Salmon farmers are environmental allies
There are many people working for a number of aquaculture organizations across Canada, as there are in any other country actively promoting the expansion of a sustainable aquaculture industry. One of these people is Bruce Hancock, the Executive Director of the Aquaculture Association of Nova Scotia on Canada’s East Coast. Following a successful “Sea Farmers Conference 2012”, where some 150 attendants participated, Mr. Hancock submitted the following response to a salmon farming critic who opposed the application for another local salmon farm in a recent issue of The ChronicleHerald;
I am writing in response to the Feb. 2 opinion piece "Eastern Shore salmon farm proposal morally indefensible." For the past 40 years, environmental doomsday scenarios about the aquaculture industry have been presented as warnings to rural Nova Scotians, and time and again, they have not come true. The Aquaculture Association of Nova Scotia currently represents 60 industry members. They are all rural companies, spread from Dingwall to Yarmouth, working with a diversity of species in small to medium-sized businesses: local businesses helping the rural economy by growing a responsible industry.
The aquaculture industry is young. Our members have learned from mistakes made by others and are working tirelessly to ensure it is done right here — creating good jobs in rural communities that benefit the local people, growing a nutritious protein source that can feed our people, and using farming practices that not only have a low impact on the environment, but can give it a chance to flourish. There is no scientific evidence that salmon farming causes harm to wild salmon stocks and, quite frankly, the timelines don’t match up. The reality is that wild salmon runs plummeted in Atlantic Canadian rivers long before salmon farming started. In fact, there are many areas, particularly along the Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia, where salmon farming has never been done and still the wild stocks continue to have terrible returns.
Aquaculture is part of the solution, not the problem. Salmon farming was initiated as a response to the collapse of the wild stocks through stock enhancement programs and the production of product that would take pressure off the capture of wild stocks. And we can enjoy our farmed Atlantic salmon because we know the industry here is heavily regulated. We know our member companies care about the marine environment and want to make sure we all can enjoy it for years to come. We know the environmental costs are low and the social, economic and environmental benefits are very high.
We applaud the good work being done by the volunteers working with the Nova Scotia Salmon Association — it is a shame what has happened to our wild salmon stocks. Aquaculture is not here as the foe; we want to work together to give our wild stocks a chance to grow while our people can still access a local, nutritious food source. At the same time, we want to ensure our rural Nova Scotians can remain rural Nova Scotians. Foreign investment to create long-term jobs on the Eastern Shore is a no-brainer, especially when you see that this company believes in practices that give priority to the health and welfare of the fish, to the long-term protection of the environment and to the delivery of an outstanding product to the consumer.
I urge all Nova Scotians: make your decisions about aquaculture based on facts rather than fear. Support local development. Keep rural Nova Scotia alive. Embrace aquaculture as an ally in safeguarding our environment and economy.
