An empty greenhouse in Langley will be used to raise cultured tropical shrimp, which is new to B.C. but is the largest-volume farmed seafood product worldwide. The closed-containment system avoids the environmental hazards associated with ocean-based aquaculture, which is susceptible to water contamination as well as diseases and parasites.
Spot prawns, which are fished in the wild off the B.C. coast, have been raised on an experimental basis.
A second shellfish licence of the conventional type has been issued for McBride Bay in Smith Sound on the B.C. central coast. It is for a combined deepwater and beach culture site to produce Pacific oysters, Japanese scallop, Manila clams, butter clams and Nuttall’s cockle.
Shellfish aquaculture has avoided the controversy associated with salmon farms, and Agriculture and Lands Minister Pat Bell has promoted it as a growth area for remote coastal communities with few other economic opportunities. The McBride Bay licence area is within the traditional territory of the Gwa’sala-’Nakwaxda’xw First Nation.
Source: Langley Times