One of the first commercial fisheries to turn to aquaculture was Klemtu, and the people have never looked back since making the investment in processing fish for Marine Harvest Canada . The Atlantic salmon are farmed in Kitasoo/XaiXais waters. Klemtu community on Swindle Island has a fishery-conscious labour force that MHC draws on for employees.
Other community members work at Kitasoo Seafoods Ltd.. Klemtu leadership created conditions that put MHC on- site. Klemtu community participates from environmental to fiscal level of seafood operations. They are there to monitor their traditional waters. This well-balanced arrangement continues to deliver economic and social benefits.
At the end of June 2011 MHC and three Central Island First Nations concluded three years of discussions intending to guide the operations of salmon aquaculture in their territories. On June 24th, the We Wai Kai, We Wai Kum and K’omoks First Nations celebrated signing of a capacity-building agreement with MHC. The agreement requires environmentally sustainable practices, provides economic and investment opportunities for the First Nations.
“We are very pleased to start a positive relationship between Marine Harvest Canada and our people,” says Chief Ralph Dick of the Wei Wai Kai Nation. “It’s important that we have input into how companies operate within our territory since they are already here,” states Chief Robert Pollard of the Wei Wai Kum Nation, “and the best way to have our say is to work collaboratively. This agreement provides that opportunity.”
A spring 2011 announcement by the Aboriginal Aquaculture Association is receiving positive feedback on the west coast. The Aboriginal Principles for Sustainable Aquaculture (APSA) standard of certification has been applied to Mainstream Canada, and, according to proponents, “other aquaculture companies are inquiring about certification.
Richard Harry is president of the AAA, “We need to make the world understand and appreciate First Nations communities operating in aquaculture. It is the biggest employer in our communities. There are jobs for people which sustains communities, and we are partners in these endeavors.”
Harry notes, “Fish farming is probably the most over-regulated industry in the country. To us, it`s operation standards that matter. And where the industry goes we need to be part of it. Fiirst Nations and the companies involved will lead the APSA program. But the market place itself is probably the most important place.”
He says, “It`s the people who accept this form of certification that will do the promotion. I don`t know if it`s ever happened that a First Nation certification of an industry has occurred.” Ahousaht is engaged in the aquaculture and fish farm industry, “This is a good first example of implementation.
In the Alberni Valley is the Sarita River, lands and waters of the Nuu Chah Nulth nation, where once a richness of Chinook salmon resources was unsurpassed. Sarita was a special project done by Omega Pacific Hatchery with financial help from Huu Ay Aht First Nation (Sarita is part of their traditional territory), sponsorship from Creative Salmon and other fish farm companies working to release 50,000 wild Chinook salmon, April 12, 2011.
To make salmon resources thrive again, production capacity of Omega Pacific Hatchery was employed in a special project to release 50,000 ‘S-One’ Chinook salmon smolts. Stephan Ochman is the 14 year fisheries manager of Huu Ay Aht, and says the April 2011 release in Sarita River was the outcome of long term process to rehabilitate the fishery in the watershed. “These fish will return as three or four year olds.”
Pacific Coast aquacullture economy a major growing concern
The multi-million dollar aquaculture industry on the west coast is more and more becoming a billion-dollar industry, with growing facets in species, markets, and investors. First Nations on the coast are big players in the industry and the credit for the way that came to pass belongs to the past. First Nations were the backbone of the commercial fishery in many areas. They have a substantial number of licensees participating in commercial fisheries today. Depleting resources could be a threat to every license, however.
One of the first commercial fishery players to turn to aquaculture was Klemtu, and the people have never looked back since making the investment in processing fish for Marine Harvest Canada . The farmed Atlantic salmon are grown in Kitasoo/XaiXais waters. Klemtu community on Swindle Island has a fishery-conscious labour force that MHC draws on for employees in the pen-sites.Other community members work at Kitasoo Seafoods Ltd. processing plant. Klemtu leadership created conditions that put MHC on- site. Klemtu community participates from environmental to fiscal level of seafood operations. They are as ever there to monitor things in their traditional waters. This well-balanced arrangement continues to deliver great economic and social benefits.
More recently, at the end of June 2011, MHC and three Central Island First Nations concluded three years of discussions intending to guide the operations of salmon aquaculture in their territories. On June 24th, the We Wai Kai, We Wai Kum and K’omoks First Nations celebrated the signing of a capacity-building agreement with Marine Harvest Canada. The agreement requires environmentally sustainable practices, provides economic and investment opportunities for the First Nations.
“We are very pleased to start a positive relationship between Marine Harvest Canada and our people,” says Chief Ralph Dick of the Wei Wai Kai Nation. “It’s important that we have input into how companies operate within our territory since they are already here,” states Chief Robert Pollard of the Wei Wai Kum Nation, “and the best way to have our say is to work collaboratively. This agreement provides that opportunity.”
The signing increases the total number of agreements between Marine Harvest and coastal First Nations to ten. “Marine Harvest recognizes the importance of working with local First Nation bands,” said Vincent Erenst, Managing Director at Marine Harvest Canada. “We look forward to working with our partners to ensure that our business promotes sustainability for our oceans, our economy and local communities.”
Collectively, the three Nations and Marine Harvest Canada represent a significant portion of BC’s aquaculture production – both shellfish and salmon. Marine Harvest Canada is BC’s largest producer of fresh farm-raised salmon and directly employs 550 staff. We Wai Kai, We Wai Kum and K’omoks First Nations represent approximately two thousand members and are in the shellfish business.
A spring 2011 announcement by the Aboriginal Aquaculture Association is receiving positive feedback on the west coast where so many communities are dependent on a commercial fishery that has declined to a shadow of it’s former self for several years. The Aboriginal Principles for Sustainable Aquaculture (APSA) standard of certification has been applied to Mainstream Canada, and, according to proponents, “other aquaculture companies are inquiring about certification. Richard Harry is president of the AAA, “We need to make the world understand and appreciate First Nations communities operating in aquaculture. It is the biggest employer in our communities. There are jobs for people which sustains communities, and we are partners in these endeavors.”
As a close observer of the industry over the years, Harry notes, “Fish farming is probably the most over-regulated industry in the country. To us, it`s operation standards that matter. And where the industry goes we need to be part of it. Fiirst Nations and the companies involved will lead the APSA program. But the market place itself is probably the most important place.”
Harry says, “It`s the people who accept this form of certification that will do the promotion. I don`t know if it`s ever happened that a First Nation certification of an industry has occurred.” The AAA mission statement is to support First Nation sustainable aquaculture in ways that support and respect First Nation community culture and values. It means First Nation-approved aquaculture products coming onto the market.
The AAA designed the criteria beginning with environmental performance of these companies and industries, “a performance that has to be better understand by public. But we also realized the need for monitoring social aspects of aquaculture, that we should focus on the economic impact in communities, and cultural aspects, asking if aquaculture operators are meeting needs in local communities.”
Ahousaht is deeply engaged in the aquaculture and fish farm industry so it makes a good starting point for a certification program, and, Harry adds, “Mainstream has been working with Ahousaht for long time to develop the relationship, in fact, signing a protocol agreemenl last year. They had a natural foundation for certification.” Thus fish farming received the first certification of aquaculture under APSA, but, “The whole idea is to go across all sorts of aquaculture.
“But this is a good first example of implementation. AAA`s goal is to have APSA applied to any form of aquaculture, operator, and First Nation across the country.” APSA audits the economic, social, water and land use, personnel use, and applies to aquaculture on the ocean, or land, including hatcheries.
In the Alberni Valley is the Sarita River, lands and waters of the Nuu Chah Nulth nation, where once was a richness of Chinook salmon resources that could only described as unsurpassed. To make the salmon resource thrive again, production capacity of Omega Pacific Hatchery was employed in a special project to release 50,000 ‘S-One’ Chinook salmon smolts, those that are raised in fresh water (at great expense ) to over a year old. These were released into the Sarita River with the sponsorship assistance of Creative Salmon of Tofino and other partners in the fish farming industry.
This was a special project done by Omega Pacific Hatchery along with financial help from Huu Ay Aht First Nation (for the Sarita is part of their traditional territory) and the help of a group of fish farm companies, all working together to release 50,000 wild Chinook salmon into the Sarita River, April 12, 2011.
Bruce Kenny and Carol Schmitt own OP, on Great Central Lake, not far north of Port Alberni, B.C., on Vancouver Island, where, Bruce said, “We grew the wild Chinook salmon to one year in fresh water, and we are making a concentrated effort to improve survival rates of hatchery released Chinook.” Growing S-One (year-old) fish is an arduous task, for they achieve a mere four inches of growth a year in fresh water.
Carole Schmitt worked on the Sarita River enhancement program to gather eggs in 2009 that were hatched and grown in 2010, and have now been shipped in 2011. Bruce says, “It’s a long period for wild animals to be in captivity, and people said to us, ‘Oh, they’ll be domestic by the end of a year in your facility.’ We released 6 km upstream with underwater camera watching, and they snapped into wild mode instantly.” The released fish, “Went upstream, came back down, stood around for two days, gathered under a bridge, and then all departed for the ocean.”
Stephan Ochman is the 14 year fisheries manager of Huu Ay Aht, and says the April 2011 release in Sarita River was the outcome of long term process to rehabilitate the fishery in the watershed. “These fish will return as three or four year olds. They are code-wire tagged so we’ll be able to see exactly, during brood stock capture, what percentage came from this Omega Pacific release.”
The Sarita River fishery has been sustained by the hatchery release of fish for many years, says Ochman, “It appears ninety percent of the fish that come into the Sarita came from hatcheries. There are very few native-born fish in the river.” The recent S-One release was done outside the usual procedure of hatchery release as operated by Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
“We are going to do the release of S-zero hatchery fish, about half-a-million as usual this spring. This release always gave us returns in the 1990s, during which we got 3,000 and 4,000 returns per year. In the last few years the returns dropped to very low counts. That’s why we tried a different method, releasing the S-Ones grown by Omega Pacific.”
S-Ones are grown 18 months in a tank of fresh water on reduced diets, whereas S-Zeros are hatched and grown for 6 months and released. There is a science to growing fish and DFO adheres to different science than OP, DFO releasing larger quantities of younger fish, OP taking eggs exclusively from native brood-stock and putting a natural cycle into early rearing and release. Ochman took part in the S-One release and says the Sarita River was gushing, visibility wasn’t good, and the fish were gone two days later when he went for the swim in his dry suit and snorkel.
Carol Schmitt explains the rationale behind developing the S-One hatchery fish, “Mother nature keeps them at least a year, sometimes three. The DFO S-Zero hatchery fish are released at six months because they make them grow fast, which triggers them to go into the ocean early. We are thinking the fish have to mature in fresh water longer in order to build up the physical stamina to survive in oceans.”
Omega Pacific one of the few independent hatcheries left, specializes in Chinook and raises eggs for export and supplies Chinook smolts to fish farms. “Our facility is beside the lake and the tanks are fed by a fish-free creek of mountain water,” notes Kenny. ”The entire facility is designed around the needs of fish. We have 30 years acquired knowledge. Carol has spent seven years developing a method of rearing and releasing S-One wild Chinook.”
OP is totally immersed in the raising of Chinook salmon from eggs to captive broodstock. They live beside the lake in the wilderness with salmon 24/7, 365 days a year. “We don’t have a 4 o’clock,” says Kenny. Carol says, “We go out to a stream with few returns and take eggs from the few back to the hatchery.” Kenny and Schmitt agree that ideal conditions would be to deploy satellite hatcheries that do egg hatches at the site from brood stock and reintroduces them to the native river.”
OP anticipates the S-Ones will have a higher survival rate amid the biology of a natural cycle in growth and timing of departure to sea. “We are hoping they come back to do natural reproduction on the stream, lessening the need to release fish by hatcheries,” so there it is a form of satellite-enhanced stream enhancement. Stefan Ochman says, “Now we wait three years to see the results.”
Carol Schmitt is an independent force majeure in the enhancement business and her knowledge grows from a lot of experience in aquaculture, including producing the fish presently swimming in AgriMarine’s new closed containment tanks afloat in the Seymour Narrows near Campbell River.
