Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - It has been five days since the Watershed Watch Salmon Society issued a press release stating Agrimarine’s semi-closed containment fish farm on Lois Lake, east of Powell River, may have been operating illegally since at least July 21, 2021.
A provincial bulletpoints template of that date, from BC’s Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, states, “DFO has determined that the new infrastructure is not located within the associated FLNR Crown land tenure and therefore (is) in non-compliance.”
Stan Proboszcz, Senior Scientist with the Watershed Watch, explained
“There are a lot of problems with the salmon farm. One of the key points is that a fish farm needs two licenses, essentially a federal one and a provincial one. The provincial one is called an aquaculture tenure, and that allows them to attach their farm to the bottom of the ocean or the lake. The federal government gives them a licence of operation to do aquaculture at the site.”
There are actually two fish farms at Lois Lake. An abandoned open net pen farm is in Agrimarine’s tenure and a newer facility appears to be on the other side of the lake. The Watershed Watch press kit contains a screenshot, from the provincial government’s interactive iMapBC website, showing the locations of these two facilities.
“They set up a semi-closed containment fish farm, in addition to the other one, and it's outside the tenure. It's outside where they're allowed to attach to the bottom. I believe they don't have a valid provincial license,” said Proboszcz.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) emailed Cortes Currents they are aware of compliance concerns:
“The facility is currently being investigated by fishery officers from DFO’s Conservation and Protection Aquaculture Unit. As this is an ongoing investigation, it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time.”
