Fish farm firm gets environmental OK Grieg Seafood
Nanaimo Daily News, Robert Barron, March 23, 2013
A peer review study of the aquaculture practices of Grieg Seafood has concluded that the company which operates 21 fish farms in B.C. is operating responsibly and continues to make measurable progress towards reducing its environmental impacts.
The review by the Seafood for the Future organization, a non-profit seafood advisory program with a mandate to encourage responsible seafood choices, was conducted to investigate and respond to concerns about the company's practices after some recent incidents involving its fish farms.
A decision in January by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to drop charges against Grieg Seafood after the drowning deaths of 65 sea lions in late 2009 and early 2010 raised eyebrows in the environmental community.
The company entered not guilty pleas to the charges but before the matter went to trial, DFO and Grieg Seafood agreed to go through a restorative-justice process that resulted in all charges being dropped and the company agreeing to donate $90,000 to the Nootka Sound Watershed Society for salmon stream restoration.
The company also gave $5,000 to the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup campaign and $5,000 to fund a workshop on sea-lion and seal management as part of the agreement.
"We are delighted with this positive endorsement of our responsible farming practices from an unbiased and credible seafood advisory program," said Stewart Hawthorn, managing director of Grieg Seafood.
"We are very proud of our farming practices and have always been absolutely committed to demonstrating that farming fish in their natural ocean environment is part of the solution to some of the world's environmental challenges."
The study also concluded that Grieg Seafood's commitment to sustainable performance is further validated with the company's certification by the Global Aquaculture Alliance's best aquaculture practices program.
