Fish raised in open net pens in the ocean may soon be sold as organic.(Photo: Mar.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/ Stock File)

Open net pen salmon could be sold as organic

CANADA
Monday, July 19, 2010, 08:20 (GMT + 9)

Fish raised in open net pens in the ocean could soon be sold as organic if the federal government adopts a plan to incorporate organic aquaculture standards. The move has got environmentalists and the industry debating whether organic aquaculture is even possible.

Summer consultations have started on the proposal drafted by the Canadian General Standards Board and organic aquaculture working group at Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO).

Ottawa’s proposed organic certification system is incompatible with US law, as the US National Standards Board’s draft rules would prohibit non-native species raised in open net pens to carry the US Government's organic label, Postmedia News reports.

Organic farming specialist Ann Clark. (Photo: University of Guelph )

Most of the fish raised in British Columbia’s (BC) salmon farms – the world's fourth-largest farmed salmon producer -- would thus fail the US organic test while complying with the proposed Canadian standards.

But Mary Ellen Walling, executive director of the BC Salmon Farmers Association (BCSFA), assured that the aquaculture industry would only support stringent standards.

"From our point of view, we would want to see that the standards are strong to maintain consumer confidence in the organic designation," said Walling.

Environmentalists and organic specialists differ.

"The terms organic and 'aquaculture' are logically incompatible, as are 'organic' and 'caged layers,'" affirmed University of Guelph organic farming specialist Ann Clark. "The fundamental problem, whether with livestock and poultry or with fish, is the concentration of animals in space, which creates not simply pathogen and behavioural problems but a cascade of knock-on problems relating from the manure."

Shauna MacKinnon, seafood sustainability specialist at the Vancouver-based Living Oceans Society, agrees, and passionately opposes the move toward organic aquaculture. She explained that another problem is the use of use of antibiotics or chemicals to curb parasites such as sea lice, a practice which clashes directly with organic principles.

"A standard like this really undermines what consumers expect when it comes to organic product because they expect something that is more environmentally sustainable and they expect it not to have antibiotics or chemical treatments used in the product," MacKinnon continued.

The fisheries critics for the Green Party and the New Democratic Party (NDP) also oppose the move, saying the fish should not qualify as organic.

Because closed containment operators would have to meet higher standards to use the organic label, Janice Harvey, the New Brunswick (BC) -based critic for the Greens, worries that the organic labeling would give fish raised in open net pens “an unfair advantage."

New Westminster-Coquitlam MP Finn Donnelly, the NDP critic, has placed a private member's bill on the agenda to amend the Fisheries Act to require that finfish aquaculture be conducted in closed containment facilities, permitting a five year transition period.

Related articles:

- BC natives seek class-action lawsuit against fish farms
- BC farms' sea lice data goes public

By Natalia Real
[email protected]
www.seafood.media

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