Victoria firmly opposes open-net fish farms

The City of Victoria has reaffirmed its opposition to open-net fish farms over the objections of Coun. Geoff Young.

Councillors passed a motion to forward to the Association of Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities calling on the province to consult with First Nations, local governments, conservation organizations and industry on a plan to move to closed-containment aquaculture.

Young argued that closing opennet fish farms won’t necessary lead to a transition to closed-containment fish-farming right next door. In fact, he said, the more likely transition for workers is to unemployment insurance. “I think the implication that these farms are just going to move next door to the dry land and everybody is going to continue to work there is harmfully misleading.”

Coun. Jeremy Loveday, who sponsored the motion with Coun. Ben Isitt, said the people of Victoria are behind the closure of opennet farms. “We’ve received hundreds of emails in the last couple of days. There are a lot of people in Victoria who are very concerned about this,” Loveday said.

“That’s because the evidence shows that open-net fish farms could pose serious risks to wild salmon stocks, and when we’re talking about wild salmon stocks, we’re talking about the health and livelihood of our coast and we’re talking about First Nations sovereignty.”

The resolution, Young argued, states categorically that open-net fish farms are detrimental to the environment. While there is a significant amount of evidence in support of that, there is also evidence to the contrary, he said.

“Frankly, I’m not able to make that judgment. I don’t have any training in biology,” he said.