BC salmon farmers have been very patient with Agrimarine Holdings Ltd., but that patience is wearing thin.
For those that don't know, Agrimarine is a salmon farming company based in British Columbia. A company that touts itself as being on the leading edge of salmon growing technology - finding new ways of sustainably growing fish. We don't think anyone inside or outside the business of aquaculture would argue that this isn't a great goal. After all, growing salmon sustainably is what all BC salmon farming companies do, and all strive to continually improve their sustainability.
But Agrimarine has driven for this goal the wrong way. Playing on the public's fears of salmon aquaculture generated by a few anti-salmon farming zealots and a few more funding driven environmental groups (no disrespect to the 99.999% that may have concerns but also listen to fact), Agrimarine has touted themselves as being better than everyone else - while not yet producing a fish to market. It has promoted itself on the backs of the alleged "ills" of all other salmon farmers. According to Agrimarine, fish raised in nets is inherently bad and therefore anything different is better.
This marketing plan is not new to Agrimarine. Back in the early 2000's, they ran a salmon farming operations located on solid ground successfully into the ground. Even after receiving special financial favours and a guaranteed seller that branded the fish "Eco-salmon", they still sank after only a few years.
So the next plan was to build a floating, solid-walled tank in the ocean.
To attract shareholders that know zilch about aquaculture, they sold their "solid-wall containment system" as maximizing fish health (not likely as Agrimarine fish are grown at densities 5 times higher than most other farms) eliminating fish escapes (see below) and fish waste deposits in the ocean (only a small percentage of organic fish waste is captured). Oh, and they promised to do it cost efficiently of course, but "Year over year, AgriMarine Holdings Inc. has seen their bottom line shrink from a loss of C$3.6M to an even larger loss of C$5.5M despite an increase in revenues from C$20.0K to C$555.0K."
They also strongly suggest that current systems that raise salmon in nets in the ocean in BC receive a failing grade for a multitude of sins. That's the part where salmon farmers have lost patience. That just isn't fact, and should you have questions about BC salmon farms we suggest you peruse our site to understand what is myth and what is fact.
This week, the Agrimarine farm near Campbell River, BC, suffered a major setback. A storm damaged the system releasing fish into the ocean.
So much for eliminating fish escapes.
The system may be structurally challenged now, and the fish may have to be harvested at about half their desired market weight.
Other salmon farming operators on the coast do not wish ill of Agrimarine. We are all salmon growers. If the technology, or a part of it proves to be an improvement over current technology, then it will most certainly be integrated into salmon farming businesses. But promoting your business and attracting naive shareholders with bogus claims of performance, coupled with exaggerating your competitors risks will catch up to you in due time.
It seems that time may have arrived.
