of salmon in their midst. The industry deploys secure net pens installed by marine engineers and machinists proving safe in all weather. They have connected transportation systems that reach the world's fish markets and restaurants in 24 hours or less.
So what are they hoping to transition to? The west coast had an aggressive and efficient commercial salmon fishery at one time. The Inside Passage was the scene of an explosive demand for salmon, and gillnetters and seine boats circled fish packers with their holds full, repeatedly, until by the 1970s the sophistication of this fishery overwhelmed wild Pacific salmon and fish began to disappear from the Inside Passage and up the B.C. coast.
Percy Starr and Les Neasloss were visionary Indigenous leaders who saw farmed salmon as a way to prevent his people from facing starvation, because the wild salmon were disappearing from the traditional territory long before a salmon farm was within 10,000 miles of Klemtu. For the First Nations leaders in the community of Klemtu, the transition to farmed salmon and the reason for it was to save wild salmon. That was the Indigenous wisdom.
Mowi's position in Kitasoo Xai'xais has been clear since years ago when I talked to Starr and Les Neasloss, in Klemtu, while they developed this industry in their national (and deeply traditional) territory.
This nation decided to go into salmon farming because disappearing wild salmon caused the federal government to buy out fishing licenses and curtail the salmon harvest. Actions too little too late were the beginning of the end for dozens of communities where fishing was based. Wild salmon were disappearing for everybody certainly faster than folks could imagine, and in Klemtu they transitioned with an explicit intention to save wild salmon.
This nation decided to go into salmon farming because disappearing wild salmon caused the federal government to buy out fishing licenses and curtail the salmon harvest. Actions too little too late were the beginning of the end for dozens of communities where fishing was based. Wild salmon were disappearing for everybody certainly faster than folks could imagine, and in Klemtu they transitioned with an explicit intention to save wild salmon.
Later Kitasoo Xai'xais leadership worked with Mowi to improve their investment and realize a greater potential in salmon farming. They expanded operations to secondary processing and production, in their central coast location and upgraded the facilities for Kitasoo Seafoods Ltd.. These fisheries experts and business leaders aggressively pursued the industry to bring jobs deep into the traditional territory. It has been a success from the beginning and any government with its head on straight would seize the example of reconciliation.
Meanwhile the push against 6,000 families in B.C. and their financial well-being in working year-round in the aquaculture industry has never been so extreme.
Equally, the push is on within the industry to meet the goals of fish producers and stakeholders of matters, jobs, food production, a healthy environment, a solution for wild fish in need of recovery, not to mention secure year-round employment within a well-established industry making a huge contribution to the gross domestic product.
Salmon farm companies are working with marine engineers and machinists to deploy semi-closed containment net-pens at Esperanza Inlet with the Grieg Seafood B.C. Ltd. sites growing Atlantic salmon.
"In the trials," of semi-closed containment net-pens deployed by Grieg Seafood B.C. Ltd., "farmers noted better growth, lower mortality, better feed conversion rates (meaning the fish are more effective at converting feed into growth), and most significantly - a dramatic reduction in the need for sea lice treatments.."
Grieg, Cermaq and Mowi and others and a number of intersecting companies with B.C. experience are working to grow Atlantic salmon. Some of these smolts grow on land for a longer period before they are put in the ocean. Companies are working with innovative marine engineers, biologists, and machinists to design systems that keep wild Pacific salmon species separate from caged Atlantic salmon, or Chinook salmon, or Sablefish, or Steelhead. The semi-closed containment systems reduce the incidence of Harmful Algae Blooms and sea lice infestations affecting the salmon farms.
But is two years a long enough time to meet the demands of an undefined transition?
Science and skills are delivered in B.C. post-secondary institutions, the provincial education system and private colleges have invested in aquaculture-related skills development. The local knowledge is growing and local business interfaces with the international economy of growing fish, both here in B.C. coastal waters and around the world.
The business community, educators, and related expertise in machinery, biology, and work safety are engaged in the enterprise of producing fish in Canada on the west coast. Why this has to be stopped on the west coast is the biggest mystery of the hour.
Using the courts, the salmon farmers of B.C. have made a stand for the free and democratic rights of people to make a living on the west coast. They have met with success in appearance after appearance. A word about federal government actions. The job of the Minister in charge of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) could be to legislate an end to the strife on the west coast.
Aquaculture on the West Coast is obviously in need of legislation to protect the industry. The Discovery Islands Decision by a previous minister of the DFO was reversed two years after the fact. This speaks to the truth regarding protection of the industry. This is what a minister of oceans could be doing. Proposing laws that protect the citizens of Canada who work in the aquaculture industry.
The judge said they overturned the Federal Fisheries Minister's (Hon. Bernadette Jordan, predecessor to Hon. Joyce Murray) Discovery Islands decision as it was made without supporting reasons. The judge said the phrase 'Social Acceptability' in support of banning salmon farms was essentially a meaningless term with no place in government policy.
It was obvious the Minister went off the beam in legal terms by implementing policies that have such a large impact on the Applicants, including several highly invested salmon farm companies and countless supporting businesses in a $1.6 billion a year economic engine with thousands of employees.
Finally, it returns to reconciliation. The First Nations on the B.C. coast are marine oriented. They know the waters from history living in the territory. When a First Nation takes the initiative to work in the salmon farm industry to put food on plates around the world, permitting wild Pacific salmon to be restored, what place has the Federal government to come in and shut them down? It would create a whole new set of irreconcilable differences, and the need for a whole new round of reconciliations.
Freelance writing by Mack McColl Originally Jun 11, 2022
