What regulations do fish farmers follow?

What regulations do fish farmers follow? 🕵️ We use a public resource 💧🌊 so we’re under the careful eye of government regulators.

Farmers like us support these rules because we want all fish farms operating at the highest sustainable level.. because we know that one bad fish farm can paint all of us with a bad brush, and lead people to think all fish farms are bad! 👎

Here are some of the government regulations we support:

Water quality – An accredited laboratory tests outgoing water on a monthly basis and reports it to Ontario Ministry of Environment. We need to keep phosphorous below 0.1mg/L (in line with the province’s water quality objectives) and total suspended solids below 10 mg/L.

Species & Containment – We get an Aquaculture Licence from the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry every 5 years. They make sure we’re culturing approved fish species and have adequate measures in place so they don’t escape.

Water use – We get permits to borrow water from natural springs or the river from the Ontario Ministry of Environment. We’re only allowed to use so much, and have to report on our usage every year. Those permits renew every 5 or 10 years.

Antibiotic usage – We report any use of antimicrobial or chemicals to Fisheries and Oceans Canada, which is posted in a public database each year.

First Nations partnerships – At our farm on Manitoulin, we also operate with a licence from our friends at Sheshegwaning First Nation. This requires even more rigorous water quality testing and annual reporting to the band.

But we like to be leaders when it comes to fish farming sustainability, so we take it all one step further with our voluntary eco-certification Best Aquaculture Practices:

💧 We also test water for dissolved phosphorous, ammonia-nitrogren, biochemical oxygen demand, pH, chloride, and dissolved oxygen.

🐞 We do macroinvertebrate studies in the rivers above and below each farm to ensure there are no negative impacts

🐇 We prove that we’re raising fish to the highest standard of animal welfare, including tank densities, gentle handling, water quality, and humane harvesting

👪 We show that we’re members of the community, operating with support from our neighbours downstream and donating or participating in community events

😋 We only use fish feed from sustainable, eco-certified, and ideally recycled sources.

📈 We prove that every fish is fully traceable, meaning we know the entire life history of the fish you’re buying, and you can have confidence the fish you’re buying isn’t fraudulently from somewhere else

🤯 Plus some other 200 regulations we’re audited on every year to show we’re raising fish with the planet, their welfare, our staff and community in mind!