Montreal urban fish farmers say their Arctic char cuts greenhouse gases and waste
A warehouse basement in an industrial space of Montreal, close to the intersection of two highways, feels about as removed from a fish habitat because it will get.
But stroll by means of the doorways of Opercule’s self-described “urban fish farm,” and the unmistakable scent of fish fills the air.
After donning rubber boots and lab coats, guests are greeted with the fixed hum of the plant’s filtration system. Inside the dimly lit warehouse basement, 1000’s of glossy, speckled Arctic char swim in a dozen or so spherical swimming pools, their fins easily breaking the floor or sending up alarmed splashes as they scurry away from individuals who strategy the tanks.
The business is the creation of David Dupaul-Chicoine and Nicolas Paquin, who met one another after they have been learning aquaculture in school on Quebec’s Gaspé Peninsula. What started as an experiment elevating fish in Dupaul-Chicoine’s storage has became a industrial operation that they anticipate will quickly produce between 25 and 30 tonnes of Arctic char per yr.
By elevating fish on land and in an city setting, Dupaul-Chicoine and Paquin say they hope to keep away from a number of the issues related to open web fish farms, that are suspected by some conservationists of harming wild inventory by spreading illness or parasites, or by escaping and interbreeding with them.
“We’re not trying to prove anything, but we’re trying to do things the way we think they should be done,” Dupaul-Chicoine mentioned. “We’re raising fish to sell them and we’re thinking about every little step in the production. The way we deliver, the way everything is done, we try to do it in a more eco-friendly way.”
The business makes use of a recirculation system that filters ammonia and carbon dioxide from water, which is then reinjected with oxygen and pumped again to the tanks — vastly decreasing water use. Their metropolis setting cuts greenhouse fuel emissions, as deliveries to eating places will be performed on electrical bicycles. As effectively, they solely kill fish as soon as the animals are ordered, decreasing waste. They’ve even changed Styrofoam supply containers with insulated cardboard, they are saying.
Arctic char was chosen as a result of it sells for an excellent value and the animals keep wholesome in shut quarters.
The solely draw back on the environmental entrance, they are saying, is that the fish plant makes use of “a lot” of electrical energy. Their business mannequin, Dupaul-Chicoine mentioned, in all probability would not make sense if it ran on coal; fortunately for them, nevertheless, Quebec has ample low cost and comparatively clear hydropower.
The pair say their greatest problem was acquiring the required permits — a course of that took them about two years after they began their business in 2019. Because it takes 15 or 16 months for a fish to develop from an egg to market dimension, their first gross sales solely got here firstly of 2023.
An indoor filtration system like theirs additionally wants upkeep and a continuing stream of electrical energy. Among their most nerve-racking moments was a two-day energy outage throughout an ice storm earlier this yr; they fearful that their generator would go down and trigger them to lose fish.
“You have to make sure you have backups, and backups of the backups,” Dupaul-Chicoine mentioned.
Grant Vandenberg, an aquaculture specialist at Université Laval’s agriculture and meals sciences division, says land-based water-recirculation farms have some benefits over web pen farms — that are enclosed cages that float in pure water sources. Land farms get rid of considerations over environmental interactions between wild and farmed fish, and waste is simpler to gather and may even be recycled into fertilizer for crops, he mentioned.
However, land-based farms are costlier to start out and function, and require extra labour, equipment and power than do web pens, Vandenberg mentioned. “I think it would be very difficult for some to be able to compete economically,” he mentioned, noting that customers have the choice to buy imported fish produced cheaper in different international locations or provinces.
Vandenberg mentioned that regardless of the controversies, fish farming has an essential position to play in stopping overfishing of untamed shares. Improving fish-farming know-how, he added, is decreasing the business’s environmental affect.
Just as agriculture has largely changed searching with regards to meat, “we have to stop hunting fish as well, and I think the answer is to produce them,” he mentioned.
Fish farming can even enhance meals sovereignty, Vandenberg mentioned, noting that Quebec — which does not use open-water web pens — produces solely seven per cent of the trout it consumes. He mentioned Paquin and Dupaul-Chicoine’s operation in Montreal presents an attention-grabbing mannequin as a result of the plant’s proximity to its market reduces delivery prices and ensures more energizing fish.
Dupaul-Chicoine and Paquin mentioned it price about 1,000,000 {dollars} to launch their fish farm, which features a processing facility, they usually admit it would not have been potential with out provincial authorities grants. However, they mentioned they’re happy with early gross sales, noting they just lately handed the break-even level when it comes to operational profitability.
Both mentioned that, to date, they don’t have any regrets. “Before this I had a career as a mechanical engineer and I decided I wanted a change,” Paquin mentioned. “So for me, it’s fun, even though it’s hard.”
Once they’ve proved to buyers and themselves that their business mannequin will be profitable, they’re hoping to develop into an even bigger facility.
This report by The Canadian Press was first revealed Aug. 13, 2023.
