MOWI: Closing down a processing plant and removing another fish farm

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - MOWI Canada West is closing down its processing plant in Surrey and another fish farm has left the Broughton Archipelago.

On December 17th MOWI Canada West announced it is closing its fish processing plant in Surrey because of a 30% loss in production volume as a result of the closure of fish farms.

Rupinder Dadwan, MOWI’s Human Resources Manager, said, “This is what happens when politics overrides science-based evidence. At the beginning of the pandemic we were deemed an essential service providing our country affordable and healthy food, and now we’re forced to close our doors. Our Federal Government doesn’t have to do this – it can choose fairness and engagement over divisiveness and exclusion.”

One of the fish farms that MOWI is closing down is Wicklow Point in the Broughton Archipelago.

Cortes Currents first learned of this through a Facebook video by a Broughton resident using the initials DLW. He was on the shore and filmed a tugboat towing some flat objects, possibly the fish farms pens.

“Fish farm leaving the Broughtons, that’s just beautiful. That’s awesome, the best thing to happen all day,” said DLW. “You should try [putting fish farms] out in the open ocean, where they are going to have a less of an impact or better yet put them on land.”

The BC Salmon Farmers Association have not responded to a request for an interview, or commented on DLW’s suggestion that fish farms move out to sea.

Independent biologist Alexandra Morton, who has been counting sea lice in the vicinity of the Wicklow Point fish farm since 2001, was available to comment.

“I can see that [the Wicklow Point fish Farm] has left, which is incredible. It means that most of the migration route for the juvenile salmon in the Broughtons are now clear of salmon farms. Not all of them: the southern part is still loaded, but the Otter, Viner and Kakweken Rivers will benefit directly from the removal of that farm,” she said. “I have to say though, that the companies in the Broughton have done everything they can to lower their lice more or less successfully. They’re probably trying harder in the Broughton than anywhere else in the world to lower their lice because of the Broughton Aquaculture Transition Initiative, which was signed in 2018. The way it works is that many of the farms had a scheduled termination date, but the last seven farms, some from each company, remain in limbo based on the decision of the three First Nations Leaders (‘Namgis, Mamtagila, and Kwiḵwa̱sut̓inux̱w).

Morton also said she did not think DLW’s idea of moving fish farms out to sea is feasible. She believes they would be placed where the currents are and there are already wild salmon there.

“Get out of the water. Put them in a tank and let’s just get it over with,” she said.