VANCOUVER—The Union of B.C. Municipalities put its weight behind environmental groups and coastal First Nations concerned about the effect of open-net fish farms on wild salmon Wednesday, passing a resolution that urged the province to shift the industry to closed systems.

The move “represents the evaporation of the social licence for the open-net fish farms to be operating in the oceans of British Columbia,” said Kwikwasut’inuxw Haxwa’mis Chief Robert Chamberlin, who is also the vice-president of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs.

A spokesperson for the B.C. Salmon Farmers Association warned, however, that forcing the industry on-land could mean pushing it out of B.C. altogether.

“A move to land-based salmon farming would essentially shut down the B.C. industry putting almost 7,000 British Columbians — many of them living on Vancouver Island north of Victoria — out of work,” said Shawn Hall, on behalf of the industry association. “It’s an important industry providing really important food.”

The Union of B.C. Municipalities, which is meeting this week in Whistler, passed a resolution brought forward by the City of Victoria that urged the province to start consultations with First Nations government, local governments, conservation groups, and industry on a plan to transition to closed-containment aquaculture.

The resolution notes many open-net fish farms were established in Indigenous territories without adequate consultation and says “the proliferation of open-net fish farms with non-native fish species threatens local waterways and wild fish species, undermining the economic, social and ecological well-being of local communities.”

It calls for consultations to include a “just transition” for workers who would be affected by shifting the industry from open-net pens in the ocean to land-based systems.

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A second resolution related to aquaculture also passed Wednesday urging the province to “ensure all decisions with regards to the management of all fisheries, and protection of the natural environment, are made based on current data, technology, science and traditional knowledge.” The resolution notes that aquaculture is included in the definition of fisheries.

According to Fisheries and Oceans Canada, closed containment can refer to a variety of fish farming systems from “floating bag systems” to land based systems that recirculate water. The key is they try to limit interaction between the farmed salmon and surrounding marine environment.

While there are examples of successful “boutique” closed-containment fish farms, Hall said so far there hasn’t been a very successful large commercial-scale operation.

Chamberlin, meanwhile, says if the industry in B.C. wants to remain competitive it needs to keep up with shifting technology. Large-scale fish farms are under development elsewhere, including a Florida-based project, he said.

He added that other jurisdictions on the Pacific coast, including Washington, are already planning to shift the industry to closed containment systems.

Those systems come at an environmental cost, said Hall. Huge amounts of water would be need to fill tanks and large amounts of electricity would be needed to mimic ocean currents to help keep salmon strong, he noted.

But there are costs to the system in place now as well, said Stan Proboszcz, the science adviser with Watershed Watch, who noted concerns about the flow of waste water through pens and the spread of parasites and viruses to wild species.

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Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s management of one virus, piscine reovirus, is the subject of court cases being heard in Vancouver this week.

Agriculture Minister Lana Popham said in a statement that she is aware of companies doing “innovative work on closed containment systems” and is open to working with the federal government to see how they can support “those kinds of innovations.”

While Popham did not say whether the province is considering transitioning the industry to land-based operations, she highlighted new rules announced in June that will require fish farms to prove to Fisheries and Oceans Canada that their operations won’t harm wild salmon starting in 2022. They will also be required to have negotiated agreements with the First Nations whose territory they will operate in before the province will grant tenures for the farms.

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