Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - On Monday March 6, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) closed the waters and intertidal foreshore of Deep Bay Harbour, on Vancouver Island, to oyster and scallop growers, due to ‘sanitary reasons.’
Erik Lyon, owner operator of Rising Tide Shellfish on Cortes Island explained, “The problem is too many people in too close a proximity to shellfish farms. You can't have any shellfish destined for human consumption in water where there's any kind of a man-made dock, boat liveaboard or float house within 125 meters. That's a setback that's always been in place.”
“The US was considering a total ban on BC oysters. Luckily DFO was taking lab samples of oysters for a few weeks about a month back and in the end, we were deemed as acceptably clean. That ban didn't go ahead, but in response to that threat of a ban on BC shellfish, I believe, the DFO is now going to stricter measures in terms of closing certain waterways as growing sites.”
Lyon’s company is one of the 10 or so lease holders belonging to the Bee Islets Growers Corporation, in the centre of Gorge Harbour.
“There's millions of dollars worth of sustainably produced seafood coming out of that harbor every year. That's jobs, small businesses, a whole way of life,” he said.
“My representatives at the BC Shellfish Growers Association tell us the industry is in decline here.”
EL: “Why is that when we have this incredible ability to produce this high quality product that the worldwide demand for is super strong. When we talk to our processors about oyster orders coming up next week, all we ever hear is, can you send twice as much? The international demand for shellfish flesh is not being met, let alone the domestic demand. We have this incredible resource, working with nature, producing this high value sustainable product, yet here we are just ‘shitting’ all over that opportunity.”
