Canada’s fish farmers want out from under Fisheries and Oceans Canada and into Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC).
Tim Kennedy president and chief executive officer of the Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance said efforts are underway to have aquaculture defined as a bona fide farming enterprise and brought under the umbrella of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC).
As well as better promotion the association’s members would benefit from agriculture’s risk management and safety net programs, he said.
Aquaculture needs a department to champion and promote its cause as a viable agricultural enterprise,” he said in a recent speech in Calgary.
Canada could become a world leader in farmed fish and seafood, he said.
Yet a ban on open-net salmon farming along the British Columbia coast is coming into effect in 2029 and that whole approach to fish farming is under public attack, mainly because of concerns about spreading diseases.
Kennedy argued that penned fish farming is safe.
It is also important to indigrnous communities along Canada’s coasts, he said with backing from Kallie Woo, president and chief executive officer or the National Circle for Indigenous Agriculture and Food.
Kennedy said Canada has far more coastlines than Norway, which is the world’s leader in farmed salmon production.
Canada’s aquaculture industry peaked in 2018 at 200,000 tonnes of fish and seafood products. However, with the two salmon farms closed in B.C. in the Broughton Archipelago and Discovery Island in British Columbia and production declined by about 40 per cent.
In 2023, total aquaculture production dropped to 145,000 tonnes (including farmed fish and shellfish). Of that total, about 80,000 tonnes was farmed salmon.
Kennedy expects the 2024 production numbers to further drop to about 130,000 tonnes.
