Canada: A Leader in Sustainable Aquaculture

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Realizing the Potential of Aquaculture

Canada produces some of the best fish and seafood in the world. It does this by adhering to high standards for environmental sustainability and product quality. When consumers buy Canadian farmed seafood products, they also buy Canadian "know-how" - knowledge, expertise, and new technologies.

Canada's aquaculture sector is well-known for innovation, technical excellence and environmental leadership. Intense environmental scrutiny over the past decade has made us better. Canada is now a world leader in sustainable aquaculture production.

Aquaculture is knowledge intensive, technically challenging, and requires innovative thinking. Canadians from all walks - government decision makers, entrepreneurs, researchers and educators - have contributed to meeting the challenge.

Renewing Aquaculture in Canada

The Government of Canada is working with its provincial and territorial partners to renew the way that aquaculture is managed in Canada. Through ongoing regulatory harmonization, the development of targeted government programming to address industry sustainability challenges, investments in science and improved policy and regulatory regimes, Canada is striving to create the conditions necessary to realize the full potential of aquaculture.

Supporting Science & Innovation

Science and innovation are fundamental to Canada's competitive strength in the seafood marketplace. Canadian governments, researchers and industry are working together to harness Canadian aquaculture expertise. These partnerships are yielding valuable scientific and technological advancements and are enabling Canadian aquaculturists to meet ever-increasing challenges in production, harvesting, processing and packaging.

Through the National Aquatic Animal Health Program (NAAHP) the Government of Canada is working with provinces and industry to strengthen Canada's ability to respond to aquatic animal diseases. By investing in enhanced surveillance and certification

Canada is taking important steps to ensure the security and quality of Canadian seafood products, and is leading the way in setting rigorous international standards for aquatic animal health.

BC Salmon Farmers Association

Through the Aquaculture Collaborative Research & Development Program (ACRDP) Fisheries and Oceans Canada is working with industry and other funding partners to ensure that the Canadian aquaculture sector is environmentally sustainable and competitive. By creating opportunities for government and industry to work together, the ACRDP is facilitating technology transfer and research commercialization and helping to strengthen the aquaculture industry's capacity for scientific research and development. Key research areas include:

Fish Production

• improved diets for fish
• access to brood stock and superior strain development
• husbandry methods to ensure the production of high quality products
• improved grow-out systems
• new species development

Fish Health

• disease resistance
• disease detection, diagnostics and treatment
• life cycle studies on causative agents such as pests, pathogens and parasites

Industry Environmental Performance

• treatment of land-based fish farm discharge
• interaction of aquaculture and the environment
• carrying capacity and ecosystem modelling
• real time biological and environmental monitoring

Canada's university community is key to supporting aquaculture science and innovation. AquaNet is Canada's Network of Centres of Excellence in aquaculture research and education. Established in 1999 as a collaborative research network involving universities, industry, government and non-government organisations, AquaNet's mission is to foster a sustainable aquaculture sector in Canada through high quality research and education. AquaNet has supported nearly seventy collaborative, multidisciplinary research projects in a variety of areas, including:

• healthy communities
• improving commercial efficiency and sustainability
• new species / product diversification
• nutrition
• humanities and social aspects
• integrated and sustainable approaches
• wild and farmed interactions
• risk assessment and mitigation

Safeguarding Our Environment

The Government of Canada is committed to ensuring that the Canadian aquaculture sector develops in an environmentally sustainable manner and is working with provinces and territories to create the policy and regulatory conditions necessary to achieve this objective. All aquaculture operations are subject to rigorous environmental review under a number of federal and provincial acts and regulations, ensuring that all aquaculture operations meet high standards of environmental sustainability.

Environmental Monitoring of aquaculture sites, a provincial / territorial responsibility, is conducted using state-of-the-art computer modelling, water quality sensors, satellite imaging and

Geographical Information System technology coupled with benthic sampling and video recording. Canadian environmental consulting firms are leaders in aquaculture site monitoring and environmental impact mitigation.

Industry is also taking responsibility through the development of Codes of Practice for both finfish and shellfish operations. These Codes are being developed by industry participants, through their associations, to meet or exceed international environment, health and safety standards and are instilling a high level of producer diligence with respect to the environmental performance of their operations.

Ensuring Healthy Products

Canada recognises that food is an important determinant of health and that consumers desire healthier options and product assurance systems. Together, Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency are working to ensure the safety of Canadian aquaculture products through ongoing monitoring and risk assessment activities.

The Canadian aquaculture industry is proud to be a world leader in the environmentally sustainable production of high quality aquaculture products and, as an emblem of this pride, has developed the Brand Canada logo - a visual image symbolizing that Canadian aquaculture products are safe, high quality and produced in an environmentally responsible manner.

Together government and industry are working to build confidence in the safety of Canadian farmed fish and seafood at home and around the world.

New Brunswick Images

Skills & Training to Support Innovation

Educating and training people to support the development of the aquaculture sector is a major focus for several Canadian colleges and universities. In fact, Canadian institutions are recognized leaders in transferring knowledge and skills from laboratory and classroom to production site. E-learning and distance education utilizing the latest information and communications technologies are being used to train the next generation of aquatic farmers. The Marine Institute at Memorial University of Newfoundland, the Atlantic Veterinary College at the University of Prince Edward Island, the Nova Scotia Agricultural College, the New Brunswick Community College - St. Andrews, the Centre for Aquaculture and Environmental Research at the University of British Columbia, the University of Guelph and Malaspina University-College are examples of internationally recognized leaders in aquaculture education and training.

Blue Revolution Consulting Group Inc.

Canada: A Nation of Opportunity

Canadian consumers demand that aquaculture products be safe, wholesome and produced in an environmentally sustainable manner. Together, Canadian governments, researchers and industry are working to ensure that Canadian aquaculture products meet these high expectations today and in the years to come.

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