Critics are raising concerns over an experimental fish farm off Vancouver Island after government inspections showed vast quantities of feed and feces covering the ocean floor.
In late 2024, a semi-enclosed salmon farm operated by Cermaq in Clayoquot Sound’s Millar Channel began to release a strong odour that hung around for months.
Clayoquot Action, a local environmental group that monitors fish farms off Vancouver Island, contacted an official at Fisheries and Oceans Canada on Jan. 31, 2025, according to communications released through an Access to Information and Privacy request.
“We've never smelled this during normal feeding operations; only during die-offs,” the partially redacted email reads.
“Whatever is happening here, the fact that there has been sludge and oil all around the site for two months now clearly signals some type of failure of the system.”
DFO biologists inspected the farm in February 2025. When they arrived, the inspectors said they had trouble getting records from Cermaq staff, according to the emails.
When the biologists launched an underwater remote-controlled vehicle below the farm, they found a trench dug into the muddy bottom filled with feces and feed.
In one direction, the DFO operators flew the vehicle down the trench for five to six minutes "with no end observed."
They then turned around and sent the remote vehicle in the opposite direction, where they found a "massive area" below the farm "covered 100% with feces and fish feed."
When they finally flew the vehicle up to the semi-contained farm, they found a "significant amount of feed and feces coming out of the outflow ports.”
DFO blames incident on 'bad batch' of feed
A day later, one of the federal biologists wrote an email to Krista Sandberg, DFO's regional manager of aquaculture environmental operations, telling her his team got a lot of detail from Cermaq but not a lot of answers. He added: “we may not be getting the whole story.”
A DFO spokesperson said in an email to BIV the smell and oily residue observed around the farm was determined to come from a bad batch of fish feed that led to incomplete digestion by the fish.
“DFO investigated and did not identify non-compliance at this time, including with respect to regulatory sampling limits,” a spokesperson acknowledged several weeks later. “If non-compliance is identified, DFO will take appropriate steps to assess further possible compliance-related actions.”
Cermaq has been operating the Millar Channel facility for several years now, advancing its semi-closed technology to provide a barrier between farmed fish and the wild salmon, according to the company.
A company spokesperson said the technology has been working “exceptionally well” and is an important tool to reduce transfer of pathogens.
“Cermaq Canada believes in innovating in a responsible and practical manner,” the spokesperson wrote in an email.
New technology tested as feds move to phase out open-net salmon farms
The federal government is currently in the process of phasing out 小蓝视频's open-net salmon farming industry in what has become a heated debate over how to safeguard the future of wild salmon while providing jobs and food security for the province.
On one side, industry groups say Ottawa is threatening a viable industry important to coastal communities.
The salmon farm industry has adjusted its posture since the start of U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff threats, claiming now is not the time to stifle economic activity.
At the same time, several major salmon farming companies continue to pursue legal action in 小蓝视频's Supreme Court over past closures in the Discovery Islands.
Critics of the industry say operating salmon farms in the ocean risks exposing already vulnerable wild fish populations to multiple pathogens.
Three conservation groups published an open letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney on Thursday, calling on him to appoint a fisheries minister from British Columbia who understands several major disagreements over the future of wild salmon in the province.
The letter — signed by Watershed Watch Salmon Society, SkeenaWild Conservation Trust and Raincoast Conservation Foundation — points to data showing Alaskan fisheries are intercepting vast quantities of 小蓝视频-bound fish, something they say requires a renegotiation of the Pacific Salmon Treaty with the United States.
Another major stumbling block: how to transition 小蓝视频’s foreign-owned salmon farming industry away from open-net pens.
Incident fuels debate over future of 小蓝视频 salmon farming
In the past, DFO risk assessments have concluded the transfer of pathogens from farmed salmon to wild salmon posed a minimal threat wild populations. But those and later DFO findings have been by several independent scientists.
In 2022, Canada’s then-fisheries minister Joyce Murray said the government was initiating a process to phase out open-net pen salmon farms off 小蓝视频’s coast to avoid a into wild populations.
At the time, Murray said in an interview that she was concerned DFO had not carried out assessments on the cumulative effects of fish farms on wild salmon. Asked what a phase-out would mean, Murray said she was focused on technology that would cut off interaction between wild and farmed fish.
“Could be outside of the ocean, could be in the ocean,” she said.
The federal government has since granted companies operating fish farms in 小蓝视频 temporary licences to operate. A federal multi-agency committee is currently assessing what kind of technology could be used in a transition plan.
Stan Proboszcz, a biologist with Watershed Watch Salmon Society, said the incident at Cermaq’s Millar Channel farm raises questions around the effectiveness of experimental farming technology being considered as a solution.
Current DFO describes semi-closed fish farm technology as capable of reducing interactions between farmed and wild fish populations. But Proboszcz said the incident suggests such technology is not providing an effective barrier.
“It’s being marketed as a solution but it’s clearly failing and they don’t want people to know,” Proboszcz said.
