Is there a future for salmon farms in Canada?
Sink or swim
Salmon farming in St. George, N.B.:
The new face of commercial fishing
By Lindsay O’Reilly
Commercial fishing boats lie idle in the Bay of Fundy even as flashes of silver
glimpsed through the murky waters testify to the scores of fish gliding beneath
the surface. Along with millions of their kind in 96 sites along the picturesque
coasts and inlets of Charlotte County, N.B., these Atlantic salmon, in their
mesh confines, represent the livelihood of over 3,000 people — about
one-quarter of the population — of this area.
Some, like the Cooke family of Aqua Fish Farms Ltd., have made their fortune
in aquaculture. The Cookes are among many fish farmers in the small town of
St. George, about 60 kilometres west of Saint John, who got into the industry
in the early ’90s, when it showed the promise of providing an alternative
to collapsing wild fish stocks. Back then the government startup grants were
plentiful. As St. George mayor Stan Smith says, “The guys who have been
in this business for 10 or so years have got houses a lot nicer than mine!”
For others, it hasn’t been so easy. For Stacy Frye, co-owner of West
Isles Sea Food, one of St. George’s smaller aquaculture companies, the
tawny-silver fish below the bay’s choppy waters have come to represent
numbers: how many fish she will be forced to harvest at only four pounds just
to keep money coming in, rather than allowing them to reach their full weight
of eight pounds; how many years, months or weeks she will be able to keep the
business afloat under the weight of debt the small family operation has been
carrying since 2000.
Last year, Frye and her family had to kill off half their stock when an epidemic
of infectious salmon anemia (ISA) hit their farms hard.
“Your fish just start to die, and then you watch them die at hundreds
a day,” Frye says.
The virus, which uses the fish’s own immune system to attack and destroy
vital cells, is so contagious that the Fryes chose to destroy the entire infected
fish population, rather than risk it spreading further. “Picture what
the beef industry went through with mad cow disease,” Frye says, “with
none of the government compensation.”
Later in the year, the Fryes were hit with more bad luck: what fish farmers
refer to as “super-freeze.” During this hydrological event, temperatures
drop so low that the fish, even metres down in the ocean water, begin to freeze
and die in large numbers. While bigger salmon-farming businesses have also
had to deal with setbacks like ISA and super-freeze, their larger overall stock
could buffer the loss. For farms like the Fryes’, it is harder to recover.
With a struggling business, Frye has a lot on her mind. Her days overseeing
the fish farm are long and it has been increasingly difficult to make ends
meet. “Call back in three months,” she says, “and we might
not be in business.”
Mayor Smith says many of the town’s smaller businesses have been forced
to cut their losses and sell their farms to bigger companies. Now, he says, most
of the farms in the area are owned by three “main players”: Stolk
Sea Farm Inc., Heritage Salmon Ltd. and Aqua Fish Farms.
“Of course, there is some negative, as there is with everything,” says
Sybil Smith, project manager for New Brunswick Salmon Grower’s Association,
and Smith’s wife. “But, overall, [salmon farming] has brought a lot
of jobs and prosperity to the area.”
Although some scientists argue that salmon farming is not sustainable, Smith
points out that many aquaculture companies in the area are now working hard to
prevent problems such as fish escapes and overfeeding, which can threaten wild
salmon populations and damage ocean ecosystems. Business owners are keeping closer
tabs on their farms and, in the future, hope to use feed that would require less
than the current 1.2 kilograms of wild fish for every kilogram of farmed salmon.
Stan Smith says he believes salmon farmers in St. George will be able to overcome
the pressures of disease, super-freezes and environmental concerns to succeed
where the town’s past industries — granite quarrying and pulp and
paper — have failed.
“There are things that have to be done, in terms of environmental aspects
and better husbandry, to prevent disease,” the mayor says, “but I
think salmon farming in St. George is more or less here to stay.”
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