Big Players Opening to Closed Containment?

An industry trade journal story released today suggests times, and minds, are changing even at the world's largest salmon farming companies.

Following a meeting last week between the Cermaq board of directors and the Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform, Intrafish reporter Ben DiPietro posed the question:

"Are the world's largest salmon farming companies inching their way toward closed-containment?"

We hope so. While Cermaq has not committed to concrete action, the board did, for the first time, solicit input from First Nations, local businesses, scientists and conservation groups about the impacts their operations are having on BC wild salmon and marine life.

CAAR's meeting with Cermaq follows the announcement earlier this year by Marine Harvest Canada that they would like to see the British Columbia provincial government invest CAD $10 million to further study the commercial viability of closed-containment growing systems. This technology would help protect wild salmon by better controlling problems that plague open net-cage salmon farms such as sea lice, chemicals and escapes.

As Intrafish's DiPietro predicts:

"When salmon farming behemoths such as Marine Harvest and Cermaq begin to move in the direction of being more eco-friendly, and begin to consider ideas that until now were treated with disdain if not outright contempt -- does anyone remember how salmon firms scoffed at closed-containment a few years ago? -- it's a matter of time before the entire industry gets in line behind them and follows."

We couldn't agree more.