Impacts & Issues: Coastal Economy

In Fishy Business, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives documented the true economics of salmon farming in BC. In the 1990s, BC's salmon farming industry tripled production while adding no new jobs. Fish farms here are following worldwide trends, becoming increasingly mechanized and thus needing fewer workers. Meanwhile, the economic contribution of BC's wild fisheries - through the commercial and sports fishery and the processing of wild fish - dwarfs that of salmon farming and the processing of farmed salmon.

The wild commercial, sport and First Nations fishing industry supports over 16,000 jobs and contributes at least $1 billion to British Columbia's economy. In 2006 IBM Business Consulting undertook a study to determine the economic value of wild salmon in the Skeena Watershed. What the study found was that wild salmon contribute some $120 million in direct annual revenue. Now the Skeena system is threatened by new fish farms. Negative impacts from salmon farming, including sea lice infestations on juvenile wild salmon, threaten the future of these fisheries that have supported the coastal economy for generations. As a result of farmed salmon flooding the market, the price of wild salmon has dropped dramatically. Fishermen earn less and local economies suffer.

Recreational fishing is a major part of coastal tourism, and anglers travel here from around the world hoping to land the prized steelhead, sockeye, coho or Chinook salmon. More and more, though, fishermen report catching Atlantic salmon that have escaped their netcages. In recent years, wild Pacific salmon stocks have seriously declined. The loss of wild salmon could seriously affect this vital part of BC's coastal tourism.

Marine Tourism is the fastest growing sector of BC's multi-billion dollar tourist industry. It brings jobs and revenue to BC's coastal communities.

People from around the world travel to spectacular areas like Clayoquot Sound, the Broughton Archipelago, Bute Inlet and the Discovery Islands for their pristine wilderness - not to see sprawling netcage salmon farms taking over coastal coves and bays. These industrial sites are noisy, visually intrusive, and polluting.

  

Learn more:

• Economic Impact Study (Special Committee on Sustainable Aquaculture, May 2007)
• Fishy Business: The Economics of Salmon Farming in BC (2003)
• Intensive Salmon Farming: A False Economy (Friends of the Earth Scotland, 1999)
• Slow Justice, No Justice: Environmental Racism in Fish Farm Siting (1997)