Fish Farms back on the agenda

The Province of British Columbia has re-opened the fish farm debate in the province with the approval of two licences for farms in two locations.

The licences were issued to Marine Harvest and are located at Lime Point and adjacent Sheep Passage near the village of Klemtu on the Central Coast of British Columbia.

The Daily News featured the development as their front page story in Friday's paper.

PROVINCE GIVES GREEN LIGHT TO NEW B. C. FISH FARMS

By Kris Schumacher
The Daily News
Friday, August 03, 2007

Page one

The Minister of Agriculture and Lands issued two finfish and two shellfish aquaculture licences for the province on Wednesday.

The two finfish licences have been issued to Marine Harvest and are located at Lime Point and adjacent Sheep Passage near the village of Klemtu on the Central Coast of British Columbia. In a separate statutory approval, the ministry approved the offering of two Crown land tenures to Kitasoo Aqua Farms Ltd. for these sites.

"Part of the licences is that one other licence will be surrendered at Arthur Island. They previously had a total of five licences, so with the two new ones minus the relinquished one it will bring their total to six," said Minister Pat Bell. "Their intent is really to have a more effective management regime for their licences."

Numerous parties were consulted on these applications, including the Canadian Coast Guard, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Environment Canada, First Nations groups in the area, the Regional District of Kitimat-Stikine, the Raincoast Conservation Society and the public.

"We're very happy," said Percy Starr, elder band council manager of the Kitasoo nation. "Our objective has always been six working sites, where four will be working and two will be fallow on an annual basis, to address concerns of the environmental things."

"They've committed to not operate more than four at any given point in time, just for better rotation and fallowing purposes," said Bell. "So, the real outcome of this is that they will be able to far more effectively manage the farms in their territory through fallow periods."

The fish farm operations have brought an abundance of jobs into the area for the Kitasoo nation, which the band council is more than pleased with already.

"When you take a look at what we have now; we have 15 people working at the fish farms, we have about 35 people in the processing plant when we start operating, and we also do the packing which uses about six people," said Starr. "Fifteen are year-round, the rest are about eight months a year."

"It's just beautiful," said Starr.

In light of the fact that fish farming is one of the most controversial fishery issues, the news will no doubt bring criticism from some sectors, said Starr.

But, he said, the Kitasoo want everyone to know they are doing their job in keeping the area pristine.

"People don't understand that we work very closely with the environmental people," said Starr.
"Everything we do, we are trying to address it in an environmentally friendly manner. There are concerns, we know that, but we are addressing it the best we can."

According to Starr, the most recent environmental report on their farms showed their stock averaged one to three sea lice per fish, the same amount of lice found of fish 40 miles away from their farms.

"We dig clams from right by the farms, we still eat prawns from the area. We eat our diet which has not been impacted because of the farms in our traditional territory," he said. "We monitor all of the sites, and we invite people to come in and be a part of our team when we go out and do our work. We're not hiding anything, and we're just as concerned as other people."

In addition, the Kitasoo Band Council's agreement gives them the rights to manage the sites, as well as close them if they are environmentally harmful.

"If it's going to destroy anything, we own the sites and they will shut down very quickly," noted Starr.

"We told Marine Harvest that we want to be environmentally friendly, and it's part of our agreement that we can shut it down if we want to, if it disturbs our fish food activities."