A shellfish aquaculture company headquartered in Prince Rupert hopes to have 15 million farmed scallops in the ocean this year.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 one, five million,鈥� Provan Crump confirmed over the noise of pumps and running water at the hatchery on Wednesday, Feb. 27.
Crump is the hatchery manager of the First Nations-owned Coastal Shellfish company. Originally from Australia, he worked in commercial oyster hatcheries in Hawaii before coming to Coastal.
| Coastal hatchery manager Provan Crump shines a light on shellfish eggs as small as grains of sand in one of their 25,000-litre tanks. (Karissa Gall/The Northern View) |
鈥淩ight now there are about 4.5 to 5 million scallops in the water grown over the last five or so years,鈥� he said. But they are spawning more.
They have nine, 25,000-litre tanks that hold thousands and thousands of eggs as small as grains of sand.
The eggs grow with as little bacteria as possible (Crump drops the tanks through tight screens every few days to keep water quality high) and are fed house-grown algae for 21 days until they are ready to metamorphosize into sedentary animals.
| Adult-size Great Bear scallops at the Coastal Shellfish hatchery. (Karissa Gall/The Northern View) |
When they鈥檙e strong enough to attach onto a kelp-like material, they enter into the nursery, grow, are graded and either go out to an ocean farm site where they filter feed in 12-layer, circular longline nets, or they鈥檙e kept protected in saltwater ponds for further rearing.
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With their pond progeny multiplying, it鈥檚 good timing that Coastal received its shellfish processing licence this week. Although, CEO Michael Uehara said it could have come in a bit sooner.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a labyrinth of regulatory stew that鈥檚 really difficult to get through,鈥� Uehara told the Northern View. 鈥淚 think this is the first licensed shellfish plant in 13 years or something.鈥�
He said they started looking at the licence about five years ago, but the initiative died due to internal focus on farm stocks and a lack of external supports for the regulatory process.
| Coastal hatchery manager Provan Crump (left) and CEO Michael Uehara peer into their saltwater ponds 鈥� their favourite place to view their progeny. (Karissa Gall/The Northern View) |
鈥淰ery few people in Canada know how to do a processing licence for shellfish, so if you call [the Canadian Food Inspection Agency] 鈥� they鈥檒l tell you to get a consultant,鈥� Uehara said.
鈥淭here are a couple [consultants] in Canada that are fairly overtaxed, so in the end you have to devote almost a full-time person to study this on quite a high level to get it done.
鈥淚 would rather it be the last day of taxes at 4 鈥榦 clock in the afternoon and I had forgotten to file last year鈥檚 taxes than go through this with a year-and-a-half,鈥� he said.
However, Uehara added it鈥檚 important to remember what the process is for: ensuring the health of Canadians and compliance with international regulations.
鈥淚s it a daunting task? It certainly is,鈥� he said. 鈥淪hould it be less daunting? I don鈥檛 know.
鈥淪ometimes these things do exist to ensure the well-being of people.鈥�
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After Coastal acquired its processing license, Fukasaku of Prince Rupert was the first client to buy live adult scallops from them.
鈥淔or us to be their first official local buyer, it means a lot to us and I鈥檓 so honoured and humbled,鈥� said chef Dai Fukasaku. 鈥淚 just got my first delivery [Tuesday] and the great thing about it is it was harvested [Monday], so it鈥檚 probably the freshest scallops ever.鈥�
Going forward all of the Great Bear brand scallops will either be sold live in B.C. or fresh shucked on the west coast of North America, according to Uehara.
| After they're grown and graded, Coastal's Great Bear brand scallops go out to an ocean farm site where they filter feed in 12-layer, circular long line nets. (Karissa Gall/The Northern View) |
He said they鈥檙e still fleshing out their distribution method for Prince Rupert, but they will open sales to local markets in the next month or so.
The new licence and more markets also mean more jobs.
Coastal currently has about 40 employees, 75 per cent of whom are First Nations.
Now that they鈥檙e doing their own processing, Uehara said they鈥檙e going to create more jobs 鈥渢hat involve a lot more technological competence.鈥�
| Coastal's broodstock system adds to the sustainability of the operation. Hatchery manager Provan Crump says they need to cool the water where their broodstock live, and with this machine, the heat produced by the cooling is captured and used to warm water where larval rearing takes place. (Karissa Gall/The Northern View) |
鈥淭here are not a lot of fisheries that are expanding and this one is,鈥� he said. 鈥淎long with that expansion I think is also the creation of jobs that are jobs of the future in this industry and they will be jobs that require a pretty high component of technical abilities.鈥�
Uehara said they expect to be able to offer competitive wages out of the profitability of their product.
鈥淪callops are one of the highest-valued seafoods you can have,鈥� he said, adding that their farm gate price will be somewhere between $1.70 and $1.90 per scallop.
| Currently Coastal's most productive ocean site, an experimental Metlakatla site from about 15 years ago, is a two-and-a-half-hour boat ride away. 鈥淚t ends up being about $350,000 a year just to access that site," says CEO Michael Uehara. Currently Coastal is angling to acquire a new site just 2 km from the hatchery. (Karissa Gall/The Northern View) |
Ultimately, the proximity of future sites and the arc of the industry will factor into just how many jobs Coastal creates.
鈥淎s things stand right now we鈥檙e comfortable being the vertically-integrated organization that grows this industry,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut in 10 years this may evolve into a hatchery producing seed for growers, it could evolve into a processing facility for people who are farming their product and bringing it in.
鈥淎s we are a First Nations-owned industry, our shareholders are anxious to build this company, but they have a long-term view of growing an industry,鈥� he added.
鈥淭he thing about scallop aquaculture or shellfish aquaculture is it鈥檚 environmentally restorative, and I think this is about restoring an economy of inclusion for First Nations on the North Coast, and also about restoring the oceans in which it happens.鈥�
karissa.gall@blackpress.ca
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