Coming from entrepreneurial families and owning other businesses prior to creating Poseidon, Mathew gained considerable aquaculture experience while working at Marine Harvest Canada (now Mowi Canada West), which operates salmon farms on the coast of British Columbia and Vancouver Island.

Responsible for engineering much of Mowi’s marine infrastructure including moorings, cages and barges, the couple established Poseidon with the belief there was room in the market for a unique approach to aquaculture.

“Our product development process involves significant collaboration with stakeholders and we have tried to focus our efforts in areas that were overlooked by other companies,” says Clarke of the company, which has become a worldwide recognized aquaculture solutions and technology leader focusing on infrastructure design, supply, development, engineering, and installation.

“There was a significant amount of research and development happening in other countries, and especially in Norway, but we felt there were specific aspects of aquaculture that we could improve upon,” he says.

Industry innovators
In just six years, Poseidon Ocean Systems has expanded its services and staff. Currently, with a team of 25, of whom 15 are engineers (including mechanical, mechatronics, and software specialists), the company is known for its life support systems, both aeration and oxygenation, and floating infrastructure, which saw considerable investment in Poseidon’s early days.

These included the Trident Hybrid™ Steel Cage System Developed by Poseidon, a unique aquaculture pen heralded as “the world’s most advanced aquaculture steel cage system.” In mid-February, the company announced the steel cage system’s aquaculture debut in Scotland.

Available in standard sizes ranging from 24-meter to 40-meter pens, the Trident Hybrid Steel Cage System is the most advanced of its kind in the world.

“Its forward-thinking design allows for a seamless transition to advanced technologies, such as rigid nets and floating closed containment, without the need to invest in new structures,” is how the company describes it.

The Trident hybrid steel cage was developed by Poseidon Ocean Systems to cope with high energy conditions off the coast of British Columbia. Made with High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) pipes – known for durability and long-term effectiveness – the system boasts many advantages over other products, including safety, longevity, and stability.

Certified to Norwegian standard 9415 for fish farms, it offers obstacle-free walkways, an HDPE tube flotation design that is 400 percent thicker, and is engineered to a strength of 355 MPa (megapascal). A video demonstration of the system can be seen at www.poseidonos.com/products/net-pen-constructions/.

Updating the industry
“Until the last few years, plankton and algae blooms were rare occurrences in Norway, while being common occurrences in Canada and Chile,” says Clarke. “Our Trident Hybrid cage system was born out of another opportunity; we found that the existing market offerings hadn’t had a redesign in more than 25 years.

“Farming operations had changed dramatically in that time frame, but the floating infrastructure hadn’t kept pace. Square cage systems are less common in Norway, but are used widely in Chile, as well as in Canada and Scotland.”

In North Western Scotland, Poseidon’s new design was ordered by well-known salmon producer Loch Duart through Trimara Aquaculture Services. One of Trimara’s founding directors, Stewart Hawthorn, issued a statement praising Poseidon for its exceptional work.

“We are really pleased to be bringing this new cage system design to Scotland,” he said. “Our team is proud of the trust Loch Duart is placing in us and our supplier partner Poseidon Ocean Systems. Poseidon has developed an exceptional cage system. Their advanced engineering increases staff safety, helps to ease fish care and handling, and reduces the overall cost of operations.”

With a significantly longer lifespan than existing steel-cage systems, the Trident Hybrid allows farmers to operate in more exposed areas, and can also support the transition to semi-closed containment operations.

Respecting the environment
By combining superior design ingenuity with environmentally responsible solutions, Poseidon Ocean Systems helps clients in aquaculture and other sectors boost yields while keeping the cost of operations low. Selling products and systems in Canada, Chile, Scotland and Australia, Poseidon’s industry customers include Cermaq, Greig, Mowi, Tassal, Scottish Seafarms, and Loch Duart.

“Poseidon was founded on the belief that there was room in the market for a collaborative approach,” says Clarke of the company, which works intensively with stakeholders during the product development process, and tends to focus its efforts in areas overlooked by other companies.

Offering quality aquaculture products and services including life-support systems (air and oxygen diffusion), net pens, mooring systems, underwater lighting systems, anti-predation nets, feed systems and more, Poseidon is proud of all its offerings, including the company’s Flowpressor™ system.

Flowpressor is a proprietary air compressor system designed specifically for aquaculture to produce compressed air to run aeration systems. The Flowpressor can significantly reduce fuel consumption. Unlike the standard and often inefficient mobile diesel compressors and blowers used worldwide – which can account for up to 75 percent of all fuel burned on farms annually – the Flowpressor is designed specifically for aquaculture applications.

When working with Poseidon’s IOT firmware in real-world testing, the Flowpressor can reduce diesel fuel use by nearly 60 percent. “This equates to a predicted savings of 48,000 tonnes of CO₂ for the British Columbia industry alone, or the equivalent of taking over 6,200 cars off the road,” says Clarke.

“The added capabilities of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and IOT connectivity will contribute to dramatically improved fish health, as well as further reductions in emissions for aquaculture operations.”

By using less diesel fuel, Poseidon’s Flowpressor system saves on costs, and much more. Cutting the carbon footprint of modern-day salmon farms, the system also helps to prevent mass mortality events by lowering the overall operational costs of installing aeration systems, and further reducing waste.

As well as conforming to Norwegian Standard NS-9415, which allows Poseidon to certify its cage and mooring equipment as a supplier and manufacturer to the Norwegian Standard, the company holds licenses in Canada.

These include the Manufacturer’s Contractor License (MA), granted by Technical Safety BC and required to manufacture any equipment that falls under the Safety Standards Act of BC (including aeration control panels), and the Au Contractor License (Au). Granted by Technical Safety BC, this license is required for field fabrication and installation of equipment that falls under the Safety Standards Act of BC.

Facing challenges
A relatively new industry in Canada, aquaculture faces political and environmental issues. Although science confirms open-net pen operations in Canada pose minimal risk to wild fish, there is still significant pressure for producers to find alternative methods for their farming.

Fortunately, Poseidon continues to create innovative solutions. “Our Trident Hybrid Steel Cage System will allow producers to invest in traditional open-net pen operations today, and transition to semi-closed containment in the future without replacing their floating infrastructure,” says Clarke.

With global warming changing ocean conditions, harmful algae and other negative water quality events are happening more regularly, and with greater severity around the world. In British Columbia, these events have been a regular occurrence in the aquaculture industry for the last decade.

“Our Flowpressor system will reduce the operating costs and environmental impact of running aeration systems,” says Clarke, “not only for these specific events, but also on a maintenance basis to improve fish health and welfare.”

Primarily and deeply involved in aquaculture, Poseidon’s products and services also cross into other sectors. The company’s Flowpressor system generates attractive opportunities within the mining and wastewater treatment sectors, while its Trident Hybrid cage system is an excellent platform for recreational docks and marinas.

Engineers with the company have also been involved with cetacean (whale) recovery/rescue projects around the world, as well as assisting with the Province and Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) during the Big Bar landslide and wild salmon recovery. Poseidon also works regularly with hatcheries and smaller operators, like shellfish farmers.

Focus on food security
Dedicated to creating state-of-the-art aquaculture solutions with Poseidon Ocean Systems that reduce costs, boost efficiencies and increase sustainability, Heather and Mathew Clarke say that the biggest compliment the company receives is that Poseidon is thoughtful.

“We pride ourselves on our collaborative approach and are genuinely interested in solving their problems,” says Mathew. “We believe that aquaculture is the path forward to a better future and we want Poseidon to be their partner in this journey.

“Food security is a major concern as our global population is expected to hit nine billion by 2050, and demand for protein is projected to at least double by then. Global demand for seafood is increasing at 8.4 percent annually, and as the capture of wild fish plateaus globally, only aquaculture can supply the projected increased demand.

“As aquaculture grows and evolves, we need to focus our efforts on innovative technologies to improve efficiencies and reduce the environmental impact of this protein production.”

The post Aquaculture Pioneers on the Path to Food Security<p class="company">Poseidon Ocean Systems Ltd.</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

Built for strength, durability and longevity, Saeplast’s double-walled PUR insulated polyethylene containers keep a wide range of food fresh for prolonged periods of time, ultimately extending the quality lifetime of seafood products. For more than 40 years, this New Brunswick manufacturing company’s high standards and demanding product design have meant superior handling, increased safety and stellar reliability.

Saeplast manufactures its product using a process called rotational moulding. What is it? By placing raw pigmented polyethylene powder into steel moulds and rotating them both vertically and horizontally inside a high heat oven for a specific period of time, you will get Saeplast containers. This process results in no stress placed on the polymer itself and no orientation in the materials, which ultimately means high durability, says Saeplast’s Managing Director Brian Gooding. It’s also exceptional for creating robust physical properties.

“What we’re trying to do with Saeplast PUR is provide a cold chain solution through a long value chain that the customer might have,” says Gooding. “For ice, whether it’s flake, slurry or brine, temperature control is extremely important. We put a lot of value on R-value and durability. The reason we’re the leader in our space is because of the amount of work we do in this area to continuously improve the product.”

Saeplast always has multiple projects on the go. Founded in 1979 with the help of Department of Fisheries and Oceans seed money to help fishers on the east coast of Canada improve catch quality, the company has worked hard to eliminate the cyclical nature of the business, says Gooding, who has been heading Saeplast now for 10 years.

“Because we were fully invested in the fish and seafood side of the market, particularly here in North America, for many years, we would be busy from March until September, and then the business would essentially go dormant from September through to February or March, depending on the season and weather conditions. To me that seemed like quite a waste,” he shares.

What to do in the other five or six months of the year was a challenge. Saeplast embarked on a strategy to undertake two fundamental things: One was entering other geography on a strategic basis, and that geography was Latin America. The company had always done work in Mexico direct with end users and through distribution. But in Central or South America, “If we got an order, that was great. If we didn’t get an order, we weren’t counting on it anyway. This region was treated totally opportunistically. To me that just seemed wrong,” says Gooding. Countries like Chile, Ecuador and Peru are big fish and aquaculture producers, with Chile behind only Norway as the second largest producer of Atlantic Salmon. With Ecuador being a huge supplier of shrimp to the world market, the COVID-19 pandemic has only increased the globe’s dependence on Ecuadoran shrimp.

The second strategy the company embarked on was the development of a new product line following in the footsteps of its European operations. While Saeplast has its core fish, seafood and aquaculture segment, European colleagues had entered into what’s termed the ‘protein segments’ – defined as pork, poultry and beef. With sustainability and durability in mind, Saeplast looked to move past certain materials like corrugated cardboard, which is often not recyclable in this context. If blood has been spilled on the material, for example, there’s a risk of cross-contamination, so those cardboard containers end up being landfilled. Thus, the triple wall polyethylene line of products was created – Saeplast PE.

“When you start looking at some other substrates, particularly paper-based solutions, you find they’re unbelievably expensive,” says Gooding. “It’s not so much about the initial price of the container; it comes down to the cost of the container over a period of six months or a year. They might be able to use a triple-walled corrugated box maybe twice, then it would either be contaminated or literally rip apart. We thought that was a waste.”

Stainless steel is another concern, says Gooding. While many think that stainless steel is indestructible, it has a high cost associated with its purchase price, is extremely dangerous to employees because of nicks and cuts incurred from the steel itself, and is extremely noisy and expensive to repair.

Saeplast prides itself on educating clients about their choices. “I’m really proud of that fact,” says Gooding. “Our team has done an excellent job and it’s one of the things that clearly differentiates Saeplast from our competitors and why we’ve been able to grow so much more rapidly than the average producer of containers to the food market segment, whether it’s fish or poultry, pork or red meat.”

Recent challenges facing the industry have varied, but COVID-19, of course, has played a huge role, on multiple levels, in the company’s operations this past year. While preferences of where clients are choosing to eat has changed — with online orders making a huge upswing since November of 2020 —Saeplast has seen a gradual increase in business to the extent that, while they’re not quite back to where they were pre-COVID-19, they’re not far from it.

“We actually have a significant backlog of orders, because as customers’ businesses start to normalize, they realize that they didn’t buy last year, so now they’re buying for both this year and last year and playing a little bit of catch-up,” says Gooding. “While that’s happening we still have all these issues that have only continued to worsen on the raw material side of things. We’ve also seen massive inflation.” These and similar challenges are, of course, being encountered industry-wide.

Naturally, managing the financial end of things has been a priority, as has maintaining company culture and employee health and wellness.

“I’m seeing it every day,” Gooding shares. “People are really struggling with the social isolation, and I’m talking and engaging with work colleagues and trying to keep things as upbeat as possible. That’s really been the biggest challenge through all of this, and my biggest worry. That’s what keeps me awake at night – just our folks.”

Maintaining sustainability has also been a top priority for Saeplast, and Gooding is proud of the company’s record. “Fundamentally our product is sustainable,” he says. “It’s a long-lasting, durable product. You can use our containers, if you maintain them, theoretically forever; I routinely see containers over 20 years of age. They’re highly sustainable but we don’t stop there. It’s always about continuous improvement. We always have a multitude of development projects on the go and as the brand leader and as the leader in this space that we compete in, we’re always looking to lead. We’ve done this for 42 years, and we’ll always lead the market.”

It’s in the company’s DNA to continue to lead with technology, says Gooding. At the moment the team is working on weight reduction and how to keep and improve the same physical strengths of their containers moving forward. They’ve also been working on the use of some post-consumer material, putting PCR back into the core of their polyethylene foam fill.

“I see the use of PCR becoming a very large component in the future,” says Gooding. “We’re embarking on that now and we’re leading the way on it. We’re the only ones doing this work in our space and it’s important. We want to leave the world in a better place.”

Being eco-friendly has led to several other changes, including switching much of Saeplast’s exterior lighting to LED technology and embarking on a project with the engineering department of the University of Prince Edward Island to look at energy efficiency within company processes.

“It goes beyond just sustainability of our products,” says Gooding. “Of course, that’s important, but it’s also sustainability within our operating plant. Within the plant we capture all the corrugated [cardboard] that comes in from suppliers. One hundred percent of that is recycled. We try to use reusable products as much as we feasibly can, and of course any of the plastic film that we use in our process we capture and recycle as well.”

As a member of Operation Clean Sweep (OCS), Saeplast also works to limit its environmental impact as much as possible by eliminating polyethylene resin pellets from the nearby waterways. As the company is located literally one kilometre from the Bay of Fundy, it’s incredibly important to prevent and clean up any potential pellet spills.

“We’re a charter member of the OCS,” says Gooding. “We bring in all of our resin from Alberta by rail, so we only will deal with vendors that are also Operation Clean Sweep members. We check and audit their rail cars to make sure there are no pellets on the outside of the car, and when we bring the plastic into our facility, if there’s ever a spill on the rail siding, we literally are vacuuming up pellets to ensure that it doesn’t make its way down to the Bay of Fundy.”

This commitment to not only reducing waste but ensuring a better world for years to come is a long-standing Saeplast mandate and one that Gooding personally upholds.

“Plastic is a wonderfully forgiving material that gets a bad rap, and it’s really not justified because the benefits of polyethylene are incredible,” he says. “It’s 100 percent recyclable, and it makes wonderful products. Unfortunately, the problem that we face as a plastic processor is littering. But that’s human behaviour. It’s not an attribute of the material.”

Running a company that makes plastic products means understanding that human behaviour is at the root of both the detriments and advantages for the next generation, says Gooding. “In the end, it’s incredibly important to us to leave the world in a better spot.”

The post Safe, Strong, Sustainable: Saeplast Containers are Designed to Last<p class="company">Saeplast Canada</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

For businesses in every industry, 2020 was a complicated period of unpredictability and adjustment. For the Canadian netting company, this time was used to analyze its processes and methods of interacting with its customers. Traditionally, most of its processes had a hands-on approach, based on in-person meetings that included a heavy paper trail. In the last year, the pandemic has been a springboard for Badinotti to pivot its strategy and adopt its own digital platform to improve its cloud based network.

“This past year was extremely challenging, but it created internal pressures on us, and pressure produces growth. It made us look at everything in a new light, and it allowed us to consider these other strategies that we may not have otherwise prioritized. We developed tools to interface with our own employees first, and then, based on that success, we’ve been able to develop external, client-facing digital tools for reporting, client interactions, and so on in a quick turnaround time,” says Badinotti Net Services Canada Director of Sea Operations Trevor Schiele.

Having worked in aquaculture since graduating high school, Trevor has always been interested in continuing the industry. He grew up on the coast of British Columbia, in a community heavily based in the resource sectors with primary industries in forestry, mining, and fishing. His first post-secondary education path led him to a company that provided service support to the local aquaculture firms, and this is where he discovered his passion for the industry. With the opportunity to experience the innovative and robust nature of aquaculture, Trevor found his calling.

For twelve years, he stuck with the steady, meaningful, year-round work in the aquaculture processing division. “The reliability and the continuity that came from aquaculture was second-to-none, and because of that, it also provided the most opportunity for growth, innovation, and change. Growing up in BC, we have our options, but aquaculture has always been the best choice for me because of that continuity and the ability to stay in the coastal areas,” says Trevor.

As life moved forward and Trevor became a parent, he decided to go back to school. At the age of twenty-seven, he completed a distance education program though the B.C. Institute of Technology in Occupational Health Sciences. The degree helped to open his mind to industrial processes and risk management in aquaculture, which eventually led him to the Badinotti team where he has now been for five years. “I was born in Campbell River, and I’m very proud to be a part of aquaculture and raise my family in close proximity to where I grew up.”

As a result of its connection to its parent company, Badinotti Canada has access to highly innovative technology for netting products and services. In the last two years, it has implemented more environmentally-friendly equipment for its subsea operations. Across its marine fleet, the company has introduced electric net washing remotely operated vehicles (ROVs).

“These ROVs use twenty percent of the previous energy output to operate. They’ve eliminated environmental risks for operating, lowered our carbon footprint, and increased the fish health quality,” explains Trevor. “The adoption of this technology has revolutionized our ability to serve our clients, which has also opened up many other opportunities for us; for example, environmental monitoring, artificial intelligence, and machine learning.”

In collaboration with its clients, Badinotti is currently working on a few image recognition software projects. It collects subsea environmental risk data and operational data to streamline the processes and make data-driven decisions much faster. The company has also implemented in situ equipment on a new level, further separating it from the competition. The in situ washing process makes it possible for large nets to be washed without having to be moved. Badinotti only continues to increase and improve its offerings to its clients.

The parent company has also developed an innovative platform called EasyTrack to help clients keep track of operations. Since the nets are owned by the clients and serviced by Badinotti, it is important for the client to be able to check on their assets. EasyTrack is an external portal from the company website that allows clients to look at net servicing or repairs throughout the process, and at the end, it also consolidates their billing. Clients can log on to see where their nets are before making informed, data-driven decisions, and this allows them to create efficiencies within their own business. Worldwide, all of Badinotti’s operations are moving towards including EasyTrack.

As mentioned earlier, the other most recent technological advancement for Badinotti is the adoption of its own internal digital platform. Partially motivated by the pandemic, the company established a cloud-based intranet to communicate more efficiently with its employees. It initially focused on the sea operations team, a group of workers based on remote vessels serving the aquaculture industry. After gaining the necessary experience, Badinotti has now brought four mobile apps to market for various uses including operations production, loss control, environmental health and safety, and quality control. It has also developed its external tools to improve communication with clients.

Despite any struggles in aquaculture, those within the industry are dedicated to helping it grow sustainably, innovating and maintaining the industry’s integrity as it progresses. “One of the things we see in aquaculture, at least in the contact we have with our clients, is their great commitment to improve the environmental footprint they leave,” says Badinotti Net Services Canada Marketing Coordinator Miriam Salmeron.

Both the east and west coasts of Canada are ideal for year-round aquaculture production, and this reliability serves the marketplace very well. As a key part of the supply chain, aquaculture provides a consistent healthy product twelve months a year, and the science-based evidence backing aquaculture is very strong compared to other types of agrifoods.

The industry is working towards more investment in organized marketing efforts at the national and provincial levels to combat the lack of awareness about the strides aquaculture has made. In the last two decades, the industry has improved tremendously with regard to its environmental footprint, sustainability, and fish health, and the public must be made aware of these changes for aquaculture to continue to grow and innovate.

With no real way to control misinformation, the focus has been on providing informative data that is verifiable and comes from a credible source. This can be particularly challenging in Canada where eighty percent of the population lives in non-maritime provinces, and people are far removed from the aquaculture industry.

The rate of innovation and change in the industry is significant, and Canada needs a national strategy to educate the layperson about how far aquaculture has come in such a short time. “We need key communications of the positive benefits of aquaculture as a piece in the global agrifood supply chain. And a second part of that is the adoption of the industrial internet of things and A.I. to make it the most efficient source of protein in the world,” says Trevor.

Hopefully, the industry will become a more stable environment that will allow aquaculture to continue to grow across Canada in a way that it remains competitive in the world production scene. There are very few places left on earth that are ideal for cultivating salmon, and Canada has many of those untapped resources. “We need some stability, and in order to get that stability, we need the support from the Canadian people.”

The aquaculture industry is always changing, innovating, and adopting new technologies to improve its processes. Badinotti and other organizations that recognize social license and environmental impact are very attractive career opportunities for young professionals entering the workplace. Despite any roadblocks that get in the way, the future of the industry looks bright for Canada, and sustainable aquaculture will prevail.

The post Improving Aquaculture with Innovation and Technology<p class="company">Badinotti Net Services Canada</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

The history of Canada’s most easterly province is centred around the fishing industry, whether codfish in the Grand Banks or shellfish in its various bays. Early European explorers would report to their royals that one could practically walk across the water because there were so many codfish, and Newfoundlanders and Labradorians have become synonymous with the fishing industry.

It is a big reason why Grieg Seafood chose Newfoundland to expand its salmon farming operations in 2014. Setting up in Marystown, on the island’s Burin Peninsula was a natural choice, given the centuries of fishing experience from the residents. You go where the work experience is, and seven years later, company representatives Kristen Anstey and Andrew Tucker say it is obvious that Grieg chose the right place to do business.

Utilizing some of the most state-of-the-art facilities, Grieg Seafood Newfoundland raises salmon for markets in Canada and the U.S. Eastern Seaboard, and the methods are almost the stuff of science fiction. They raise the fish from the egg right to adulthood, after eggs are shipped in from Benchmark Genetics Iceland and incubated in temperature-controlled units. After the fish hatch, they are transferred to large, freshwater tanks, where they remain until they reach five grams in weight.

To prepare for life in seawater, the young salmon are transferred to the smoltification building where they undergo this transformation of smoltification and prepare for life in salt water. After smoltification and once the fish have reached 50 grams, they are transferred again to the largest facility for continued growout in saltwater until they are transferred to sea cages to complete the last 16 months of their growth. The process is designed to imitate the salmon’s natural habitat, and that is important, according to Grieg Seafood Newfoundland aquaculture technician Andrew Tucker.

“Salmon need a system that is as close to their natural environment as possible,” he said. “As compared to other species, they can be difficult to work with, and it’s very important to have the best and most specialized system possible to make them grow.”

As businesses go, this is an interesting one. There are not many others that have to worry that a finicky fish may spit out food it does not like but that happens, said Tucker.

“You can actually see them spit out food that isn’t palatable to them. They’ll just spit it out and swim away, and we need them to eat,” he said. “So, they require particular feed, and they can be very sensitive to extreme water conditions.”

He added that this is a very challenging process because it is one that completely changes the fish’s internal anatomy. Employees have to watch salt levels constantly and maintain all the mineral levels to transform these fish throughout their lives.

When fish farming became popular a couple of decades ago, it was met with some concern for the environmental impact. Tucker says Grieg Seafood Newfoundland does everything it can to be as sustainable as possible and likes to show off the sustainable part of aquaculture. Its facilities use recirculated water with what it calls a recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) that reuses the same water repeatedly, using treatment and biofilters to reduce the amount of waste and reduce the water used. Workers also treat the solid wastes that are produced from the fish themselves. The collected waste is treated to be redistributed as fertilizer or compost additive for other areas of agriculture. This results in very little waste from the operations as even the product that are considered waste can be used in other industries..

It all seems like a lot of effort just to get a food source that ideally, we should be able to get with a rod and reel, right? Actually, in most areas, those days are gone. Sure, you can still take the kids on a weekend fishing excursion, but the Global Aquaculture Alliance stated recently on its website that, by 2030, approximately sixty-two percent of all seafood produced for human consumption will come from aquaculture. When the alliance stated that a year and a half ago, the current number was fifty percent.

With a number like that, spanning all ocean species, one would have to wonder why Grieg would just stick with salmon only. “There are examples of integrated farms, especially in Asian countries,” said Tucker, “but with salmon, they’re a difficult species, and we need to be able to have the most specialized and best system to make them grow.”

Grieg Seafood is based in Norway and is one of the world’s leading salmon farming companies. The company has a worldwide target for this year of 80,000 harvested tons of product and an annual 130,000 tons by2025. Grieg’s aquaculture farms are also in operation in British Columbia, as well as Shetland in the UK and Finnmark and Rogaland in Norway. The company employs more than nine hundred people worldwide.

Grieg got its start in the early 1990s by Norwegian entrepreneur Per Greig Jr. and the shipping-based Grieg family in Western Norway. A look through the company’s website shows a community-based approach to its operations around the world and at home in Newfoundland. Kristin Anstey, Grieg Seafood’s human resources advisor in Newfoundland, said the company is taking on charitable challenges to support the area community.

“We like to do everything local as much as possible, a lot of our workers are from Newfoundland originally,” she said. “We do a lot of donations with the local hospital and fundraisers with the local community, and we’ll try and partner with local businesses as much as possible to try and bring business to them.”

Grieg in Newfoundland recently worked with the local food bank in its Marystown location to put more product on its shelves. It has also collected items for a local women’s shelter and put recycling proceeds toward the area hospital.

“We’ve done a lot, and we’re proud of what we’ve accomplished,” she said. “We strive to do the best we can and to bring quality to our community, and we just hope that what we do helps the community. We’ll keep trying to do our best.”

Like most small areas, community is important in Newfoundland and Labrador. In recent years, the province has seen an outward migration of its young people, as they find career opportunities in places like Alberta and Ontario. Anstey said she is proud of what Grieg represents in terms of the local job market.

“I really think that this project is good for [this area],” she said. “It’s creating jobs, and it’s attracting youth and young families to the area. We’re an ageing population, but the sea is starting to flourish again and bring the youth back home.”

Anstey is proof of this. She is from Marystown and moved away for her education in the United States and Europe. Like many young Newfoundlanders, she never thought she would work at home ever again, but jumped at the chance when Grieg came calling, and she realized where the opportunity was.

Of the Marystown location’s salmon, about seventy percent will likely end up in Boston and New York. Plans are underway to utilize a local processing facility in the nearby town of St. Lawrence, where the local population has every bit as much experience in fisheries, for the salmon once harvesting begins.

Tucker does not see much in the way of expansion for Grieg in Marystown, except for another building to add further smoltification utility to further the salmon’s development. He said what puts Grieg above the competition is having advanced technology that rivals any similar aquaculture business in North America and having one of the largest land-based facilities.

But Tucker said that competition is not much of an issue. Aquaculture “is not that competitive,” he said with a smile over video chat. “The industry works together a lot. We collaborate to make it better for everyone. I think that’s better for all of us.”

And should you be looking for a recipe, try marinating the salmon in equal parts brown sugar and soy sauce overnight, with a touch of lemon pepper on the fillets. It is fantastic.

The post Swimming Upstream<p class="company">Grieg Seafood</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

“I tell people that salmon aquaculture is simply a third party certified process of rearing fish from egg to plate,” explains Sue Farquharson, Executive Director of the Atlantic Canada Fish Farmers Association (ACFFA), based in Letang, New Brunswick.

The ACFFA represents the finfish sector, “and the majority of that right now is salmon in Atlantic Canada,” she continues.

Step one in salmon farming involves gathering eggs from salmon broodstock. Young fish are then reared in freshwater hatcheries on land for twelve to eighteen months. When ready, the fish are moved to netted cages moored to the ocean floor. Salmon spend another eighteen to twenty-four months in these saltwater environs while being carefully monitored. Specially designed nets keep salmon inside the cages and predators out.

Most Atlantic Canada salmon pens are roughly eight to fourteen metres deep with a circumference anywhere between 70 and 150 metres, according to the ACFFA, and a fish farm in Atlantic Canada typically uses several of these cage systems. Salmon occupy less than five percent of the cage, giving them plenty of room to move about. These operations produce 40,000 to 70,000 tonnes of fish each year, accounting for half of all farmed salmon in Canada.

The ACFFA’s role is to provide “a consistent, strong, positive voice on behalf of the salmon farming industry,” Farquharson explains. “That includes advocating for a responsible, effective regulatory framework and educating people in general about salmon farming. We’re really proud of the work that we do,” she says.

An industry-funded group, the ACFFA currently has over eighty members including feed producers, food service companies, fish farmers, and traditional fishermen. “We have lobster fishermen here. We have clam fishermen here. We all work together,” states Farquharson.

The association also operates a marine facility called Limekiln Wharf Service Centre in Letang for its members and has done extensive research and development work. As for public education, the ACFFA strives to highlight the benefits of salmon aquaculture and the strict conditions under which the industry operates.

“Each salmon farm is selected on a number of science-based criteria that includes hydrology, water temperatures, and depths. It’s all science-based. We’re a heavily regulated industry. There’s over seventy pieces of regulation that manage this particular industry, and that includes a lot of environmental policies and codes of practise we have to adhere to both federally and provincially,” she notes.

Even though salmon aquaculture produces less waste than people believe, fish farms— like farms on dry land—are fallowed regularly. Farmed salmon are usually given vitamin-rich dry pellets to eat that consist of natural plant, fish, and animal proteins. Growth hormones are not part of the mix, and antibiotic use is limited.

Fish pens are typically situated in coastal areas where strong currents and tides provide flushing action, removing excess waste. Underwater cameras and sensors monitor operations and divers perform additional, in-person inspections. Farms are also closely monitored by provincial and federal regulators.

The ACFFA tries to counteract the common misconception that salmon aquaculture caused the decline in wild Atlantic salmon stocks. “The decline of wild Atlantic salmon has been happening since the mid to late 1800s, and it’s well-documented. The federal government established the first hatcheries for stocking purposes for just that reason,” says Farquharson.

She says that fish farms balance sustainability with the increasing popularity of seafood. “I think they’re tied to one another. Sustainability and the growing demand for seafood equals the need for salmon aquaculture. [Salmon aquaculture is] responsible, it’s sustainable, and it’s innovative.” Compared to other types of food production, fish farms have “a small environmental footprint,” she adds. “Jacques Cousteau knew 50 years ago that we had to start farming our oceans to be sustainable.”

The message seems to be getting through; a poll released in June 2020 found over eighty percent of people in Atlantic Canada supported the aquaculture industry. Survey respondents agreed that “local salmon farming is a reliable and sustainable source of protein,” noted an ACFFA press release.

Like all other Canadian food producers, the Atlantic salmon aquaculture sector had to deal with the impact of the COVID virus. Keeping people safe was priority number one, says Farquharson.

“Aquaculture was designated as an essential service right away here in Atlantic Canada. There’s no doubt it took a hit like other food producers, but we’ve seen significant rebound and uptick in the last six months,” she says.

The pandemic shuttered businesses and played havoc on international trade, including food supply chains. As such, the COVID crisis is a timely reminder about “the importance of having an industry like this and locally produced food in your backyard,” she says.

COVID has had an impact in other ways. In the fall of 2020, to protect the health of participants, the ACFFA hosted an online-only version of its annual aquaculture research conference. One of the largest conferences of its kind, this two-day event features experts and attendees from around the world that present on industry trends, technology, and research projects.

The virtual conference was “well-received. We had two hundred attendees, and we charged them a minimal fee. We always make a donation to a charitable organization and last year we made a donation of $3800 to the Charlotte County Cancer Society,” she reports.

The ACFFA plans to put on a hybrid conference this year featuring both online and in-person activities. While the final conference format remains up in the air, pending pandemic restrictions, “One way or the other, we will definitely have our two-day forum,” vows Farquharson.

The ACFFA regularly collaborates with other fishing organizations, government officials and Non-Government Organizations (NGOs). The ACFFA belongs to a stakeholder group for the Bay of Fundy and a committee that works to reduce marine debris, for example.

“We work with First Nations and other partners, and we collaborate a lot with my provincial colleagues that are multi-species associations here in Atlantic Canada as well as our national affiliate, the Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance,” she explains.

‘Multi-species’ refers to associations that work with a variety of aquaculture species, not just finfish, like ACFFA.

The ACFFA is also heavily involved in aquaculture research and development, with an emphasis on “salmon conservation and wild salmon interaction,” Farquharson says.

She cites a wild salmon conservation project as one of the most significant of these research and development initiatives. The conservation project is a huge effort involving “industry, the federal government, provincial governments, First Nations, Parks Canada, and academia… operating the world’s first marine wild salmon conservation farm. It’s a fantastic project that we’re pretty proud of.”

The ACFFA traces its roots to 1987 and an organization called the New Brunswick Salmon Growers’ Association (NBSGA). Over the years, the organization grew, changed its name, and expanded its advocacy reach to cover the Atlantic Provinces of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland and Labrador. Regardless of its name, the association has always been based in Letang and has always been dedicated to salmon aquaculture.

While the association’s focus has remained the same, the industry itself has changed over the decades.

In the organization’s early days, it was made of “multiple small farmers, many were traditional fishers that converted their weirs to try salmon farming. They had never done it before; it was brand new. Today our association represents fewer farmers. On the other hand, we represent more of the service industry that has grown with the industry. As the number of farm owners has become lower, the service industry has expanded. The aquaculture industry now supports over 1,300 various companies throughout the Atlantic Region,” she states.

Not counting COVID, the biggest challenge facing the Atlantic salmon aquaculture industry is maintaining a sustainable workforce. “We need a trained workforce to help the industry continue to develop and thrive. We operate in rural, coastal communities which already have lower populations, and not everyone wants to live and work in rural coastal locations,” she explains.

The ACFFA has teamed up with the New Brunswick Community College (NBCC) to establish a program to educate people about various facets of the aquaculture industry. The aim is to drum up interest in the field and retain employees. These efforts have been complemented by advertisements and other ACFFA promotional activities highlighting aquaculture and the opportunities it provides for the Atlantic region.

Going forward, the ACFFA plans to continue its focus on salmon aquaculture. During planning sessions, the group pondered whether to expand its scope, possibly to other species. In the end, association officials decided against such a move, keeping with what it does best.

“We’ve already been here for thirty-plus years. We’re an industry-funded association, and we work solely on behalf of salmon farmers. So, we’ll be here doing what they want us to do [into the future], and that’s been outlined in our 2020 strategic plan. Really, in a nutshell, we provide a strong, positive, regional voice on behalf of the salmon farming industry,” states Farquharson.

The post Representing a Growing, Sustainable and Essential Sector in Atlantic Canada<p class="company">Atlantic Canada Fish Farmers Association</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

Newfoundland and Labrador’s economy had been based on fishing the rich North Atlantic ever since John Cabot arrived in 1497, leading an influx of European fishermen from England, France, Holland, Portugal, and Spain, who began establishing permanent settlements in 1603.

And so it continued in a sustainable manner for centuries until the 1950s, when the arrival of enormous, technologically advanced trawlers, many from Europe and Russia, began depleting not only the cod stock but severely damaging the ocean ecosystem that the remaining fish needed to survive.

Following 40 years of myriad contributing factors, including the rapid growth of the seal population – natural predators of fish – the northern cod fishery collapsed in the early 1990s and the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans imposed a moratorium on July 2, 1992, ending 500 years of commercial fishing and a cod stock that had lasted for millennia.

It was the largest industry shutdown ever in Canada. As a result, over 37,000 fishermen and fish plant workers lost their jobs, leaving over 400 coastal communities devastated.

Not only did the collapse of the fishery have a severe socioeconomic impact on the entire province, it raised troubling questions about food security.

Fish are recognized as an excellent source of protein and essential omega-3 fatty acids, and are high in certain vitamins and minerals, including Vitamin B-6 and 12, potassium, iodine, magnesium, and potassium.

However, just as demands for this healthy protein source increased, the supply dwindled and almost disappeared. The effect was all the more shocking because this priceless resource had once been deemed inexhaustible.

Aquaculture to the rescue
When the fishery collapsed and the cod moratorium was legislated in 1992, aquaculture was a fledgling industry in Newfoundland. Today, with a market value of over $276 million, it is an economic success story that provides more than 2,500 jobs, over 90 percent of which are full time. Aquaculture is a key part of economic development and the diversification of Newfoundland’s economy.

Within the industry is a wide range of jobs – in the hatcheries, farms and processing plants, and including positions for skilled engineers, veterinarians, researchers, marine biologists, scientists, and farmers. In addition, there are many indirect jobs, in feed manufacturing, packaging, supplies and service, vessel repair and maintenance, and transportation.

To learn more we spoke with Mark Lane, Executive Director of the Newfoundland Aquaculture Industry Association (NAIA) and the mayors of three coastal communities, Stephenville, Harbour Breton and Hermitage-Sandyville.

Lane tells us that the NAIA, which was formed 30 years ago, initially represented the interests of hundreds of farmers, but since then there has been a lot of consolidation. Membership now includes businesses on the service supply chain, coastal communities, and seven major aquaculture companies.

Among them are three of the world’s largest: Cooke Aquaculture, a family-owned company based in Blacks Harbour, New Brunswick, Canada, and two publicly traded companies, Mowi Canada International and Grieg NL Seafarms Ltd, both of which originated in Norway.

The industry is divided into two sectors. The larger salmonid sector produces Atlantic salmon, steelhead trout, and Atlantic cod, while the smaller shellfish sector produces mainly blue mussels, some of which are certified organic, along with oysters and sea urchins.

“We are really proud of what we’re doing,” Lane says. “The aquaculture industry in Newfoundland, with seventeen thousand kilometers of coastline, surrounded by pristine waters and proximity to the US market, has an enormous potential to give hardworking Newfoundlanders an opportunity to work at home.”

Socio-economic impact
Steve Crewe, Mayor of Hermitage-Sandyville, a small community (pop 422) on Newfoundland’s south coast, succinctly describes the region’s dependence on the industry: “We don’t exist without aquaculture. Without it we would be an aging, dying coast, but with it we are booming.”

He says that prior to 2008, when aquaculture got started in Hermitage-Sandyville, the community had a small fish plant that operated about 14 weeks a year and most people earned approximately $20,000. “Now everyone is working, and most people earn around $50,000, and we’ve never seen that before.”

The fish farming process begins in one of a number of land-based hatcheries where the eggs are produced and raised to the smolt stage over a period of 18 months before they are transported to licensed off-shore fish cages.

Water systems
We spoke with Tom Rose, Mayor of Stephenville on the west coast, (with a catchment area of 25,000) about the Northern Harvest Sea Farms hatchery operation located there, adjacent to the town’s international deep seaport facility and airport. He told us that since being purchased by Mowi, it is gearing up for significant multi-million dollar enhancements.

The hatchery in Stephenville, one of the largest in North America, is strategically located to take advantage of what Rose calls “one of the best water systems in Canada. We are blessed here in Stephenville to have deep artesian wells for our water system and we have deep rivers in our aquifers running down to the salmon hatchery and that was one of the reasons we were selected.

“One of the things I like about it is that there are no emissions coming from this facility. We had a pulp and paper mill that closed down years ago and we lost up to 250 jobs, but we also lost the smokestacks, and today Stephenville is a cleaner, greener town,” Rose says. So clean that the town has been able to sign on as a partner with a federal climate protection program that reduces greenhouse gas emissions and allows the town to accrue carbon credits.

Embraced by nature
Aquaculture fits right in with Stephenville’s master plan, the tagline of which is ‘Embraced by Nature,’ and which has three major checkpoints, the economy, social development, and the green component. “The aquaculture industry does not have a heavy footprint, and really ties into our strategic plan as the type of industry we want to expand for the future of our community,” says Rose.

The environmental benefits are echoed by Lane, who talked about the marine cages which then allow the salmon smolts to grow in their natural environment and how the farms are operated vertically as opposed to laterally, thereby creating a minuscule footprint. “To produce 18 billion meals of salmon last year, globally we used .00008 percent of the world’s ocean,” he says, to illustrate just how efficiently and environmentally friendly it is to produce a huge output of food for a planet with a population of seven billion people and still growing.

Aquaculture, he maintains, is the future of food. “When you compare traditional agriculture, the beef cattle industry, with aquaculture in terms of carbon footprint, water usage and food conversion ratio, we’ve far out-performed any other type of animal protein farming.”

Adds Rose, “If you are a true environmentalist, you have to support aquaculture as it is the only way we are going to feed the planet without destroying it.”

Cod disaster
Meanwhile, Georgina Ollerhead, Mayor of Harbour Breton (pop 1,634) on Fortune Bay on the island’s south coast, speaks about what aquaculture means to her community. “When I talk about it, I say to people, where would the entire coastal area be without it?

“When the cod disaster happened in the early nineties we depended on the fish plant and it closed. We had people packing up and leaving, moving out west to look for work, others not willing to move but having no work. When aquaculture came it was a blessing to us and it has been ever since.”

With people working year-round at good paying jobs, she says the tax base of the small town is able to maintain a hospital, ambulance service, a fitness centre, municipal infrastructure, as well as retail.

Lane recalls the massive impact the cod moratorium had on every rural outport, with Harbour Breton and Hermitage especially badly impacted. He recalls that at the time he was working for a newspaper, was in Harbour Breton the day the plant closed, and there the day it reopened to process salmon. “To see people going back to work was emotional and impactful.”

Turning the tide
But it’s not only about people going back to work, it is about also stemming the out-migration tide which has plagued Newfoundland for years. Ollerhead notes her amazement at how technical the plants are, and how young people who graduate from Memorial University in St. John’s are able to find work in their home communities.

In keeping with that, Lane says NAIA has taken the initiative to launch Aquaculture 101, a comprehensive internet-based resource that teachers can download and use to provide for their students a virtual reality tour of shellfish and fish farming. With this technology the association will be able to show high school students the amazing opportunities that await them.

The post Thanks to Aquaculture, the Future is Bright for Newfoundland<p class="company">Newfoundland Aquaculture Industry Association (NAIA)</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

Aquaculture, like other types of farming, has its share of dangerous and even fatal risks.

Just as farmers working on land must respect and follow safety protocols surrounding livestock and massive agricultural machinery like tractors, combines and balers, so must the women and men working in aquaculture observe risk-reduction practices around recirculating systems, pumps, cages and other equipment. For the safety of themselves and others.

Believed to have first been practised in Asia around 1000 BCE to ensure supplies of fresh fish for royalty, aquaculture still retains many of the customs and techniques adopted in those early days. While materials and technologies have developed, some safety procedures for working around fish and seafood, both wild capture and farmed, remain unchanged despite the many forms of risk.

For instance, while some fish species, like catfish, seem benign, they have always presented dangers to workers. The spines along the dorsal and pectoral fins of catfish are sharp and contain venom; improper handling can cause significant injury, infection, and inflammation.

Workplace risks
From pulled muscles and back injuries to drowning or electrocution, fish farmers (aquaculturists), unless they take special care, are as prone to accidents as any other farmers.

While television is full of reality shows about extreme activities and dramatic shows like the Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catch, where waves threaten to capsize boats in the Bearing Sea, even working closer to shore in the fishing industry has its share of hazards. In some countries, such as Norway, salmon fish farmers have a high rate of workplace-related injuries and illness.

Statistically, the fishery business is a wide-ranging industry, encompassing both workers out at sea – which is how we mostly imagine it – and the relatively stay-at-homes in fish farming and aquaculture.

But what was once considered a “secondary income source for Norwegians” has become big business, according to Norwegian SciTech News. Despite its relatively small population of about 5.3 million, Norway is one of the Top 10 countries for aquaculture production by metric tons. And as the industry grows, occupational health and safety procedures are trying to keep up with the number of aquaculture-related accidents, which is now “second only to commercial fishing as the most hazardous occupational sector in Norway.”

It’s a matter of no small concern. According to the Norwegian study Safety Management in Aquaculture, recent growth in the aquaculture industry has been rapid. Scrambling to meet demand, employers aren’t always ensuring that new employees receive the necessary degree of oversight from their superiors, or that there is sufficient health, safety, and work-environment planning (HSE).

Since recent hires are frequently less well-trained than seasoned employees, safety practices aren’t as well observed. As a result, aquaculture-related injuries are now a major cause of workplace absence in Norway, right up there behind commercial fishing.

Conference on safety
Some areas slated for improvement in the Norwegian study – including HSE (Health, Safety and Environment – shorthand for the prescribed methods of managing threats to health in a workplace), better reporting of incidents, and better training – apply to aquaculture in all countries.

Too often, accidents fail to be reported, with no opportunity to learn from them. Worker fatigue, and the employment of undertrained contractors, also have negative safety implications.

Fortunately, safety issues in the aquaculture sector are not going unnoticed. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) – an agency of the UN leading global initiatives to fight hunger – has highlighted risks, and is working to create greater awareness.

And in mid-2018, Newfoundland and Labrador’s Memorial University was home to IFISH5, the fifth International Fishing Industry Safety and Health Conference.

Featuring experts from across the United States, Norway, and New Zealand, the event pulled in over 160 health and safety professionals from 26 countries. Discussing the latest information on all areas of aquaculture, including commercial fishing and seafood processing, IFISH5 also drew attention to the high number of work-related incidents.

Compared to some other industries such as construction and mining, the estimated number of workers worldwide in aquaculture is modest, at 19 million, but with many regularly operating under dangerous conditions. Conservative estimates are that there are over 32,000 fatalities per year.

According to the FAO, “The number of fishers injured or suffering from work-related illnesses are much higher. The fatalities and accidents have major impacts on fishers’ families, fishing crews and fishing communities.”

While some in the sector are well-trained, others, including migrant and seasonal workers, women, and even children, are not so fortunate. This extends not only to fishing itself, but to seafood processing where occupational safety and health risks are often overlooked for the sake of productivity.

Poorly-trained workers can typically be exposed to such hazards as seafood allergens causing skin rashes and breathing issues, extremely loud noises resulting in hearing loss, harmful chemicals, and even “ergonomic hazards causing musculoskeletal disorders,” according to the FAO, which goes on to say, “Too often, these occupational diseases are underdiagnosed and under-reported, resulting in significant disability and poor quality of life of workers in seafood processing.”

Solutions for a challenging environment
With greater attention paid to health and safety issues through the FAO and events such as IFISH5, more can be done to address and make positive changes to the global aquaculture industry.

The hard-working men and women in aquaculture face hazards of a challenging environment every day to provide food for the planet. From hatcheries and nurseries to processing facilities and ships out on the ocean in all kinds of weather, risks abound.

Bites, falls, electrocution, drowning, and injuries relating to machinery are not uncommon on vessels. Working in extreme heat or cold also presents challenges, as do the bacteria from feed, operating in confined spaces, dehydration, parasites, and the sheer impact and mental exhaustion of working long hours, sometimes in solitude.

For aquaculture workers, ways to reduce workplace injuries include carrying smaller loads. This is helpful in fish farms, and benefits even the fish by reducing their chances of falling from overflowing nets and becoming injured.

Hauling lighter amounts of feed also reduces the chances of a sprained back or torn muscles. Some farms, in fact, no longer use trucks in the process of feeding fish, switching to moving the feed through a pipe via an auger, with the amounts measured and controlled by computer software.

Statistically, one of the greatest risks on fish farms is slips and falls on wet surfaces, or ice. By keeping metal crosswalks clean, well maintained, and covered with a traction surface in good condition, these are less likely. On wooden crosswalks, ingenious companies in the United Kingdom are improving traction by covering them with a layer of roughened concrete, or attaching chicken wire.

Mostly, precautions and safety measures in aquaculture are like those in construction. Ladders should be properly secured, and wiring must be up to code, with breaker boxes and ground-fault circuit interrupters (GFCIs) – which will shut off current in less than one fortieth of a second – used around water.

From tripping hazards to harmful gases like hydrogen sulphide, and from becoming entangled in nets to exposure to chemicals, risks abound in the world of aquaculture. Failing to recognize hazards can be disastrous to workers and businesses alike, resulting in physical injuries and costly medical expenses, lost income, and even lawsuits. Through constant vigilance, these dangers can be averted.

The post Managing Risk<p class="company">Superior Occupational Safety for a Growing Sector</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

Population growth, resource shortages, conflicts (which are often caused by competition for, and scarcity of, resources), displacement (often due to conflict), environmental and climate changes, and increased risk of famine are all factors contributing to acute hunger. COVID-19 has only exacerbated this, causing food insecurity and malnutrition rates to grow.

Unfortunately, goodwill alone will not solve acute hunger. While food and humanitarian relief are a part of the solution, sustainable food production systems, like aquaculture, are a missing piece of the puzzle when it comes to highly nutritious and sustainable food sources.

Fish and seafood is an animal protein that is rich in micronutrients like vitamin B12, potassium and, especially when compared to other meat products, Omega-3, but only two percent of the world food supply comes from the ocean.

The easy answer would be to increase reliance on the sea as a source of nutritious protein, but it’s not that simple. Overfishing and concern for wild fish stocks, as well as issues like by-catch are all good reasons to find a sustainable alternative.

Numbers of wild-caught fish reached their peak in the 1990s, and since that time aquaculture has become a popular way to bolster fish resources. Between 2000 and 2012, the rate of production of aquaculture doubled, and it will need to double again by 2050 to meet global demand.

Luckily, aquaculture is the fastest growing agri-food sector in the world with a growth rate of 8.8 percent. This is good news since global demand for seafood like shrimp and prawns is becoming unsustainable. Overfishing by commercial fisheries, and its potential to impact biodiversity, might be best addressed by switching to growing fish rather than catching them.

Aquaculture is really an industrial process: the rearing, stocking, and breeding of aquatic animals, and the cultivation of aquatic plants for food and commercial use. But by its nature, aquaculture can also be an environmentally responsible source of food, and better still, can play a substantial role in addressing global food insecurity.

The process uses controlled conditions to cultivate both freshwater and saltwater populations. Alternatively known as aquafarming, one could say that it “farms” many species – fish like crustaceans, molluscs, bass, tilapia, salmon, trout, and others, as well as aquatic plants including algae and seaweed.

Aquaculture can take the form of open-net pen and cage systems and can be used to produce food for human consumption and for carnivorous fish, and it is also used for stock restoration – to replenish depleted and endangered wild fish populations. Aquaculture can be a great way to feed the world and nurture biodiversity in the ecosystem.

One of the most significant advantages of aquaculture is its flexibility. It can be practised wherever there is a body of water. It generates jobs wherever it goes, too, bringing income sources to communities that are often in real need.

The opportunities in aquaculture include employment in hatcheries, fish-feed manufacturing, nursing, and raising the population, logistics, marketing, and retail to consumers, all of which can contribute to the economic strength of a community while also feeding them. More often than not, aquaculture is a local operation serving local markets.

There are, however, concerns about the viability of aquaculture and potential negative impacts.

Aquaculture can lead to the propagation of invasive species if fish escape; and where it is not sustainable it can threaten coastal ecosystems with waste from the fish, with antibiotics and fish food, as well as parasites and disease, all of which contaminate the water and threaten both farmed and wild populations.

And when not carefully monitored and regulated, aquaculture can also threaten the balance of the area ecosystem and imperil food supplies for wild species. Farming also requires resources to sustain it, like fishmeal and oil, which actually take more fish to produce than just using the fish as feed.

Part of ensuring sustainable aquaculture is to measure the amount of feed required to raise a population. To be sustainable, aquaculture should use less fish to feed than it produces, otherwise referred to as the fish in, fish out ratio.

Most people would be disappointed to know that many marine fish, such as salmon and trout, and crustaceans like shrimp, have a ratio greater than one. Alternatively, however, many freshwater fish like tilapia, catfish and milkfish can be produced at a ratio less than one.

A process like integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA) uses less input resources and no chemicals or antibiotics, making it a preferred approach. IMTA also produces less waste discharge, thus reducing its environmental impacts. The catch? IMTA has a lower output, and is difficult to scale up.

Waste control is an important consideration as well. Facilities can release organic waste into waterways if effective waste management and treatment strategies are not employed. Aquaculture facilities should always put best practices into action and should be established only in locations sanctioned by spatial planning and zoning laws.

One of the best ways to promote sustainability in aquaculture is to invest in new technologies that ensure transparency and efficiency, as well as reduce dependency on wild feed. Issues beyond the operation need to be considered so as to understand the impact it has on the environment and local communities.

Globally, Asia has become the front runner in aquaculture production, as countries work to ensure that the dietary needs of its people are being met. China, which is where aquaculture is said to have originated, leads the way. In 2016, China produced 63,700,000 metric tons, followed by Indonesia with 16,600,000 tons and India with 5,703,002 tons. The United States ranked 17^th with 444,369 tons, while Canada ranked 24^th with 200,765 tons.

MOWI is the world’s largest supplier of farm-raised salmon. It is located in the cold clean waters of the North Pacific where salmon thrive and uses an integrated system of brood stock selection, freshwater hatcheries, saltwater farms, and state-of-the art processing plants to meet demand.

MOWI prioritizes sustainability in its operations and works with the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF), the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) and is aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). As of 2019, its Campbell River, British Columbia farms are ASC certified, as are its Broughton Archipelago farms.

Given the potential of aquaculture to bolster the global food supply chain, a greater number of companies are taking advantage of the practice, but not all operations prioritize sustainability as well as MOWI and some simply cannot as it is uncompetitive for them to do so.

One of the best ways to promote sustainable aquaculture is to reward it by offering resources and financial support that can help it to be increasingly competitive AND sustainable. Education and training support in zoning, water supply, sustainable wastewater treatment and facilities management can provide a foundation from which sustainability can grow.

Consumers can also be part of the change by buying and eating sustainable seafood. A recent documentary on Netflix, Seaspiracy, shows the dark side of the fishing industry, including aquaculture, and what is deemed “sustainable,” and while it issues some valuable warnings, the proposed solution of boycotting fish and seafood is not viable.

While advanced countries might enjoy a choice of food that allows them not to eat fish and seafood, expecting developing nations – often depending on the sea as a source of protein or just to keep hunger at bay – to eliminate these foods from their diets is thoughtless and unfair.

Instead of proposing a ban on fish and seafood, and while continuing to publicize the weak sustainability record and accountability of the fishing industry, people should demand that the bar be raised. Standards must be set higher and enforced so that consumers can regain faith in the labels and certifications of produce from the sea.

That way, the word sustainable can once again begin to mean something.

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