The September 6 edition of the Coaster included Part One of an interview that Wesley Harris conducted with Jennifer Caines, the Operations Manager with Northern Harvest Sea Farms. This week’s issue contains the second part of that interview.
Question6: Does farming salmon spreads disease to other wild fish?
Response: No, actually the reverse might happen. Before the young salmon, called smolt, can leave their freshwater hatchery to go to farms in the salt water, they need to have a clean fish health certificate. There are lots of bacteria viruses, fungi and parasites occurring naturally in the ocean itself and in other fish, which may be passed along to farmed fish.
As an added precaution to ensure the health of our fish, just as we do for our children, we safely vaccinate our fish against those known diseases that they may potentially come in contact with in the ocean. There is also regular monitoring by fish health professionals, including our own and provincial veterinarians, which will be helped by the new health facility in St. Alban’s.
Question 7: It is polluting our shorelines is a frequent comment. What are the environmental costs of aquaculture?
Response: What was noticeable to me at shoreline cleanups in Coast of Bays’ communities the past few years was actually the low level of aquaculture-related garbage found, compared with the amount of other garbage such as construction materials and household plastics. As an industry we’re trying to reduce and recycle our wastes, but the infrastructure and transportation distances in this province don’t make that easy.
I believe all households should participate in reduction and recycling programs too. As for environmental costs, the carbon footprint of farmed salmon is much lower than other animal food production systems, and our fallowing practices have environmental recovery periods built-in, which are monitored closely by regulators. We take our impact on the local environment very seriously and have strict protocols in place that go above and beyond most farming regions throughout the world and are continually open to making improvements. Our customers are requiring us to demonstrate that we are responsible in caring for the environment, and they are pleased with how seriously we take this on the south coast of our province.
Question 8. It’s all government money. Government is not doing anything for the ground fisher people. Your thoughts on these comments?
Response: Not so. There are millions of dollars of private money invested in farms here. They are not make-work projects. Over the past five years, the provincial and federal governments have spent roughly $40 million for aquaculture support services like wharves, fish health labs, diagnostics, research and development (R&D. In the same time, the industry has invested over $200 million of its own money in equipment, buildings, training, feed and farming activities.
However, provincially the aquaculture industry produces over $150 million and growing, and employs over 1,000 in rural communities, including fish plant workers. Looking at that on an annual basis, then for $8M per year, the government supports an industry that produces hundreds of millions in direct and indirect sales offers employment for lots of people and generates tens of millions in tax dollars.
It’s not really fair to say that governments are not doing anything for the wild fishery. In the same five years, federal and provincial governments have spent well over $100 million on fish harvesters: over 55 wharves repaired or maintained around Newfoundland, top-up programs for ground fish plant workers to get EI, $16 M in a fisheries R&D program, over $6 million in FITNOP for new fisheries opportunities, and many millions more for R &D, so governments are supporting the industry – undoubtedly we would all like to see more. Increasingly our communities in the Coast of Bays are depending upon both industries successfully coexisting and so our provincial and federal governments need to continue to support both industries - the fish farming and the wild capture fisheries can have a very bright future with proper support and investment.
Question 9: Why is the farmed salmon so much in demand globally? Why is it so good to eat?
Farmed Atlantic salmon, available fresh year-‐round, is popular because it’s recognized as a good healthy, easy-to-cook source of proteins, oils and vitamins (one of the best natural sources of vitamin D for example) and an especially good source of omega-3 oils which are good for human heart health, brain development in babies and children, healthy immune function and a more.
It is such a good source that it would take 17.5 kg (38 pounds) of omega-3 ’enriched’ yogurt to equal what you would get in just one small serving of farmed Atlantic salmon. Farmed fish being readily available means everybody can enjoy those benefits – for the money there’s very little wastage when you buy it compared with protein with bones and fat for example. We really should be encouraging more consumption in our younger generation right here in our own province, especially when you consider our high rate of cardiac and other inflammatory diseases in our population. Even if they were deep-fried, I would rather see kids eat salmon nuggets than so much of the chicken variety. One time Newfoundlanders and Labradoreans ate fish because they had to – there was little else at times. Now we know fish is so good for us, and salmon tops that list. For me, the fact that we can grow it in the cold, clear and clean waters of our south coast makes it even more appealing.
Question 10: Is salmon farming destroying our wild salmon?
I don’t believe it is.
There are many factors involved in the recruitment and survival of Atlantic salmon, both in freshwater and at sea. Within our rivers, environmental effects of summers with extremely high or low water conditions, acidic rainfall, flood events during fall spawning (usually November), or winter and spring ice conditions all must have an effect. Heavy flood events, and our south coast rivers are especially prone to this, during smelt or adult runs means difficulties for scientists studying populations (counting fences have to be removed sometimes so they won’t wash out). The smolt, on their way to the sea in the river estuaries, are slightly stunned by their first taste of salt water, and seals and codfish are waiting for them.
Who knows what other effects from climate change really are? The human effects can be just as severe – although commercial harvesting has been reduced or even eliminated, salmon destined for our south coast rivers get caught up in fisheries managed by other countries, and in poachers’ nets. Recent charges within Fortune Bay illustrate the problem – but they also point out that strong enforcement efforts pay off.
Then, back in the rivers, some of which are close to roads and easily accessible, poachers who have no regard for the precarious nature of the populations might take fish. This is all on top of the potential for salutation and flooding, either naturally caused or due to deforestation, even road salt contamination. Although I realize there are concerns about farmed and wild salmon, I honestly don’t feel salmon farming is doing any harm to the wild populations in our province. It was great to see the excellent salmon fishing this summer on rivers and brooks near where we have been farming for years. And, the industry is always interested in working with conservation groups and scientists and we support and encourage research to understand the delicate nature of wild salmon conservation – in fact I hope to be participating in one such study this fall.
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