Animal Advocates Watchdog

See what we mean? Geoduck farms

Geoduck farms considered
As many as 10 operations could be started along the coast

Nicholas Read, Vancouver Sun
Published: Friday, December 22, 2006

B.C. I The provincial government is considering applications for up to 10 geoduck farms along the B.C. coast. If approved, they would be the first commercial geoduck farms in the province.

But critics say the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands should delay making any decision on the applications until scientists can determine conclusively what impact the farms would have on the surrounding environment and on wild geoduck populations.

They say given the controversy around salmon farming, it would be irresponsible of the government to rush into approving a new kind of aquaculture without first establishing the consequences of those farms on the natural world.

The applications call for farms to be established near Savary Island, Hernando Island, Cortes Island, Denman Island, Quadra Island, Roberts Creek on the Sunshine Coast, Sechelt and Jervis Inlet.

In total they would cover 380 hectares of deep-water seabed in areas where wild geoduck used to be plentiful but have now disappeared due to over-harvesting.

"There are huge gaps and questions around this kind of aquaculture," said NDP small business and revenue critic Gregor Robertson, who also is a member of the province's committee on sustainable aquaculture. "There's no peer-reviewed science, so it would be premature for the government to start approving applications without any basis in good science."

But Al Castledine, director for aquaculture for the ministry, says government biologists have been studying the matter since 1996 thanks to a pilot project developed near Marina Island, just south of Cortes Island, and that if licences are awarded, they will be awarded carefully.

"For the last three to five years, we've been working cooperatively with the [Department of Fisheries and Oceans] to see how we can expand this opportunity in a cautious manner," Castledine said.

In deep-water geoduck farms, hatchery-born juveniles are placed at least 10 metres down on the ocean floor and then covered with a plastic mesh for two years to protect them from predators. The mesh is then removed, and the geoduck are allowed to grow another five to eight years before being harvested.

Michelle James, executive director of the Underwater Harvesters Association (UHA), says her group expects to receive permission to farm geoducks near Hernando Island next spring.

However, while she insists that deep-water geoduck farming has "minimal impacts" on wild populations, she admits that no conclusive scientific research has been done on the subject.

"Any research around geoducks is a lengthy process," she said.

Messages In This Thread

Paul Watson justifies animal captivity
Mixed message is illogical
Watson's logic ends in only one bleak place: The confinement and control of all ocean species, for food, or for fun
See what we mean? Geoduck farms
Annelise Sorg has not got it quite right.
What a letdown...
It's unbelievable what people will believe is true
Re: It's unbelievable what people will believe is true
Watson has been used by the Vancouver Aquarium as their token "environmentalist" for the last decade
I would say that Paul has been mis-quoted
If it is untrue, I see it as putting the lie to the Vancouver Aquarium itself

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