Chief Tom Nelson, Quatsino First Nation, attended Aqua Vision 2008 in Stavanger, Norway in late October as part of a 5-day MHC/Greig Seafood session at AquaVision 2008 and a series of tours through Norway's aquaculture infrastructure. The tours included a halibut farm, cod hatchery, salmon research centre, and fisheries and aquaculture school.
The Chief of the Quatsino First Nation at the top of Vancouver Island says the future in aquaculture is in being "partnered up," with Marine Harvest Canada. "I have no problem with fish farming in the way we see it happening today," said Chief Nelson. The traditional watershed of the Quatsino people is an amazing sound on the north east side at the top of Vancouver Island. Quatsino Sound runs hundreds of kilometres through the island land-mass.
"We have oysters on floats," said the Quatsino chief about shell fish aquaculture, "and we are looking at starting into mussels. I am going to have to learn as we go and we are consulting with a mussel grower on Quadra Island. They have seeds for us. A group of us is going down in the first week of January. We are going to grow mussels on floats."
The oysters grow in bags hanging from the floats whereas mussels are grown on ropes that hang from floats. Commercial grade farmed mussels grow bigger (depending on the amount of food available) than mussels seeded in the ocean floor. Chief Nelson said the Quatsino will seed the B.C. golden mussel supplied by Ken Knoll who grows them at the north end of Quadra Island.
Quadra Island has numerous aquaculture activities in shellfish and farmed fish, and Knolls' golden mussels are commercially popular served in restaurants. The Quatsino "are going to start with anywhere from 20 to 40 floats. We are going to start out small. We have four floats with oysters growing. "I and my council want to get involved in a lot of things before the treaty is settled," said Chief Nelson.
The chief is familiar with Quatsino Sound in a profoundly generational way. He received teaching from people who had inherited stewardship of a magnificent heritage. "I grew up with my grandparents and learned many things about the old ways, like how to spear fish and harvest abalone. We once enjoyed a beautiful diet. Our waters have lots of clams, mussels, and crabs. We still have salmon in abundance."
A good example is the new levels of communication in aquaculture invovles Marine Harvest Canada's Ian Roberts, a communications manager who spends much of his time in close liaison with First Nations leaders. Roberts learned his ability to communicate from 10 years living and working in Klemtu, B.C., home of the Kitasoo/XaiXais First Nation. Efforts like Ian's are leading to jobs and harmony in economic development of aquaculture on Canada's west cost.
Fred Glendale is one of the people MHC works with to monitor resource development in Knight Inlet, home of the Da'naxda'xw Awaetlatla Nation. Glendale bears responsibility for resource management and it is a big responsibility because Knight Inlet is the longest inlet on the B.C. mainland coast. Glendale admits to a major challenge before the Da'naxda'xw Awaetlatla Nation to live entirely within an area so vast and filled with remote corners.
There is a single fishing lodge in Knight Inlet and a few nearby net-pens sites of the Marine Harvest Canada salmon farms. The inlet is accessible by boat and air. "In our village up the inlet called New Vancouver," said Glendale, "we have our band administration there. It's a beautiful thing, our land. There is a lot of opportunity for economic development and I have a vision to move in there."
Glendale thinks in the longterm, "I have no time for people who don't want to cut a tree or grow a fish or shellfish. In all the economic development opportunities that I have been evaluating I value the relationship with Ian Roberts at Marine Harvest Canada above all. There is a lot of controversy between salmon farms and various interests. As the stewards of the territory if we're not communicating we're not looking at the situation properly," or responsibly said Glendale.
"Our plans are not only for today and some are not for the near future. Things are just beginning to develop. We have got village sites that are development oriented but it takes a special breed of person to live in the distant locations of our territory. I love being out there myself but because of responsibilities I am most times in the urban centres."
Knight Inlet contains all the traditional foods including the highly prized oolichan and the five salmon species. The nation is affiliated with Bands that have jurisdiction spanning all the way to Cape Scott on Vancouver Island, from shore to height of land on the island. The Da'naxda'xw Awaetlatla people have a treaty office in Alert Bay, B.C. where a large number live in Cormorant Island Indian Reserve properties.
People worked in the commercial fishing industry that thrived in the area but the fishing has all but disappeared. Glendale noted, "They tried growing oysters in the 1960's in Knight Inlet but it didn't work out. Science might have been able to overcome the issues and probably could today. We are looking at growing sea urchins and blue mussels. Species native to the area might be better. We know we should be cultivating and farming the sea of our waters."
Glendale once made a living in the commercial fishing industry. "I never owned a boat but I've done a lot of different types of fishing, trolling gillnetting, cod fishing, halibut. They've been cutting back the halibut quota for the past couple years. Da'naxda'xw Awaetlatla hold a license in that industry." The tribe takes some food fish but in terms of economy, "We will go the industrial fisheries route."
