Salmon farming is a type of aquaculture that involves raising fish in underwater pens as opposed to trawling them in the wild. It’s a very big business: on the East Coast of Canada, the sector generates $2 billion in economic output and $800 million in GDP (Gross Domestic Product) annually, while employing over 8,000 people. Atlantic Canadian salmon farmers produce about 350 million nutritious meals each year.

Headquartered in Letang, New Brunswick, the ACFFA has 81 members. Besides fish farmers, members include service providers, research groups, and feed companies. The ACFFA continues to operate the Letang-based Limekiln Wharf Service Centre on behalf of the aquaculture industry.

A return to form
As part of the transition to normality, the ACFFA hosted its annual Research, Science, and Technology forum in St. Andrews, New Brunswick, from October 25^th to 27^th, 2022.

“It was our first time back in person without health restrictions in years”, says Farquharson. The Association opted to retain a hybrid format, offering presentations, seminars, and speakers in-person and online. That way, people who couldn’t travel to the event were still able to take part.

The forum proved to be a big hit, with approximately 150 registrants, two days of events and presentations, and an inaugural Women of Salmon Farming Symposium. The latter event focused on issues relating to women in the industry, with a view toward promoting gender equity and opportunity. Symposium guests included Marie Terese Letorney, a European opera singer turned communications specialist. Letorney ran a well-received session “on how men and women communicate differently in the business world,” says Farquharson.

In a similar fashion, the Association is putting the finishing touches on a report titled, Gender-Based Opportunities and Challenges in Salmonoid Farming in Atlantic Canada. “We had some details from the draft [report] going into the Symposium, but now, with the results from the Symposium and new statistics from Statistics Canada, we want to incorporate all of those into the final report,” explains Farquharson.

The report will show that women in aquaculture tend to be higher educated than their male counterparts, even though educational achievement has little impact on gender pay ratios, she continues. The Association will host a Women in Seafood roundtable at an upcoming Responsible Seafood Summit “to continue the conversation,” she says.

An international event, the Responsible Seafood Summit used to be called GOAL (Global Outlook for Aquaculture Leadership). Co-hosted by the ACFFA, the rebranded summit will take place this fall in Saint John, New Brunswick. This will mark the first time the event has been held in Canada, with British Columbia hosting the summit a few years ago.

“We’ve put a big effort into bringing that conference here,” Farquharson says. “[It will feature] the thought leaders, the CEOs, the executives of seafood companies… government officials, NGOs; they will all gather. We are working closely with the Global Seafood Alliance to co-host.”

Farquharson also attended the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization (NASCO) conference in Edinburgh, Scotland from June 6th to 9th, 2022. An annual international event, the conference rotates between countries that have wild salmon (a list that includes Canada, Denmark, the European Union, Norway, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States). Farquharson typically participates in the conference each year as part of the Canadian delegation.

Advocacy, always
The Inner Bay of Fundy Salmon Recovery Project (iBoF) continues to be one of the ACFFA’s flagship programs. This project aims to replenish stocks of wild salmon, and to achieve this goal, wild smolts (salmon that haven’t reached full maturity and can live in saltwater) are raised in custom-built pens, and then released into Bay of Fundy rivers. This huge undertaking involves a partnership between the ACFFA, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), Parks Canada, the salmon industry, First Nations groups, and provincial authorities.

Last year, there were “158 returns”—that is, salmon returning to rivers in the inner Bay of Fundy—and things look equally promising this year, says Farquharson.

Advocacy also remains central to the ACFFA’s mission. “I’m always advocating for effective regulatory policies… that’s 90 per cent of my job, communicating for effective regulatory policies and processes in Atlantic Canada. We were really pleased when New Brunswick released its Finfish Aquaculture Development Strategy… Salmon farming started here 40 years ago, so it’s really encouraging to see New Brunswick step up to the plate and want to be leading again in the development of the industry,” states Farquharson.

Finfish include salmon, which is why the report is so significant for the ACFFA. The recently released New Brunswick Finfish Aquaculture Growth Strategy 2022 – 2030 document touches on seven “strategy themes” (land-based aquaculture, governance, competitiveness and science support, fish health, promotion and advocacy, strategic infrastructure, and regulatory efficacy). Presented by the New Brunswick Department of Agriculture, Aquaculture, and Fisheries, the Strategy aims to grow the province’s finfish sector.

As part of its ongoing mission, the ACFFA also works to raise awareness about the importance and realities of Atlantic Canadian salmon farming. “There are still people out there who think we stand on the side of a net pen and throw fish feed in the water with our hands. It’s ridiculous,” states Farquharson.

People are often unaware of how high-tech the field is, employing the latest sensors, computers, automated feeding systems, cameras, monitors, and more. Every aspect of salmon development in aquaculture pens is closely monitored and farmers adhere to strict environmental regulations.

For all that, certain myths continue to prevail, including the notion that aquaculture is bad for the environment and that farmed fish is less nutritious than wild fish.

As the ACFFA points out, aquaculture helps blunt the impact of climate change. According to a 2018 study by the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy (HLP), salmon farming releases fewer greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) than terrestrial animal farming (i.e., raising cows, pigs, and sheep on land)—which is a good thing, given that climate change might have a hugely negative impact on oceans and aquatic life.

“I think anybody that says climate change isn’t affecting them is not looking out their window or paying attention,” states Farquharson.

As for nutrition, Farquharson points to a 2020 research paper in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Research, by Dr. Stefanie Colombo (assistant professor of Aquaculture at Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia). Colombo found there was little difference in the nutritional value of wild salmon and farmed salmon. When it came to health, the key factor was the species involved (Colombo’s study looked at six types of salmon, examining each for levels of fat, protein, amino acids, mercury, fatty acids, and cholesterol), not whether the salmon was farmed or wild.

To enhance its public education efforts, the ACFFA developed a 360° virtual reality Atlantic Canadian salmon farming tour. People can don VR goggles and take a virtual tour, starting at a wharf and leading to a salmon farm, hatchery, and fish lab.

In a similar fashion, the ACFFA launched a “Uniquely Atlantic” digital campaign last spring to highlight the merits of Atlantic Canada farmed salmon. As part of the campaign, the Association refreshed its website and created Instagram reels (short videos that are a hugely popular feature on this social media platform).

“This year, we’re going into TikTok,” notes Farquharson, citing another online platform for user-contributed videos that is much used by young people.

Growing the industry
In addition to raising awareness about the salmon farming sector, the ACFFA hopes such efforts encourage more young people to consider taking aquaculture jobs. Like many industries, Atlantic Canadian salmon farming is suffering from a labour crunch. Many older workers have either retired or are reaching retirement age, and not enough young people are stepping in to fill their positions.

To this end, the ACFFA recently hired a community outreach and education coordinator, whose job involves talking to students and developing packages for guidance counsellors about the industry, says Farquharson. Farquharson herself makes presentations in schools, pointing out how the aquaculture sector is rapidly expanding and in need of new workers.

The ACFFA’s messaging seems to be having an effect. Each year, the Association hires a third-party polling firm to determine what Atlantic Canadians think about salmon farming. In the most recent poll, aquaculture garnered an 81 per cent approval rating (up slightly from the usual 80 per cent result).

Asked to provide a five-year industry forecast, Farquharson envisions more post-smolt facilities, larger hatcheries on land, and a growing awareness of the economic, nutritional, and environmental benefits of Atlantic salmon farming.

The post Promoting Aquaculture with Advocacy and Action<p class="company">The Atlantic Canada Fish Farmers Association</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.

In Alberta, aquaponics research began in 1994, when the association started its first experiments in growing fish and underwater crops under the guidance of then-President Mark McNaughton. Dr. Nick Savidov, a senior research scientist at Lethbridge College in Lethbridge, Alberta, credits the association with enabling him and others to engage in aquaponics projects over the years. Dr. Savidov’s aquaponics project at the college began in 2015 at the behest of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. At that time, he occupied the head position of the greenhouse research program with the Alberta Agriculture department.

The department was given the task of running projects in aquaponics, especially using fish water to grow vegetables, and so got involved with provincial aquaculture specialist Eric Hutchings, who played a great role in establishing the association itself.

“Eric believed that… aquaponics was a technology… which was viable both technically and economically,” Dr. Savidov recalls. In his experience, the association played the role of initiator into the research like what he and Hutchings were doing, and it is still considered an important player in aquaculture and aquaponics development.

Dr. Savidov cites the triploid grass carp project at Lethbridge College from the ‘90s through 2015 as one of the association’s most notable projects in its early years. It undertook the project with the partnership of the Aquaculture Centre of Excellence (ACE), which itself is part of the Integrated Agriculture Technology Centre at Lethbridge College. The project was intended to supply the industry with sterile grass carp to control aquatic vegetation in irrigation channels and dugouts.

Dr. Savidov mentions Clay Boyes as another important figure in the association, as his involvement in the industry led to constructing an aquaculture system to start grass carp and developing Lethbridge as an important industry resource. Another key figure is John Derksen who, along with Boyes, became a major resource for the association by providing important species information through close work with aquaculture specialists like Eric Hutchings, who was later succeeded by Dan Watson in this position.

Lethbridge College’s ACE and Alberta Agriculture worked together with the Alberta Aquaculture Association to tackle problems in aquaculture. They worked to bring new fish species into the local ecosystem by building an isolation / quarantine facility for incoming species to be successfully introduced. This centre was the first of its kind in Alberta and continues to be a great help to the industry, spearheaded by the association.

Recent years have seen more impressive projects being undertaken in Alberta. In 2015, Lethbridge College received a $2 million grant to push research to the next level with Dr. Savidov’s Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada aquaponics project. NSERC also funded another project with support from the association, which resulted in developing carbon-based-filtration systems to aid the aquaculture industry in improving water treatment technology.

Dr. Savidov names Dr. James Rakocy of the University of the Virgin Islands as both “the godfather of modern aquaponics,” and a key figure in helping to build the first research aquaponics facility in 2002. This facility was the first in the world to add an innovative reactor technology that can revolutionize waste treatment across multiple industries. The research centre in Brooks, Alberta has also produced the first zero-waste aquaculture system in the world, which is also the first zero-waste food production system.

“Canada has led the way in these developments on a global scale,” Dr. Savidov notes. He feels that the aquaculture industry is facing many challenges as well as many opportunities and admits that so much more is known about fish farming now than was known even a decade ago thanks to the vision and strides made during the lifetime of the Alberta Aquaculture Association.

An ongoing challenge is supply, as fish populations are beginning to vanish, resulting in a greater need for fish farming to provide a valuable protein source to North America. Dr. Savidov lists two ways one can fish, by using net pens in a natural reservoir like a lake or an ocean, or using recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS), which allows for higher density fish catches and does not have limitations on catches produced. Each comes with unique drawbacks, however.

For net pens, there is still an element of pollution as the fish produce waste after they are fed, so some provincial governments across Canada are beginning to put limits on industry expansion by decreasing net pen operation numbers, and this has been a big change in the Canadian aquaculture industry. Although net pens are cheaper to build and operate, the restrictions they are facing make them not ideal.

With RAS, a self-sufficient system can be created with less environmental impact. In these fish production systems fish are produced in separate tanks or raceways and the water is predominantly recycled through the system, having reduced interaction with the natural environment; however, these RAS are far more expensive to build and operate then net pens.

The Alberta Aquaculture Association is very interested in keeping the aquaculture industry alive but acknowledges that there are feasibility issues for both incoming and continuing fish farmers and industry workers. “We are facing a dilemma [with] how we can expand our aquaculture industry,” Dr. Savidov shares, but a potential solution lies in what is called integrated production systems, like aquaponics.

To help offset the cost of a system like RAS, an integrated production system would include other revenue sources for farmers, like producing vegetables through hydroponics that can be sold along with fish and related products. This is a possible answer to help improve the economic feasibility of modern fish farms, an answer that the association has been keeping atop since the early 2000s.

Looking ahead, Dr. Savidov foresees more innovative technologies which will hopefully allow fish to grow with less risk of pollution. “The industry has to adopt these technologies in order to be more sustainable,” he stresses.

He also feels that changing the profile and perception of the industry is important, and this can be achieved by integrating operations and making them more economically efficient for farmers. This trend is already being adopted in Alberta as well as in other provinces like Ontario.

Several big companies involved in fisheries are also interested in this and are becoming more convinced of the benefits of the method. Agriculture, as a whole, is struggling to produce food sustainably, to the point where “we are living at the expense of future generations as it relies mostly on synthetic fertilizers produced using finite resources, such as fossil fuels and rock deposits,” as Dr. Savidov puts it. The recycling of resources such as nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium, is fast becoming mandatory, which is why aquaculture is using hydroponics to recycle water and nutrients, enabling a more sustainable practice.

The price of fish will likely increase for consumers in the short term, but he points out that it still takes less water to produce fish to eat than red meat, and the fishing industry will be much more sustainable in the future. Throughout the challenges to come, the Alberta Aquaculture Association will continue to stress innovation and development to benefit the aquaculture and aquaponics sectors it has been aiding for nearly thirty years.

The post Aquaponics Solutions for a Better Fishery Industry<p class="company">Alberta Aquaculture Association</p> appeared first on Business In Focus Magazine.