Logan spent some time in British Columbia earlier this summer visiting Marine Harvest’s salmon farming operations.  He joined a group of other industry colleagues, including the Monterey Bay Aquarium (MBA), to learn more about Marine Harvest’s practices and how they relate to criteria that the MBA uses to evaluate the sustainability of farmed fish.

The trip had a number of goals:

• Get a firsthand account of the process of rearing salmon and the issues surrounding it
• Understand how issues are being managed and addressed
• Understand if some companies are incrementally more sustainable than others
• Understand if selling farmed salmon is sustainable long-term
• Learn from others on the trip and participate in discussions

The first day of the trip was action packed.  The group observed sea lice researchers doing field work, learned about a “flow through solid walled” floating tank system and met with industry luminaries all along the way.

Day two dawned early and stared with a tour of the Sayward hatchery (eggs, parr, smolts and a vaccination room) and after a break for lunch moved on to an afternoon tour of the “Far Side” farm

The group spent the third day at the Centre for Aquatic Health Sciences and participated in a discussion with the BC Salmon Farmers Association (BCSFA).  These valuable discussion opportunities focused on a variety of issues including sea lice and the efficacy of treatments, ecosystem health, transparency of industry with respect to sea lice data and more.

Day three also included a visit to Marine Harvest corporate offices for a presentation on their new site location/orientation software that selects sites, depths and orientations to minimizes waste impact and sea lice transmission and another presentation on how they are addressing the feed conversion rates.  All very important sustainability considerations.

Everyone involved in the project agree that the future must hold:

• Continuing dialog with both Marine Harvest and the Salmon farming industry
• Continuing dialog with NGO’s who are engaged with salmon farming
• Identifying opportunities for collaboration with both NGO’s and the industry
• Additional visits to other salmon farming operations

Farmed salmon remains a popular seafood choice; it’s our responsibility to be actively involved in ensuring a consistent and affordable source of salmon for all of our customers.  Trips like this one allow us to stay on the cutting edge of industry improvements as well as show our vendors that we want to be an active partner in their, and ultimately the entire aquaculture industry’s success.   We’re also glad to note that going forward the MBA will be splitting their farmed salmon assessments up geographically, potentially leading the way toward recognizing the work individual farms are doing to improve their techniques.