(© Tavish Campbell)

Governments recognize the salmon farm threat. What are they doing?

In 2012, the Cohen Commission recommended that net-pen salmon farming in the Discovery Islands be prohibited in September 2020 unless they can be demonstrated to pose at most a minimal risk of serious harm to the health of migrating Fraser River sockeye salmon. More generally, Justice Cohen’s report was withering in its assessment of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and critical of the salmon farming industry.

In June 2018, the Government of British Columbia finalized an agreement with the ’Namgis, Kwikwasut’inuxw Haxwa’mis, and Mamalilikulla First Nations to phase out 17 fish farms in the Broughton Archipelago by 2023, and all such farms in B.C. coastal waters, unless they are agreed to by the relevant First Nations. The agreement included a First Nations-led monitoring and inspection program (BATI – See our First Nations page) to oversee those farms during the transition, which will include compliance requirements and corrective measures.

In September 2018, the Union of B.C. Municipalities passed a resolution calling for a shift away from open net-pen fish farms and urging the province to begin a consultation process on a “transition plan to closed-containment aquaculture, including a just transition for affected workers.”

During the 2019 and 2021 federal elections, the Liberal Party of Canada promised to work with the province to develop a responsible plan to transition from open net-pen salmon farming in coastal waters to closed containment systems by 2025. Prime Minister Trudeau twice mandated the Ministers of Fisheries, Oceans, and the Coast Guard to fulfill that promise.

Responding to pressure from First Nations and the general public, in December 2020 the Government of Canada courageously decided to prohibit the restocking of 19 salmon farms in the Discovery Islands area of B.C. and require them to be decommissioned by June 2022. Mowi and other companies fought these government decisions in the courts and won. In February 2023, the government again denied the Discovery Islands licences, the companies again challenged the decision in the courts, and this time lost their case.

In 2022 the federal government launched consultations to develop a plan to transition away from floating, open net-pen salmon farms in B.C. A draft plan was released in September 2024 which established a ban on the farms effective June 2029. Consultations on the draft plan begin in October 2024.

In the USA, Alaska practices a controversial form of salmon ranching, but the state, along with California and Oregon, does not allow open net-pen fish farm operations. After the collapse of a farm in 2017, and the escape of many thousands of Atlantic salmon, Washington banned the farms. British Columbia will thus be the last jurisdiction on the west coast of North America to prohibit open net-pen fish farming, albeit not until 2029.

Historical Secwepemc fishing in Fraser River (BC Archives)

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