Tank raised salmon soon coming to a store near you
The ‘Namgis First Nation’s “Kuterra” salmon farm on northern Vancouver Island will be in the news tomorrow, as long term Chief Bill Cranmer will be hosting a ceremony “to celebrate the arrival of Canada’s first land-raised Atlantic salmon in retail stores”, according to a company media advisory issued today. The event will “feature Chief Cranmer presenting the first KUTERRA Land Raised salmon to a representative of Safeway. Safeway stores will be the first to sell this premium, pioneering seafood”, the statement said. “Special guests include representatives of sustainability organizations and Chef Karen Barnaby”. Both Chief Cranmer and Chef Barnaby expressed their distaste for conventionally-raised farmed salmon many years ago.
The Kuterra salmon farm received a considerable amount of funding from public resources for its start-up phase, and there was at the time some expectation that the project would provide to its funders and the Canadian public information about the cost of production experienced from this type of “closed containment” salmon farm, but this seems no longer to be the case. Although freely stating where the project funding came from on the initiative’s web site, company CEP Garry Ullstrom was quoted in an article last month in a Vancouver Island newspaper that “Financial details are confidential but he said a “healthy profit” is expected”. He apparently also said that “The long-term goal is to reach the profit level seen with net-pen farming”.
According to Undercurrent News, another event featuring Chief Cranmer will be held next week on Canada’s east coast, where some 12,000 Atlantic salmon grown in a “closed-containment, land-based farm” were recently lost when a power failure shut off the water supply to the tanks, killing the fish due to a lack of oxygen. This event is apparently aimed at educating North America retailers to the issue of on-land salmon farming during a workshop put on by a conservation group and Virginia’s Freshwater Institute, which is also an advisor to the ‘Namgis’ Kuterra project:
Marketing experts from Sobeys and Loblaws are set to form part of the discussions at a two-day Atlantic salmon recirculation aquaculture conference in St. Andrews, New Brunswick. The conference, to be held by the Atlantic salmon federation (ASF) and the conservation fund’s freshwater institute (TCFFI), will bring participants together to hear presentations and discuss the technology and operation of the closed-containment farming method. It will be held on April 29 and 30 at ASF’s headquarters. “We will have expertise in all aspects of land-based, closed containment systems from start-up costs and construction, fish health and welfare, organic and sustainability rankings, to marketing and promotion of the final product,” said Jonathan Carr, ASF’s executive director of research and environment. “We’ll also be talking with suppliers and marketing experts including representatives from Sobeys and Loblaws.”
Government representatives with the department of fisheries and oceans have also been invited to attend the two-day conference, along with industry representatives who have a strong interest in closed-containment aquaculture. Presenters will include Chief Bill Cranmer, from the Namgis First Nation closed-containment project in British Columbia. Cranmer will be speaking at the conference about his experience with growing Atlantic salmon on land. There will also be further updates on several ongoing closed-containment projects including presentations from Steve Summerfelt, from the conservation fund freshwater institute in West Virginia.
The two previous workshops of this kind at ASF’s headquarters were filled to capacity, and organizers expect to register as many as 80 participants from across Canada, the United States and Europe for the April conference.
