by Jennifer Dart
The Westerly News
Aug. 2, 2007
A Tofino company's
recent decision to carry only wild salmon has raised the ire of a First
Nations chief who's band members are employed with a local salmon farming
company.
Trilogy Fish Company's decision to carry only wild salmon is more about a shift to sustainable products in general than it is about farmed fish, says store manager John Gilmour.
The store, which used to carry farmed salmon from Creative Salmon Company in Tofino, has eliminated all products that aren't listed as sustainable on SeaChoice, a seafood guide produced by BC environmental organizations and modeled on a similar guide from Monterey Bay Aquarium in California.
This includes farmed salmon, as well as things like swordfish, which the store used to carry.
Gilmour said they've also shifted their product line to include only Vancouver Island seafood and shellfish, with the exception of scallops from Alaska.
"[Our stock] is mostly from Clayoquot Sound and the surrounding area," he said.
Gilmour maintains that Creative Salmon has made progress in the fish farming industry, and the company itself is not the reason for Trilogy's move.
"It has nothing to do with Creative themselves, it's problems with the industry in general," he said.
"We also haven't carried anything that is caught by bottom trawl, because that causes more damage than any farming does."
But Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation chief councilor Moses Martin says if people really looked at Creative Salmon, they would support them in the same way the company supports the community.
In a letter to the editor this week, Martin wonders what the alternative is: "ask yourself, how long can we expect wild stock to exist if we try to meet the market demand and expectation created by year round [availability of] fresh farmed salmon? Not very long!"
Martin goes on to decry the alternative proposed by some of the organizations that authored the guide Trilogy is now following - closed containment systems (the sponsors of the guide include the David Suzuki Foundation, the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS), the Sierra Club of BC, Living Oceans Society, and the Ecology Action Centre).
He notes that forcing companies to move to closed containment, as was suggested by the Standing Senate Committee on Sustainable Aquaculture, likely means forcing the industry out of coastal communities. That means less community support and fewer jobs.
He argues closed containment units would also require a large amount of energy, driving up the production of greenhouse gases.
Creative Salmon manager Spencer Evans has the same argument about global warming. He also says raising salmon in such close quarters would necessitate using antibiotics, something his company doesn't currently practice.
"Those who push the closed containment option have a hidden agenda or they are incredibly naive," Evans said.
"Losing Trilogy as a client is irrelevant from an economic standpoint. They don't buy that much fish. But losing Trilogy as a local supporter is very sad. It's like losing a misguided friend."
A search on the Sea Choice website turns up this explanation as to why farmed salmon is listed as "not recommended" in the guide: "The worst farmed seafood options are typically carnivorous fish found high on the food chain that use large amounts of edible fish protein and are produced in open net cages that impact on surrounding species and the environment."
Trilogy's decision to follow the guide also has another side to it.
As the Westerly reported last week, Trilogy is one of four local businesses participating ina carbon neutral workgroup supported by Ecotrust Canada. This means they will be calculating and seeking to reduce their carbon output. Locally sourcing products fits nicely into this program, Gilmour said.
"These decisions
reflect more on Trilogy than anyone else," he said.
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