Mowi executive listed as one of BC's top bosses

The salmon farming boss is one of six people from the province’s fisheries and aquaculture sector included among the inaugural ‘BC500,’ a publication by magazine Business In Vancouver recognising the top 500 business leaders shaping the BC’s communities, industries and economy.

“I am very honoured to have received this recognition and would like to share this honour with the thousands of hardworking woman and men that together grow our province’s number one food export, the many hundreds of suppliers throughout our value chain in BC, and our First Nation business partners,” said Morrison in a press release.

First Nations partnership

Morrison’s career highlights include a 20-year partnership with the Kitasoo Xai’xais First Nation. The company signed a renewed 10-year agreement in October 2019, which will see the continued operation of its farms and the development of a new smoked salmon plant in the community.

“I’m very proud to be a part of the first-ever benefit agreement between a First Nation and salmon farming company,” said Morrison in the release.

Mowi Canada West is based in Campbell River, Vancouver Island and is British Columbia’s largest salmon aquaculture firm, responsible for about half of the annual harvest of farm-raised salmon in the province.

Discovery Islands

The company is the biggest victim of Canadian fisheries minister Bernadette Jordan’s decision to close 19 salmon farms in the Discovery Islands by the end of June next year, and her subsequent move to ban any restocking into those farms.

Mowi has been forced to cull millions of juvenile salmon because the Jordan’s rulings, which have left the company with nowhere to grow out the fish.