Open-net pen salmon farms FAQs with the Pacific Salmon Foundation

Ajouté : 2026-06-04

[00:00:00]Hi, my name is Dr. Kilian Stefes. I'm the government relations and policy manager at the Pacific Salmon Foundation and I'm here today to answer some questions about open net pen salmon farming.

[00:00:13]Open net pen salmon farming is the rearing of salmon, mostly Atlantic salmon, [music] in cages in the ocean. The cages are made out of an open net, which means that water can flow freely [music] through the cages.

[00:00:28]Open net pen salmon farming started in BC in the early 70s. Initially, [music] it was kind of experimental um and small-scale operations focused on the Sunshine Coast. And then in the 1980s, the the industry grew and became the sort of commercial industrial [music] operations that we're familiar with today.

[00:00:48]Our main concern when it comes to the impacts of open net pen salmon farms on our native wild uh Pacific salmon species is the transmission of uh pathogens [music] from farm to wild fish. And there are three that we're concerned about in particular based on the research we've been doing for over a decade. And those are sea lice, which is a parasite, um Tenacibaculum, which is a bacterium, [music] and uh PRV, which is a virus. And the the concern here is that um the viruses or bacteria or parasites are amplified inside the open net pens and then are spread to the surrounding environment.

[00:01:25]At the peak, there were about 100 or so open net pen salmon farms operating in British Columbia. Now, there's about 55 left. That's because farms were removed from the Broughton Archipelago based on the initiative by the nations there.

[00:01:38][music] And they're also removed from Sechelt territory on the Sunshine Coast.

[00:01:41]Again, something that the nation pushed for.

[00:01:44]And then the third batch of farms that was removed was in the Discovery Islands [music] based on decision by the federal government.