Norwegian ambassador visits B.C. salmon farms
It is always refreshing when you inject a level-headed politician into a charged atmosphere with polarized positions entrenched over emotional issues like salmon in British Columbia. One such event happened last week by the visit to Campbell River by the Norwegian ambassador to Canada, as Grant Warkentin of the Campbell River Mirror reports;
Don’t call her “your honour,” “your Excellency” or “your worship.” Just “ambassador” will do for Else Berit Eikeland, Norway’s representative in Canada, who was in Campbell River last week to get a look at the aquaculture industry.
New to the position, Eikeland said she came to B.C. to learn more about fish farming. She toured the operations of the three Canadian companies with Norwegian parents – Marine Harvest, Mainstream Canada and Grieg Seafood. “It is very interesting to me to see areas where there are major Norwegian investments,” she said.
Speaking with the media before a reception for industry representatives and politicians last Wednesday evening, the ambassador talked briefly about her background. She grew up in a small coastal village to working-class parents. And she takes a working-class, common-sense approach to politics and the fish farming industry, which should stick to the facts, she said. “Transparency, openness and research – that’s really the key factors for the industry,” she said.
The industry is moving in the right direction, with more companies making sea lice sampling data available online for the public to see, she said. And companies need to spend time on research, too, she added, focusing on facts and avoiding emotional and opinion-fuelled debate. Although she’s new to the job, Eikeland has familiarized herself with the issues facing the B.C. fish farming industry. She offered some insights during her interview:
Regulations
“In Norway, there are many more fish farms, and they’re mostly located in the fjords all along the coast. But the basic technology is the same. It’s a little bit different when it comes to the venues. And the regulations in Norway and Canada are more or less the same – strict regulations and control.
Environment
Eikeland believes the market is growing for farmed salmon in the U.S. and Europe because people are concerned about the environmental effects of farming practices. “People are much more concerned about what they eat, and also more concerned about environmental issues,” she said. “It’s much better when it comes to CO2 to eat farmed fish compared to eating farmed pigs, or beef.”
Sea lice
“It’s easier to tackle the problem in B.C. because the Atlantic salmon and the local salmon, they don’t mingle the same way,” she said. “But Norway has the world’s third-largest Atlantic salmon (population) and it’s a concern always to control sea lice.” Eikeland said Norway’s problem is farmed Atlantics interacting with wild Atlantics. In B.C., she said, farmed Atlantic salmon don’t mingle well with wild Pacific salmon.
Closed-containment
I don’t know if it’s ever going to happen. It’s probably technically possible, but it’s not economically feasible. There have been experiments in Norway, but it’s not possible. “The investments are very high, the use of energy and water would be much higher, but the industry is improving all the time, getting more efficient, so the future will tell if closed-containment is an answer. Everything is possible…but the investments would be a lot. But the next question is, if it’s going to be closed containment, will the industry stay here, or will the industry move closer
to markets?”
