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The Westerly News
Dec. 22, 2004

Several factors have thrown Mainstream Canada, the aquaculture company holding 15 salmon and six black cod tenures in Clayoquot Sound, into the spotlight in the last few weeks.

First off, local environmental group, Friends of Clayoquot Sound, introduced their new aquaculture campaigner Don Staniford into the post. Staniford's active opposition toward aquaculture dates back 10 years. His work exposing the illegal use of chemicals on Scottish salmon farms won him an award.

The Raincoast Conservation Society released a report on the five multinational companies that make up the majority of salmon farming activity in BC. The report states Mainstream's track record as having more fines than any other company in the province. In a FOCS press release, Staniford said "[Mainstream] must clean up or clear out of Clayoquot Sound. The Norwegian multinational is leaving a lethal legacy of marine pollution, infectious diseases, chemical contamination, mass escapes and sea lice infestation in their wake across British Columbia."

A book, written by a list of high profile aquaculture activists, including Staniford, was also released. The book is called "A Stain Upon the Sea." Locally, Staniford, whose contribution to the book focused on the use of chemicals in salmon farming, had a book launch and signing at the Clayoquot Community Theatre. The release's standing room attendance consisted mainly of Mainstream employees and management. Creative Salmon, FOCS and others also attended.

Throughout these events FOCS and Mainstream were engaged in dialogue, and a flurry of press releases and responses to press releases were issued.

Mainstream Canada say these recent events are an opportunity to get their side of the story out.

"[This] indicates to us that we need to do a better job of educating the public of the facts," said Mainstream. "As a company we have struggled with the proper forum to educate the public."

One fact is, the Raincoast Conservation Society's report states that in 2003 Cermaq - Mainstream's parent company - pled guilty to 11 regulatory violations including failure to prevent escapes. This was taken directly from the provincial government's third annual inspection report on marine aquaculture sites. The subsequent report states no fines have been issued to the company. Mainstream says it failed to prevent escapes and was issued those fines because the company was in the process of upgrading its equipment and operating procedures from that of the previous company, PNA.

"At that time, Cermaq had only been in possession of the company for 18 months and were upgrading the much-outdated facilities with new technology. Until the fall of the year 2000, the individual operators of the previous operations had put little investment into their facilities in Clayoquot Sound," said Mainstream. "Parallel to this, the provincial government was in the process of developing new regulations and Cermaq were quickly submitting amendments for its management plan to the government."

"Since that time Mainstream Canada has worked very hard to instill a strong system of accountability within its operations by developing a detailed set of best management plans. It is for these reasons that Mainstream Canada has not received a violation since the ones noted above."

Staniford says FOCS are waiting on a freedom of information request for documents of the last 12 months of Mainstream's operations. He says because the company's track record is abysmal, proof is needed before anyone can determine whether the company has indeed cleaned up its act.

FOCS' main objections to open net aquaculture are what they see as risks to human health due to the feed used; pollution of the ocean; disease transfer from farmed to wild stocks; escapes and introduction of exotic species; depletion of global wild fish stocks; and the killing of sea mammals.

FOCS website states, "Despite the promises of jobs and dollars made by salmon farmers, questions abound about the impacts of salmon farms on wild salmon and the marine environment. The open nets, often densely packed with hundreds of thousands of farmed salmon, allow waste, excess food, pesticides and antibiotics to flow directly into the marine environment. Open netcage farms can also amplify disease and parasite outbreaks, spreading them to the wild and endangering wild fish stocks, which are critical to both marine and forest ecosystems."

Mainstream says it is committed to the operation and development of sustainable open net-pen aquaculture.

"Through research and development our company is continually investigating alternate sources of protein for feed such as vegetable and algae derived materials. On the farms, we are currently developing an environmental management system that will be certified under an international system. It is a way to identify key environmental aspects from employees at the ground level or the public, develop better practices to mitigate or eliminate potential risks, and then track environmental management improvement over time. A non-biased third party firm then audits us at least annually to ensure our company is meeting goals they have committed to and that all the records required by ISO are being maintained accordingly."

Environmental groups say, at this point, that to address environmental and health risks associated with fish farms without shutting down the industry, the focus should be on researching, developing and implementing closed containment fish farm systems.

Says Mainstream, "The question of whether Cermaq supports closed containment is a difficult one to clearly answer due to the lack of technological innovation development. Also, individuals within the farming industry would suggest that, with proper management, open net-pen aquaculture is sustainable and with evolving management techniques sustainability would only increase in the future. In any case, the fact is, the present state of technology with respect to closed containment is not near the level required for commercial use, neither financially or technologically."

Mainstream also noted potential environmental costs to closesd containment systems - mainly pulling more power from the provincial grid, or burning fossil fuel such as diesel to run the circulation system required to keep tank water fresh. Also, they questioned waste collection and treatment.

"Where would such organic waste be stored and treated on land and with what sort of treatment? Some would even question whether humans are better suited to treat marine organic, which mainly originates from the ocean, on land."

The website for the Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform - a group FOCS works closely with - describes instances where closed containment systems are being used.

It says there are three companies practicing closed-containment on the coast: Mariculture Systems Ltd., Future SEA Farms Ltd., and Agrimarine Industries Inc. The website says they have been developing this technology for several years. The first two are in-water systems, and the latter, a land-based system.

Says the website, "Preliminary economic anaylsis by both Mariculture and FSF comparing them to a typical open netcage, showed they performed better economically than a conventional system mainly due to changed environmental conditions."

It also summarized the environmental advantages to closed containment highlighting sea lice, bacteria, viruses, escapes and waste. Mariculture found all sea lice, escape and waste issues had been resolved; FSF found that escape and waste issues were resolved, and there was a decreased impact on sea lice.

"The aquaculture companies view costs only from an economic point of view, not an environmental point of view. They are not paying for their environmental costs and must change the way they look at things," said Staniford.

Although Mainstream and FOCS don't agree on several issues pertaining to aquaculture in the Sound, both parties have agreed to meet and discuss both the constant and ever-changing issues that arise around the subject.

In an attempt to bring all the issues to the table, an aquaculture forum with experts from both the companies, the environmental organizations and possibly the government is tentatively planned for this spring, so the public can have a better idea of all the factors contributing to the debate.

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Copyright The Westerly News, a Canwest Company. Reproduction of this article or photographs, in whole or in part, is illegal without the written consent of The Westerly News (westnews@ukeecable.net). The Westerly News is published each Wednesday in Ucluelet. Phone: 250 726-7029


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