Closed Containment

Closed containment technologies offer a major step forward in fish farming practices. Closed tanks have been demonstrated as technically feasible ways to grow salmon and are currently being tested to demonstrate commercial viability. The concept is simple: keep farmed fish away from wild salmon.

Floating systems with solid walls, high levels of solid waste collection and a regular exchange of the tank water with new sea water show the most promise for economic viability and the protection of wild salmon.
Closed containment eliminates:
  • solid waste from the farms getting into the ocean
  • contamination of the area under the tanks
  • escapes
  • marine mammals drowning in predator nets
Initial trials suggest these systems will likely eliminate:
  • disease and parasite (like sea lice) transfer between wild and farmed fish
  • farm losses due to environmental factors (like algae blooms)
Closed tanks greatly reduce:
Saltwater salmon have been grown successfully in trial projects in B.C.and Norway, and produced commercially in Iceland. These projects have used a variety of closed tank technologies and more technologies are being developed. In France, a land-based recirculation system has been approved, received start-up funding and plans to start construction shortly.

Closed containment technology on the way in B.C.

Agrimarine's Middle Bay Project will farm local Chinook salmon and collect the solid waste for composting.
In B.C., commercial scale trials are in the implementation stage and will demonstrate:
  • Economic viability
  • Cost-benefit comparisons to open net-cages
  • Environmental performance
A Future Sea flexible bag system installed at a Marine Harvest Canada salmon farm off Saltspring Island proved that growth rates and feed conversion rates are similar to open net operations. A land-based tank farm south of Nanaimo run by Agrimarine Industries was able to market salmon locally at a premium price with an “EcoSalmon” label.

Agrimarine Industries and Yellow Island Aquaculture are now working towards ocean-based closed containment technologies that would use large floating tanks with saltwater circulated through high-efficiency pump systems. It is expected that ocean-based tanks will cut down significantly on the cost and energy requirements of pumping water from sea level to land-based tank farms.

In 2007, Agrimarine Industries partnered with the Middle Bay Sustainable Aquaculture Institute to build and operate a floating, ocean-based closed containment salmon farm north of Campbell River. Previous to this project, only small-scale projects produced closed system farmed salmon in BC.

2008 Timeline
Middle Bay's juvenile salmon went in a closed flexible bag system in late 2007, and large tank construction commenced in January 2008. The tanks are expected to go in the water in April and harvest is planned to supply the market for the Christmas 2008 season.