Thank you, Bill.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman and committee members, for the opportunity to speak today.
My name is Eric Hobson. I am the president of the SOS Marine Conservation Foundation. I hold a bachelor's degree in engineering from Carleton University. I actually grew up in Ottawa. I am a co-founder of Northridge Petroleum Marketing, which was sold to TransCanada Corporation, and MetroNet Communications, which ultimately merged with AT&T Canada. I am a founding shareholder of over 50 companies.
My success in business has allowed me to establish the SOS Foundation. For the record, I have no financial interest in the aquaculture industry, in the development of closed containment, or in the K’udas project.
SOS is a charitable foundation with a solutions- and business-oriented approach to marine conservation challenges. SOS is organized around its solutions advisory committee, a broad coalition of business leaders, entrepreneurs, engineers, financial and legal professionals, and philanthropists. We work collaboratively with scientists, first nations, salmon farmers, and environmental groups.
SOS is a strategic partner in the project, since our goals are aligned with those of the 'Namgis. We aim to protect B.C.’s wild salmon stocks, and all that depends on them, and to establish B.C. as a leader in creating a globally renowned, stable, and viable aquaculture industry.
SOS also had the opportunity to present to this committee in May 2010. At that time, we provided the SOS solutions strategy to the negative impacts caused by open net-pen salmon farms. Those solutions included better management and the re-siting of the most poorly located farms, tighter regulations and licensing conditions, and development of closed containment technology. SOS has also provided these solutions, both orally and in writing, to Justice Cohen as part of the Cohen commission process.
The K’udas closed containment project is a commercial pilot facility located on 'Namgis First Nation territory near Port McNeill on Vancouver Island.
If you turn to figure 1 in your briefing notes, you'll see a map of where the projected is located. It's on the north island.
Another figure in our briefing paper you might look at is the site map, which is figure 4. The project will demonstrate the commercial viability of producing Atlantic salmon for table food in a land-based, closed-containment recirculating aquaculture system, which you know by now is called a “RAS” system. By eliminating interactions with the marine environment, RAS provides an opportunity to address growing public demand to isolate salmon farming from the sensitive marine environment.
Concerns regarding open net cages include the discharge of waste and pollutants, escape of non-indigenous fish species, transfer of disease from farmed salmon to wild salmon, and transfer of sea lice to wild salmon from farmed salmon. RAS technology is currently used in Atlantic salmon hatcheries and for food production of other species. This project is designed to investigate the technical, biological, and economic feasibility of using RAS technology to produce Atlantic salmon for food production at commercial-scale densities. To support the development of a viable industry, higher capital costs must be offset by improved production efficiency and lower production costs.
The project will operate a single commercial-sized RAS module for three cohorts of fish production each year. Through this process, it will refine the design to provide greater production efficiency, confirm operational costs, and quantify environmental improvements. The data collected will enable the optimal design of a full-scale commercial facility. The pilot module will become part of a larger commercial farm.
If you look at the site map, you can see the location of the pilot facility on the site that's been selected. There is an opportunity to expand the farm to the north. Probably four more modules would fit into that area.
If you flip in your briefing document to figures 2 and 3, I want to talk briefly about the process we're going to use. Figure 2 is a picture of the RAS research facility that exists at the Freshwater Institute in West Virginia, which I understand the committee is going to visit early next year. That tank is quite large but the tanks in this facility will actually be 50 feet in diameter and 11 feet deep.
The way the facility works is that groundwater is drawn in from a 75-foot depth. If you look at figure 3, you'll be able to see the flow. Disease-free smolts are brought into the facility. They're put in an isolation area in the facility and kept for four months, and then they're moved into the main grow-out facility. There's also a schematic in your handout, figure 5.
Then the fish are harvested. They grow in the farm for 12 months. They're harvested and taken to one of four local processing plants in the north island. There's about a 7% mortality rate; 3.5% is natural mortality and the other 3.5% are culled fish that aren't growing quickly enough. Those morts are taken to a local compost facility called Sea Soil, which is near the farm site. The solid waste is put into a septic system and de-watered and moved once a week to the compost facility also at Sea Soil. If they're in the commercial size we're going to investigate using anaerobic digestion to produce gas and perhaps electricity on site, using that fish waste.
The dissolved solids water stream that comes out of the farm.... I have to back up a bit to say that the water is in the farm for five days. So 20% of the water each day is replenished with new groundwater. It's a recirculated system. The liquid waste, which has some dissolved solids, goes to an infiltration basin where it moves into the ground. This particular location is about one and a half kilometres from the ocean. There aren't any pathogens, apparently, that can live in the ground for that length of time. We will also be investigating whether that stream can be used for aquaponics production to grow plants and vegetables.
It's a covered bio-secure facility. It has five grow-out tanks plus a smolt quarantine and pre-harvest depuration tanks. As I said, 80% of the water is recirculated each day. Groundwater is disinfected on entry. The groundwater in that area is slightly saline, about seven parts per thousand. We heat it up to 15 degrees centigrade.
Three cohorts of Atlantic salmon smolts will be raised each year, grown for a total production of 260 metric tonnes per year at 50 kilograms per cubic metre capacity. This could increase, depending on optimum density, to 390 tonnes per year at 75 kilograms per cubic metre capacity. If you look at the cover page of your briefing notes, that's a picture of Atlantic salmon in the Freshwater Institute in West Virginia at 80 kilograms per cubic metre. So the density in this farm will be similar to that density once the fish are at full size.
The full grow-out to six kilograms will take 12 to 15 months, compared to 24 months in open net-pens. No antibiotics or pesticides will be used. Harvest size of three to six kilograms will allow for maximum use of capacity and continuous production.
Smolts will be Canadian and certified disease free, will be held in quarantine for four months, and will be on their own biofilter. Solid waste and dead fish, as I said, will go to the composting facility. Liquid waste will go into the infiltration basin.
The capital cost of the RAS and civil engineering and construction is about $7 million. Four staff will be employed 24-7 per week. The first harvest is planned to be in September 2013.
The project has some objectives. The first is to confirm the biological, technical, and potential economic viability of raising salmon to market size in a land-based recirculating aquaculture system. We're going to validate the operating costs and production parameters for the design of the commercial-size facility, confirm the growth efficiency of Atlantic salmon reared in this kind of a system, test the overall operating efficiency as well as the market premiums available for environmentally friendly RAS-raised salmon, and assess the actual environmental impacts.
The goal of the project is to make a positive environmental difference. Therefore, there will be environmental monitoring beyond what is required for the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency screening and DFO-issued aquaculture licence. We have an independent environmental monitoring plan, which will be carried out by the Pacific Salmon Foundation. We also have a pathogen management plan, a construction environmental management plan, a fish health management plan, and a groundwater monitoring program.
To further catalyze positive change, we are committed to disseminating the information through reporting on performance metrics and participating in aquaculture innovation workshops.
The project is important because it will prove the technical, biological, and economic feasibility of the RAS technology for food fish production, which of course will eliminate environmental impacts, biosecurity threats, and other negative impacts associated with open net-pen salmon farms. It will avoid the controversy and negative public opinion currently associated with open net pens; control environmental variables; and enhance feed conversion, salmon grow-out time and harvesting. It will revolutionize the salmon farming industry, facilitate the expansion of a salmon farming industry in B.C., and create a more valuable and sought-after green salmon product with improved product attributes such as flesh quality and shelf life, thereby supporting industry sustainability.
I would also like to acknowledge the great importance to the project of the early feasibility and design funding. We were fortunate to receive such funding from DFO's aquaculture innovation and market access program, B.C.’s Investment Agriculture Foundation, Aboriginal Business Canada, and Tides Canada.
I would ask the committee to recommend the development of a transparent and accountable regulatory regime for the open net-pen industry that addresses farm siting and density issues and requires the industry to bear the full costs of open net-pen production methods, including monitoring of impacts on the marine environment. This would level the playing field for new technology.
This project will serve as a catalyst for the development and growth of a new land-based salmon farming industry in B.C. It will enable the existing salmon aquaculture business and related design, supply, and manufacturing industries to expand and take advantage of a growing global market for sustainable seafood.
Bill.
