Follows Repeated Land-based Failures
West Coast Salmon, a major proposed land-based salmon farming project in Nevada backed by prominent industry figures and planning for 50,000 tonnes of annual production, filed for bankruptcy on December 18, 2025—before the facility even advanced beyond initial planning stages.
This latest collapse adds to a growing list of high-profile setbacks in land-based recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) for anadromous salmon species—particularly beyond the brood stock and production up to smolt stages, where the technology falters most dramatically in attempts at full grow-out to market size.
These failures raise serious concerns for coastal First Nations in British Columbia that have invested heavily in successful ocean-based salmon aquaculture. Communities such as the Kitasoo Xai’xais, Ahousaht, Tlowitsis, and members of the Coalition for First Nations Finfish Stewardship rely on these partnerships for hundreds of jobs, significant revenue to fund community services, and economic self-determination in areas with limited options.
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| Cease and Desist |
These dedicated workers—many from local Indigenous families—brave the harsh northwest Pacific coast year-round, including brutal winter storms with pounding waves and freezing conditions that make every shift a real challenge, not some easy picnic. Yet they perform this demanding work extremely well, delivering consistent, profitable results under strict regulations.
The federal push to phase out open-net pen operations by 2029, while directing the sector toward land-based alternatives, threatens more than just one established industry—it channels resources into a sector with astonishing failure rates at the critical grow-out phase, often resulting in cleanup and closure costs amounting to millions upon millions. The economic scope of these failures is staggering.
Projects frequently accumulate losses in the hundreds of millions:
AquaBounty Technologies racked up $369 million in cumulative losses over decades before ceasing all salmon farming operations and selling assets in 2025; Gaia Salmon filed for bankruptcy in October 2025 following heavy losses and a court-ordered payout. Expert estimates suggest replacing B.C.'s current open-net production with land-based facilities could require $1.8–2.2 billion per large-scale site, with massive ongoing energy and water demands and no reliable path to profitability absent huge subsidies.
Is this the future held forth by the Federal government for those communities? Those communities built themselves a niche of prosperity and invested a lot of money, and education, and initiative. How much effort? Well it amounts to a helluva lot more than catastrophic debt.
In contrast to all the land-based failure, which is the only land-based stories you ever hear, B.C.'s salmon farming sector currently contributes over $1.17 billion annually to the economy and supports thousands of jobs, including substantial Indigenous employment. A full phase-out risks billions in lost output and compensation costs.
Gaia Salmon (Norway): Bankruptcy in October 2025 after substantial losses and legal judgments.
AquaBounty Technologies: Shut down salmon operations amid years of financial drain.
Numerous projects worldwide have folded due to prohibitive costs, technical issues, disease risks, and market challenges like off-flavors—especially in the demanding seawater grow-out phase.
It's old hat that there's a local example coming from North Vancouver Island, where the 'Namgis First Nation's Kuterra project began in 2013 with substantial government and philanthropic support as a showcase for land-based Atlantic salmon farming.
Despite producing some fish, it consistently missed production targets in full grow-out, required ongoing subsidies to operate, and eventually shifted away from large-scale salmon production to steelhead and limited activities—falling well short of the scalable replacement role it was meant to demonstrate.
Other recent cases follow the same pattern:
Gaia Salmon (Norway): Bankruptcy in October 2025 after substantial losses and legal judgments.
AquaBounty Technologies: Shut down salmon operations amid years of financial drain.
Numerous projects worldwide have folded due to prohibitive costs, technical issues, disease risks, and market challenges like off-flavors—especially in the demanding seawater grow-out phase.
Federal policy continues to emphasize potential wild salmon concerns—risks that partnering First Nations and much of the science assess as low under current practices—while overlooking these repeated land-based failures.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the world:
I, Mack McColl, publisher of McColl Magazine, have documented First Nations economic development for three decades, including successes of coastal aquaculture. The work of successful Chiefs and leaders underscores how policies must prioritize proven models over costly experiments to support genuine progress for coastal communities.
By Mack McColl, McColl Magazine, ably assisted by Grok by xAI in research and composition
