Straight Talk

Feds take over regulation of fish farming in B.C.

by Stephen Thomson on December 10th, 2010 at 2:28 PM

The federal government is taking over responsibility from the province for managing and regulating fish farms along the B.C. coast.

An agreement on aquaculture management was signed today (December 10) between the two levels of government. It comes after the B.C. Supreme Court ruled in 2009 the industry falls under federal jurisdiction.

The federal department of fisheries and oceans is set to assume licensing authority over "marine finfish, shellfish and freshwater aquaculture" on December 18, reads a DFO news release.

“The provincial government will continue to issue tenures where operations take place in either the marine or freshwater environment, licence marine plant cultivation, and manage business aspects of aquaculture such as work place health and safety within the province,” the release says.

Comments

5 Comments

Ken Lawson

Dec 10, 2010 at 3:33pm

I hope the hell the Federal government does a better job than what they have done with Salmon! How is that inquiry going and who is guilty when will charges be layed.

Argulion

Dec 10, 2010 at 10:44pm

I hope they can keep Atlantic Salmon in the Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Salmon growing in the Pacific Ocean because if nature intended for those breeds to co-exist in the same waters they would naturally be there.

Bruno15

Dec 12, 2010 at 7:28am

The current Conservative federal government could possibly be the only government in Canadian history that I would trust less than the Campbell Liberals to ensure the wild salmon get a fair pleading of their case against the fish farming industry.

Peter Dimitrov

Dec 12, 2010 at 7:02pm

Now that bc west coast salmon is again under federal jurisdiction it is hoped that First Nations, who have strong constitutional rights to require both meaningful consultation and accomodation from the Feds will play a significant role in both the creation and implementation of the Regs, and enforcement of the federal Fisheries Act. Time will tell whether the Feds will do a better job.