After nine years of hard, pioneering work, developing a green way to raise salmon on land, Nanaimo’s family-run Taste of BC Aquafarms has succeeded.
“There’s been a lot of difficulty getting here but the exciting news is we are the first ones in the world to profitably do this,” said Ben Atkinson, CEO of Taste of BC Aquafarms.
“Local technology, done by local people, it’s heartwarming,” said Taste of BC employee Tom Cornett.
The pilot project was started in 2012 by Nanaimo’s Steve Atkinson to develop and test technology to raise salmon and became so successful that in the summer of 2020 it was acquired by publicly traded Blue Star Foods out of Florida. That partnership will see the Nanaimo company soon increase its production 15 times over.
“This farm produces 100 tonnes per year. The next phase of production is going to produce 1,500 tonnes per year and the goal is by 2028 we’ll be producing 21,000 tonnes in B.C.,” said Atkinson.
But the key, said Atkinson, is keeping the salmon farming environmentally friendly and sustainable — especially at a time when wild stocks are depleting and open net farms are being phased out. So, large pipes and filters are repurposing water the fish are raised in, and also keeping the salmon healthy, which Atkinson said was the difficult balance that took years to perfect.
“We are reusing it so 99.7 per cent of the water comes out of the fish tanks and gets reused,” said Atkinson.
“There’s a very low water footprint, we reuse and recycle all the water,” said Cornett.
Taste of BC Aquafarm is currently raising Steelhead salmon but has hopes to raise Chinook and Coho in the future.
“Demand for salmon and quality food is only increasing so there’s almost a limitless black hole if we can make the product,” said Atkinson.
Once fully expanded, the company expects to employ 150 people in Nanaimo.
Skye Ryan
