Oceans are Changing

February 20, 2020 Wild Salmon Cove News Politics Seafood
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Pollution is an uncontested fact. How you regard your role is critical to your career.

Whether fish are wild, or if they live in an open-net pen farm in the ocean, they swim in water that contains mercury, PCBs, plastic fibers and microbeads. This bouillabaisse of toxins is present in all of our oceans and creates health risks for sea life and humans. FISH raised in open-net fish farms in the ocean contain the same contaminants as wild fish, and in some cases even more because of the higher fat content in farmed salmon and sablefish. Poisons bind at higher rates in fat, so the more fat, the more potential for higher concentration. Children and women of child bearing age need to be aware.

Plastic fibers and microbeads also impact seafood and our health, we just don’t yet know exactly how, or to what degree – kind of like smoking in the 60s.

WCA fish raised in land-based RAS IMTA ecosystems swim in near pristine water, which means that “theoretically” anyone can safely eat health-appropriate amounts of seafood – kids too, even toddlers that test negative for allergies of course, and your cat. It still needs to be proven in practice, but at this stage it’s a huge selling feature and UP VOTE for socially responsible land-based fish farming.

Tall Tails

When it works for consumers it works for investors.

Contemporary demographic groups, largely millennials, support  B Corps, and regard seafood differently than all other age groups. Like many people, millennials are also frugal, but seafood for some of them is an event! Younger demographics with low to moderate incomes will save for premium quality seafood, and make conscious decisions to eat less. Health and social responsibility are high on their lists.

Regarding the taste in your mouth, land-based RAS fish don’t suffer from jelly-flesh, a parasite that occurs in open-net pen farmed salmon. Also, land-based fish, when raised using the very progressive WCA – Wild Caught Aquaculture method, are healthy, and can be similar to the texture and taste of wild fish straight from the ocean. At this point, the taste and tactile sensation hasn’t been fully documented, but it’s only a matter of time and refinement.

More chefs need to express WCA interest.

Open-net pens in the ocean are often overcrowded – like feed lots for cattle. When nature doesn’t cooperate in these enclosed environments, algae blooms in the ocean can grow quickly and choke all the oxygen out of the water. It causes overcrowded fish in open-net pens to die rapidly – recently in one case in numbers as great as 8 million within one week. Fish kills that large are catastrophic for not only the fish obviously, but also for our oceans and the environment. When 8 million salmon die it equates to 40,000 rotting metric tonne of wasted carbon. Wild fish simply swim away from the algae bloom, but open-net farmed fish are trapped and suffocate. It’s not humane by any standards, and if we killed off a similar ratio of cuddly-looking polar bears, well the global outcry would go viral in a nanosecond.

Theoretically, all lives matter, practically, hmm … a subject for another article.

Technically, WCA RAS IMTA land-based pools can also be high-density, but overcrowding contravenes a self-imposed requirement of the model. Even at volume, an enhanced CRAFT presence is obligatory to create certain “notes”. WCA RAS IMTA aquaponics has a very unique wild caught provenance infused within its ecosystem that imparts self-leveling methods and practices. Just like in fine-wine, certain protocols must be met to achieve taste, texture, and certification. It’s hard to fool your nose, and impossible to trick your tongue–mush is mush.

Although provenance is critically important to a small select group of seafood lovers, for most consumers at the counter price is still the deciding factor. Consequently, the marketing and investment question will always be; How much will discriminating seafood lovers pay for exemplary fish, whether wild, farmed, or wild-caught farmed?

Premium is a niche market, but it doesn’t necessarily support high margins, especially on start up.

Other significant advantages however are that land-based ecosystems can be more easily and accurately monitored, plus the levels of quarantine available make it cost effective to prevent disease from spreading. Land-based WCA RAS IMTA fish swim in a relatively stress-free ecosystem that balances water quality and feeding schedules, causing fish to grow at optimum rates in a relatively natural way. It’s not the ocean, but it’s close enough, and it’s stress free. The fish are healthy and content.

Those with RAS IMTA experience have no pretense about how challenging it is to imitate an ocean environment, and they share it through their social media channels and other new media. OPEN SOURCE is as much part of the front end user experience as is the backend code, which means transparency is an important component on all levels. It’s a dynamic that reflects today’s cluster culture.

Almost the entire fish farm industry in North America and the western world focuses exclusively on farming salmon, and mostly Atlantic salmon from hatcheries–rarely wild. A Norwegian, publicly-traded company ASA-ME, Atlantic Sapphire, is building the largest land-based RAS salmon farming operation in the world in Miami. They call their fish farms “bluehouses” a play on the traditional greenhouse, and refer to blue as the new green. Sapphire opened their first bluehouse in Denmark in 2011 and have a long lead on the rest of the world in this space. Land-based fish farming has been around for a while, but not to this technological and biological depth.  

At this stage of the land-based fish farm industry in Canada, salmon is also the apex player, and it will be for a very long time. A few aqua farmers focus on wild caught finfish like halibut, sablefish, rockfish, and lingcod, but they are rebel players in a niche market trying to grow-out, or on-grow as some call it, wild fish. It’s an overwhelming challenge, and in early 2020 still unproven at any appreciable volume. Even though there is a great need for alternative species beyond salmon–sablefish holds promising potential, it is still a very high risk bet for investors, or the government. However, if land-based RAS IMTA continues to grow at its current pace, the knowledge necessary to make species other than salmon a viable concept could be available in as little as five years, and maybe a bit less. It’s interesting to watch this space, but it’s still early in the game.

The biggest concern for this group, is that only a handful of small WCA craft companies around the world know what a wild fish will taste like when it’s caught in the ocean and then raised in a land-based saltwater RAS IMTA ecosystem. Taste is the deciding factor, especially when tied to premium prices, which is inherent in using this model.

Will it taste great … or just good?

The accepted and understood challenge is that at least initially and maybe even for the next decade, land-based farmed fish will be expensive–if you demand a premium price, the quality has to match.

Good, is not good enough when you pay premium  prices.

There is no doubt that a high quality consumer will pay for high quality fish. There was a market for Prius in 1997 when it launched, and also for Tesla when it launched in 2003, but twenty-three years later electric cars still haven’t gone mainstream, but we’re close.  The catch is that this type of consumer is incredibly discriminating. Regardless of what Richard Branson’s Galactic Space ticket costs ($250,000), at this stage it is highly unlikely fish farmers will find a premium market in the near future at any appreciable volume. Granted, a few around the world already have craft offerings, for example, sablefish is a premium species that a few BC fish farmers are developing because margins have potential to be incredibly high. The reality though is that these fish don’t hit their peak of taste until they mature. Sablefish, also known as Butterfish, don’t get exquisitely buttery until they are at least ten years old, and the older the better. Smaller fish still taste good, but if a consumer is going to pay a premium price that is considerably higher than the real wild sablefish, they will expect exemplary taste.

Taste isn’t the only consideration.

Purity is also a valued attribute for premium customers.

One of the biggest upsides beyond taste and texture, is that a land-based WCA RAS IMTA aquaponics farmed finfish will have less contaminants because it was raised in clean water. In the wild, sablefish live to be ninety years old and can grow to eighty pounds, absorbing cumulative levels of mercury, PCBs, and plastic fibers over very long periods. It’s best to leave them in the ocean for obvious health reasons, but also because larger sablefish are the most hardy and prolific breeders and will replenish the species faster than their younger and smaller counterparts.

In order to meet taste and purity benchmarks, land-based WCA RAS IMTA aquaponics fish farmers will need to feed their fish sustainable organic food on a regular schedule, which theoretically will quickly put on bulk and bring sablefish to that “buttery” flavour profile faster. At this point though in 2020, FCR, food conversion ratio and weight gain are still mostly theory and well guarded secrets of craft fish farmers, although if you research advances in Greenland and Norway, you can find real numbers.

Unlike fish in the ocean that are stressed and might not eat for several months at a time, a fish in a RAS pool will eat on a regular schedule and grow rapidly, but still in a relatively natural way. There is however, potential for abuse that has to be addressed so we don’t fall into a “foie gras” conundrum and think force feeding is acceptable because it is just a fish.

Overfeeding is not humane for any living creature.

At this point, craft fisheries still have more questions than answers.

Here’s one more conundrum; Using WCA, if you place smaller wild caught sablefish in a land-based RAS IMTA ecosystem it’s quite possible a fish farmer would have to grow them out for several years to bring out the buttery taste, which wouldn’t be cost effective. On the flip side, if you capture larger wild sablefish in the ocean, say over ten pounds and then place them in your ecosystem to grow out, they would have already lived so long in polluted oceans they would contain relatively high levels of contaminants, which defeats the attraction of a pure fish. Who would pay more for a fish that wouldn’t taste quite as good as the real thing, and that also has contaminants in its system?   

Even the best health organizations have trouble keeping everything straight; The FDA in a recent seafood health chart, lists Butterfish as a BEST CHOICE, and further down the same list they include Sablefish as a lesser GOOD CHOICE. Even more confusing … sablefish are also sometimes called black cod, and guess what, they aren’t even cod.

Envision for a moment that all these issues could be managed effectively, and that WCA fish farms could produce a healthy, relatively contaminant-free fish that isn’t prohibitively expensive … How would a fish farmer do it at large enough volume to satisfy the market?

It’s NOT a conundrum.

The one word answer … “Technology!”

Maurice Cardinal has been a fisheries marketing and communications advisor and writer in British Columbia for almost a decade and has worked with leading organisations, NGOs, and governments in Canada and abroad.

We’ve Got the Whole World

February 14, 2020 Wild Salmon Cove News Politics Seafood
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Underestimating progress and today’s importance of protecting our ocean environment would be a grave mistake.

Most experts in the fisheries and seafood industry still don’t realize the Canadian federal government made a preemptive decision thirty years ago when they first started developing salmon fish farming in open-net pens. In the early 80’s when the DFO first began exploring salmon fish farming, wild salmon stocks on the west coast in Canada were still strong and had not shown any signs of weakening until about 1991. Canadian fishers harvested the highest rates in history between 1970 and 1990, in part because boats and gear had improved considerably, plus, quotas were introduced. Harvest limits were being consistently exceeded for all salmon species and no one at any level including fishers, processors, or distributors were raising alarms. It was reflective of egregious over-fishing, but no one cared. What had become a serious challenge however was the escalating cost to monitor fishers to ensure they followed regulations. Day to day fisheries management was, and still is an overwhelming challenge for the DFO.

The easily solution at the time seemed to be Atlantic salmon fish-farming in the ocean–it would considerably reduce the cost of managing fisheries. No one at the time in Canada envisioned challenges like the pollution that collects below open-net pens, or viruses, or sea lice. All we saw was a seemingly cheap way to farm fish and feed nations. Looks can be deceiving.

About five years after modern commercial salmon fish farming was launched (1985), wild BC salmon harvest limits “started” to decline in lockstep with fish farming growth. On a graph, a perfectly symmetrical “X”, occurred at a five year juncture where the two paths crossed. The pattern indicated that fish farming was introduced well-before wild salmon landed weights showed any reduction. Wild salmon harvest limits declined at the exact same ratio that fish farming grew, and that type of coincidental symmetry isn’t reflective of what normally occurs in nature. The precision was uncanny, but at the time fishers didn’t feel threatened by fish farming because wild fisheries were still “seemingly” healthy.

Nothing in fisheries is cut and dry however, and sometimes decisions are made for reasons no one but a select few understand. At the end of the day the feds made the right choice, but it wasn’t entirely for the reasons most people think. Biologists could not predict with any accuracy what would happen in the early 90s regarding the rapid decline of wild salmon stocks, but it was possible to manage the transition to fish farming in open-net pens.

Old school fish farming held great potential to be more cost-effective than live capture and the monitoring of wild fisheries. Unfortunately, it suffered through serious bio-tech and marketing challenges. Many of the environmental issues weren’t managed effectively.

Today however, fish farming, specifically LAND-BASED salmon fish farming is a realistic solution that will help heal species and our oceans. In the 90s it was heavily promoted that salmon farming would make seafood cheaper, which as we all know never happened because of ancillary costs no one predicted – like antibiotics and huge fish-farm kill-offs. Technology improved operations considerably, but the argument that open-net fish farming will deliver cheaper seafood is still a long shot, especially due to high start-up capital and operations costs.

Uninformed critics simply say, “Stop Fishing! …and let species recover”

Unfortunately, it will take as long or longer for oceans to heal as it did to create the harm. The reality is that over half of the world relies on fish as their staple source protein, which means we can’t stop and wait for fifty years or more for the oceans and species to heal. We need a solution today.

WCA-Wild Caught Aquaculture

Wild caught land-based fish farming using RAS IMTA is viable, and although it hasn’t been proven for high volume, in 2020, companies like Atlantic Sapphire using BASIC RAS IMTA are on the cusp of producing half of the farmed salmon currently consumed in the USA.

When you also incorporate AQUAPONICS with WCA, it makes even greater ecological and economic sense. 

One of BC’s longest and strongest proponents of land-based salmon farming has been Tony Allard, and the organization, “Wild Salmon Forever” – he’s the current chairman. Groups like his have propelled the argument to move salmon farming out of the ocean and to land-based for several years. Other visionaries like Eric Peterson and Christina Munck of the Tula Foundation have contributed significantly to the health of our oceans using education and scientific technology as a base for development.

The secret to environmental and ecological growth is in being able to see meta patterns and manage information in a way that will allow us to make good decision. Big Data can provide an overview of meta patterns, which means land-based fisheries will need to quickly adopt highly advanced technology through tools like IPFS blockchain on the distributed web. High volume land-based WCA RAS IMTA will not work without using sophisticated technology.

New technologies like AI and machine learning make it possible for small enterprises to operate with the same authority as large enterprise networks. It’s the identical principle that over the last few years allowed niche banks to disrupt big banking and investment networks around the world.

In response to people who outright oppose farming of any wild animals, it’s important to understand that society does now have the expertise and technology to do it properly and humanely. The challenging question however is more about who we approve, through licensing, to be wild farmers. Fish farming is markedly harder than raising cattle or chickens. With a little smarts and enough money almost anyone can be a traditional land farmer with very moderate training.

Farming wild animals however, fish especially, is a completely different enterprise.

If you want to take on the WCA salmon challenge, you also need to be well educated and business smart. The technology required is much more sophisticated than tossing a long line in the water and hooking a fish, or dragging a net through the ocean. We all saw where that got us, and know we can’t trust the honour system for such sensitive decisions. It only takes a small handful of pirates and bad actors to ruin it for everyone.

Licensing of fish farms needs to be well planned and comprehensive, and not awarded to just anyone because they have misplaced ecological-will, or deep pockets – a lot is at stake beyond just profit.

A child can fish. Land-based WCA RAS IMTA is a lot more difficult, which means we need professionals who understand it at a systemic level, and who can deliver a responsible ecological and profitable solution.

Maurice Cardinal has been a fisheries marketing and communications advisor and writer in British Columbia for almost a decade and has worked with leading organisations, NGOs, and governments in Canada and abroad.


Open-Net Pen Fish Farming Reinvented

February 12, 2020 Wild Salmon Cove News Politics
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Wild BC salmon stocks are in a free fall towards decline. If we, as a society don’t do something immediately, as in today, salmon species in British Columbia will all move dangerously close to becoming extinct.

Northern creep of warmer oceans advances every year, and it’s picking up speed. In order to breed, salmon need cold water in rivers that are sometimes warming faster than oceans – a half degree rise in temperature has devastating consequences.

Pollution is also having a direct and ancillary effect.

Microplastic, the latest scourge, is layered on top of mercury, PCBs, and other dioxins. Parts of our oceans are slowly turning to soup – a modern day ocean bouillabaisse.

Overfishing however … is the biggest reason for depleted species.

When we launched Wild Salmon Cove in 2013 our goal was to support the independent side of wild commercial fisheries in BC, with a heavy list towards trolling gear – guys like Jon Hunter have a lot of good stuff to say.

For almost a decade we’ve connected people and companies across a number of industries, including FinTech–we liked the disruptive value implications, and believe it’s also important to follow the money. We’ve helped a number of companies and organizations, governments too, develop innovative IT projects that delivered more streamlined and cost-effective supply chains.

Tech makes things possible for fisheries that we’ve never even dreamed, and it’s about to ramp into hyper-drive.

Data is the driver. BIG Data makes it possible for small companies and organizations to be competitive–quite often based on disruptive marketing and operations models. On the government side of the spectrum, and now because everyone will be able to more cost effectively collect and manage accurate data, small enterprise networks using IPFS blockchain on the distributed web will also make it easier for fisheries to manage wild and farmed fish stocks. Costs will be substantially reduced.

Our collective new 2020 ideal will be built along Social Media and CLUSTER tenets – modeled on trust, transparency, and community. Supply chain streamlining and cooperation will be key to success and overall viability.

It’s no surprise to anyone anymore that oceans can no longer feed the world, of which over half of us consume seafood as a staple protein.

After thirty years of research, development, and innovation, it’s also clear that fish farming in the ocean in open-net pens was a great effort, but it can’t deliver holistically. Production at all costs reflective of our oceans is not sustainable, or responsible. Environmental and ecological challenges far outweigh the benefits. We have to first take care of the oceans and all it’s life forms, and always make marketing decisions based on cultivating a healthy planet.

Something has to change respective of open-net fish farms in the ocean. Almost everyone agrees closed-containment in the deep ocean can meet environmental and ecological markers. It’s also fair to say though that the odds of it being successful and sustainable are just as good and maybe even better using land-based aqua and bio technology. Inland, WCA RAS IMTA using aquaponics is as technically possible as closed containment is in the ocean. Land-based is also much safer, and in today’s society, safety counts.

The main argument coming from the open-net pen industry is that land-based fish farming will be too expensive. They’re right, everything in the beginning is expensive, but if you really want to be socially and environmentally responsible you have to step outside of the flow and chart a new course. Open-net pen proponents also want investors to think land-based is not a good bet. The reality however is that there are investors out there who are obsessively interested in the planet, and who understand what OPEN SOURCE means–technologically and as a socially responsible marketing concept. The relatively new business ideology, B CORP is built on trust and transparency, and counts companies like PATAGONIA as members.

It wouldn’t be a bad idea if all food companies met B Corp standards.

Change is way more complicated than it looks, and for good reason … Over 90% of an iceberg’s mass is below water, and the same goes for fisheries.

Fisheries of all types, wild ocean or fish farm, will benefit from a move inland. At this late stage, it’s one of the fastest and most effective ways to heal our oceans and sea life, animal and plant.

We seem to have the ecological will as a global community, but we now need strong political leadership to enact the change we want to be.  

Maurice Cardinal has been a fisheries marketing and communications advisor and writer in British Columbia for almost a decade and has worked with leading organisations, NGOs, and governments in Canada and abroad.

Wild Salmon Goes Inland

February 6, 2020 Wild Salmon Cove News Politics
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Written by Maurice Cardinal  …

Open-Net Fish Farms Mandated Out of Canadian Oceans will start to move to closed containment or land-based by 2025

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced September 2019, that open-net fish farms in Canada’s oceans will be required to move to LAND-BASED facilities, and that they will be in transition to that end by 2025.

The five year introductory plan was met with mixed reactions, mostly progressive, but also framed with strong comments on either side, especially from ocean based open-net salmon farmers who immediately promised to be aggressive in their resistance.

When moved out of the ocean along BC’s Pacific coast, land-based operations will be variations of RAS and IMTA fish farms. Hopefully, some will also incorporate WCA aquaponics ecosystems, but taking it to that level will be incredibly challenging. It’s true that RAS IMTA does hold the most potential to reinvent fisheries, but the concept has not yet been proven at craft-size, let alone large volume.

As I reported in Salmon Business Magazine, Canadians are already exploring WCA – Wild Caught Aquaculture in very limited numbers. One or two approached it scientifically, and over several years have been building their knowledge base. Others are ex-fishers, distributors, and small processors looking today to capitalize on an opportunity in fisheries, that yesterday, they ironically, tacitly and complicity dragged to the brink of collapse. Those guilty of doing more harm than good over the decades will be dismissed as pirates and opportunists. They are for the most part transparent speculators hoping to get swept up in the rush to new-found gold.

This type of brazen entrepreneur is dangerous for our oceans and fish species because they take an adversarial approach, and don’t understand or respect how communities and clusters work–it takes more than knowing buzzwords. Thankfully, there are dedicated entrepreneurs who have been developing conventional fish farming for several years, and who already understand the challenges.

Canada is promoting an era of team-playing and community, and trust and transparency, which is clearly described in Prime Minister Trudeau’s manifesto for a modern fishery. No other country has taken this initiative – some call it brave while detractors vilify it as reckless. Personally, I think it is progressive and long overdue, but only time will tell. At this point, the make or break conclusion will be dependent on sound political leadership.  

WCA proponents have experimented with various versions of wild caught RAS IMTA for a few years, and have amassed unique DATA – the Holy Grail of competition in 2020. Some propose that markets other than salmon might be more lucrative, like sablefish or halibut for example. They are investing and learning how to do it in their own unique ways by raising fish in both land-based and open-net environments. So far though in early 2020, their results have mostly been underreported, except to say that RAS IMTA bio-tech challenges are overwhelming. No one so far, anywhere in the world has been able to do it successfully at large scale, but they are getting close. At this stage it’s still a craft industry, but it’s on the verge of going mainstream.

Playing Mother Nature is way harder than it looks.

The federal government’s long awaited decision to transition fish farms to land-based operations will benefit fish species, as well as our oceans and coastal communities, which in large part on Canada’s west coast are First Nations. Inland fish farms can provide coastal Aboriginal communities with employment in the ocean and on land using the wild caught WCA process.

Someone has to capture the wild fish to grow out in the RAS pools, and First Nations have all the skills, knowledge, and equipment necessary. They also have experience in conventional open-net pens that can be easily transitioned. Land-based fish farms need highly educated and skilled specialists, which means a wide and varied HR pool. Land-based WCA RAS IMTA aquaponics will employ considerably more people than any previous fisheries.

When Prime Minister Trudeau announced the transition in September of 2019, some open-net pen west coast fish farmers reacted immediately and angrily, threatening strong-resistance. It was an expected response, and in general with merit, but it’s not justified when looked at through an environmental and ecological lens. No doubt a move like this will cause open-net pen operators to shoulder considerable cost, but they don’t have to do it alone. The primary issue here is about the health of our oceans and salmon stocks. The government’s plan is to provide support at a number of levels. Everyone wants the transition inland to succeed, especially Fisheries Minister Bernadette Jordan. There is a lot at stake for everyone, including and above all Canada’s oceans and sea life.

The general public, aka seafood consumers are just beginning to understand the ramifications of open-net farming in the ocean, and consequently half-wondering what all the noise is about. Fish are fish, right … hmm, no.

Fish are NOT inanimate objects. Fish feel pain and react to stress like every other living creature – animal or plant. A happy chicken, cow, or fish tastes better–it’s scientific fact. Humanity has not been kind to fish throughout history. Fisheries of all ilk, wild or farmed, for the most part ignore humane methods of harvesting and processing unless forced to through regulation. Land-based farms will incorporate sophisticated in-house humane end of life and processing methods that will be easy and cost effective to monitor. Details like that will add immeasurably to value at the counter, which provides great incentive for companies to self-regulate. SCADA systems operating on IPFS small enterprise blockchain networks will revolutionize fisheries forever and for the better. Traceability will become a foregone conclusion, and it will be cost effective, adding pure value.

Moving open-net fish farms to land-based is confusing even for many in the industry who support the move. Some people believe that land-based fish farming will be relatively easy. The reality however is that running an open-net operation in the ocean does not necessarily mean you have the required knowledge to operate a land-based fish farm at volume. Even at small scale it is a challenge to produce tasty fish at a profit – the key being “tasty”. Each discipline is radically different at a number of fundamental levels. For this reason alone it is understandable that current open-net pen operators are nervous. Competition is fierce and changes like this can put overwhelming pressure on operations already at risk.

Land-based fish farming is still not proven at large volume. Scientifically however, a land-based RAS IMTA aquaponics ecosystem contains all the elements necessary to deliver a perfectly balanced holistic solution. It adds up as plausible on paper, but duplicating an ocean-like environment is challenging, and so far in early 2020 the results haven’t been spectacular. There are exceptions, but they are the true scientific pioneers and tiny players in places like Greenland or Norway. Canadians might be aware of these strategies, but we have zero experience executing at any scale. Even if you embrace the move inland, at this nascent stage it would be like watching football on TV thinking you could be a quarterback. Thanks to data and open source knowledge-share though, we do at least have a playbook.

Armchair land-based fish farmers are now starting to come out of the woodwork armed with only dreams and little more. It’s a repeat of the lucrative 80s and 90s when wild salmon were so plentiful you could get rich just by showing up like a pirate to fill your holds with treasure.

Fishing is not going to be that easy this time.

All the individual components for WCA RAS IMTA are available, and they all work in their silos, but when you combine the different elements needed for a fully functioning ecosystem, the challenges hit light speed quickly. On first blush it sounds like all that is required is to build a few pools and do what open-net pen fish farmers do in the ocean. Almost anyone can Google for solutions already being exercised in Scandinavian countries, then create a fancy 3D video, and you’re off to the races! Even if current open-net ocean fish farmers were to embrace the move to land-based, and so far they haven’t … they still need to update their knowledge and skills to be regarded seriously by investors.

Reinventing fisheries is uncompromisingly complex!

Land-based fish farming at volume means anyone interested has to start from scratch, which levels the playing field considerably. Admittedly by most in this arena, very few at this stage know exactly what they are doing. Some would like you to think so, but it’s mostly boastful conjecture with very few verifiable numbers to back it up, which is a big problem for investors. The same issues existed when the internet first came on the scene–it took well over a decade for anyone to be profitable. The first to profit were the software companies building the tools, and then ten years later in 1994 Amazon showed up and got the ball rolling. It took another full decade for Facebook to launch in 2004.

The land-based fish farming paradigm has very similar growth-and-acceptance challenges.

Disparity between the two very-different fish farming practices is considerable, and it’s what will give the new “pure players” an advantage. They come to the table without preconceived notions or a sense of entitlement. Fresh faces are more capable of finding fresh solutions, and it’s exactly what fisheries desperately need right now – modern and fresh.

For example, open-net fish farming in the ocean demands a regime of antibiotics, pesticides, and vaccines, while land-based RAS IMTA (WCA or not), does not need chemicals and drugs to manage fish health. Why? … because disease in an open-net pen floating in the ocean spreads so rapidly that drugs are often used as a preventative strategy before any appreciable level of disease or sickness is even present. It’s a defeatists’ attitude based on negativity. At the very least, drugs are expensive and increase the cost of seafood at the counter, plus antibiotics linger in the flesh if it’s not purged properly. Open-net fish farmers need specialized pharmaceutical expertise and also highly trained and experienced veterinarian aqua specialists on staff to monitor stock 24/7. It’s a skill open-net fish farmers developed over three decades, and it represents a huge investment in R&D and training. Large pharmaceutical companies stand a lot to lose here, which is a story for another time. Suffice it to say though that pharma has strong incentive to fuel a fire and economically support resistance to change. 

WCA RAS IMTA is a more holistic and organic approach, especially when you incorporate aquaponics.

Although chemicals and drugs are not necessary in WCA RAS IMTA ecosystems, there are, as you can see, other specialized skills required that fall under animal husbandry and advanced bio-technology.

Land-Based RAS IMTA demands precision and discipline, and is not for rank amateurs.

Maurice Cardinal has been a fisheries marketing and communications advisor and writer in British Columbia for almost a decade and has worked with leading organisations, NGOs, and governments in Canada and abroad.