A Synopsis of Environmental Issues Associated with Salmon Aquaculture in Canada

Abstract

World-wide, aquaculture currently produces 43% of the world’s food for human consumption. In 2004, 106 million tonnes of food were consumed, of which 45.5 million tonnes and a value of $63 billion (US) was attributed to aquaculture (FAO 2006). Canada is the world’s 6th largest exporter of aquaculture products with a gross output of $785 million (CDN) in 2005 (Statistics Canada 2006). The contribution from British Columbia’s salmon aquaculture industry was 53,800 tonnes of Atlantic salmon, and 16,800 tonnes of Pacific salmon (British Columbia Ministry of Environment (BCMOE) and British Columbia Ministry of Agriculture and Lands (BCMAL, 2005).