Not a linear process

Shellfish aquaculture is a zero-input industry, which means no pesticides, fertilizers or other pollutants enter the ocean as a result of its operations. The shellfish eat algae - first the algae that is grown in the greenhouse, and later wild algae from the ocean. When the shellfish are brought out to the ocean sites, in cases where there are blooms of algae, they are actually restoring balance to the environment through their feasting.

A successful shellfish aquaculture equation relies on a functioning seed supply. The hatchery shellfish feed off of the algae grown in the greenhouse, until they’re big enough to graduate to the open sea for a few years before harvest. But when it comes to the success of the business, Uehara said his team has learned that success requires collaboration between science and traditional knowledge, the inclusion of a diversity of experiences and perspectives, and a commitment to a longer-term vision of sustainable jobs for the remote coastal community.

“If I told you exactly what we do in our hatchery, and you tried to open a hatchery even 40 miles away, there’s no guarantee of success, that’s how fickle the calculations are,” Uehara told me, as we made our way to the hatchery in his zero-emission Nissan Leaf electric vehicle. “We rely on the people who have the knowledge about what has gone on in the past here, not just with algae, but in general with all the changes over the years… It’s the collision of traditional knowledge and science, and if anything will test your fidelity to linear thinking, this is it.”

When we got to the greenhouse, that looked to me like a mix between a brewery and a science lab, I got a tour from one of the employees, Andrew Llewellyn. As we walked through the facilities, Llewellyn showed me which containers held the algae. I was surprised to learn that they use and experiment with different species of algae. At the moment, they’re using five, but they keep a lot more around, he told me.

The algae starts to cultivate in a small laboratory off of the greenhouse, before being transferred into bigger bottles and eventually the bigger reservoirs, Llewellyn told me on on Apr. 9 visit. Photo by Emilee Gilpin

Llewellyn said he stepped off the boat working years as a fisherman, and over time learned the fickle science of shellfish aquaculture. Photo by Emilee Gilpin

Llewellyn isn’t a scientist in the western sense of the word, but he has lived his whole life in Prince Rupert, and he has seen every scallop spawn since 2013, which is why Uehara calls him the “walking institutional memory.” No two spawns are the same, Llewellyn explained, and there’s no simple recipe.

“Just like you and me, every scallop is different, and you just have to watch them carefully and go by feel,” he said.

Llewellyn showed me where the shellfish are cultivated, explaining how they've learned how probiotics work better than antibiotis, when to transfer the food from smaller containers to the large reservoirs, how nutrients, carbon dioxide and algae interact; and the appropriate temperatures for spawning.

He then showed me tiny shellfish, smaller than the smallest pad of your smallest finger, which would grow in the hatchery for three to seven months, or until they are big enough to bring to the ocean (and too big for hungry crabs to mess with).

The algae diet, in both farmed and wild environments, means Great Bear Scallops are less environmentally intrusive than the west coast’s salmon farming industry, where Atlantic salmon are fed pellets.

“We don’t have to spend copious amounts of money to feed them, just for maintenance, labour, nets and boat travel,” Llewellyn later told me, as we made our way through the hatchery, where shellfish of various ages were kept in different bins regulated at different ideal spawning temperatures. “Sustainability is what I like… we’re making a sustainable seafood, and we’re growing, with a potential to have a lot more jobs in the community.”

I asked Llewellyn how he learned this complicated delicate process, without a science degree, and he said he learned from the managers, experts and staff who have come and gone from the operations over the years - people from Australia, France, China and Chile, each of whom brought their own experience growing scallops. At this point, Uehara walked in on our conversation and added that the scientists learned just as much from Llewellyn and the other locals. Shellfish aquaculture is no place for linear thinking, he said, it is a mix of imagination, science and traditional knowledge.