Lack of policy stalls aquaculture growth.

When Mike Meeker began fish farming rainbow trout on Manitoulin Island in 1984, his plans were simple: keep a low profile and concentrate on growing the business.

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But after 20-some years, Meeker feels like he's engaged in a constant battle for survival.

Muskrats destroy his nets. Cormorants dive in and spear his 50-gram fingerlings.

The bottom-dwelling crayfish, the so-called 'canaries in the coal mine' of aquaculture (an indicator of good water quality), have been carpeted over by billions of zebra mussels.

Meeker says there's a few man-made predators circling too.

His home sits on a tree-lined ridge overlooking his floating 18-cage operation on the east shore of Lake Wolsey, a sheltered and secluded bay off Lake Huron's North Channel.

There he raises about 350 tonnes annually of rainbow trout. Most of the dark-backed, silver-bellies darting around in his pens end up on Ontario grocery store shelves or diners' plates in New York and Chicago.

The Evansville native wasn't aware his aquaculture business was considered 'corporate' or 'big business' until a few years ago when environmental groups began branding cage operations like his as polluters and managers of underwater fish factories.

"I don't know when it went from being a few guys raising fish, to an industry," says Meeker.

Campaigns by environmental groups like the Suzuki Foundation listing the abuses of aquaculture have washed up on him and other cage operators clustered in the bays of Manitoulin and Georgian Bay.

Cage operators soon realized they had to be as well organized as the people who opposed them.

In 2000, operators and fish processors banded together to form the Northern Ontario Aquaculture Association (NOAA).

With more than 30 members, Meeker is its president.

They're determined to win the battle of public opinion and prove critics wrong.

The association has launched a marketing campaign to educate and promote the healthy benefits of Ontario farm-raised trout as a source of Omega-3 fatty acids.

They're also building an economic case that cage aquaculture is a $51 million business, employs 229 full-time workers and provides work for fish feed suppliers, fabricators who build offshore cages, contractors and fish processors.

This past spring, for the first time in 20 years, the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR)--the lead agency for aquaculture in Ontario--is taking steps towards creating a regulatory framework.

A provincially-led aquaculture task group has produced a 252-page discussion paper as the first draft toward developing cage policy.

It's hoped the document will eventually establish clear guidelines and licencing requirements in selecting proper cage sites, establishing water quality standards and protecting wild fish habitat.

The public commenting period ends July 11.

Meeker, whose group made an industry submission, admits to being slightly jaded by the whole process.

"There's optimism, but just as much fear. Depending on how this (process) goes, it may mean more problems for us."

Fish farms on Manitoulin and nearby Mac-Gregor Bay have been a flashpoint for friction between operators and lakeside residents, mostly notably from the powerful cottagers' group, the Georgian Bay Association.

The Georgian Bay Association (GBA) wants all "open cage" aquaculture eliminated and those operations moved ashore to "bio-secure systems" where sewage can be treated.

In a discussion paper, the group says three aquaculture operations on Georgian Bay discharge almost "six times" more phosphorous than three municipal sewage plants.

GBA president Mary Muter, whose aquaculture committee was preparing a submission for the EBR, declined to comment until after the July 11 public comment period.

NOAA coordinator Karen Tracey says aquaculture needs "clear and concise" steps to ensure the same rules are followed down to the MNR district offices.

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"We are under a very confusing and muddled framework," says Tracey, involving 22 acts and pieces of legislation. The MNR issues aquaculture licences under the Fish and Wildlife Act. Other provincial and federal consulting agencies have their say as well, including the Ministry of Environment (MOE) which monitors water quality.

As a licensing condition, fish farms are required not to exceed 10 micrograms per litre of total phosphorous.

Lisa Miller-Dodd, the Ministry of Natural Resources' Aquaculture Policy and Planning Coordinator, says existing fish farmers have a good environmental track record. "The operators do meet the conditions of their licence with respect to water quality," she says. "The evidence shows there aren't issues."

The neglect in creating policy has been blamed by those within aquaculture for stifling its growth.

There hasn't been a new aquaculture site in Ontario for years, says Miller-Dodd. A big challenge has been finding suitable sites that meet MOE water quality standards.

While fish farmers welcome regulation, they don't expect to be held to a higher standard than other industries.

Tracey says none of her members have been shut down in more than 20 years because of water quality problems.

The bad operators have been "played up" by various groups like GBA "who have very little science to back their claims."

She argues that most areas of Georgian Bay with severe water quality problems are in places with high cottage concentration.

Because fish farms require premium water quality conditions, "the farmers aren't going to do anything that's going to impede being a sustainable industry."

Tracey says it's important that the aquaculture industry demonstrate best practices and they're seeking some kind of ISO-type certification for the future.

Fish farmers like Meeker says most provincial policymakers could care less about aquaculture.

"I'm fighting against a bunch of entrenched bureaucrats that have no interest in aquaculture, don't understand it and don't want to understand it."

He says the MNR's fish culture policy is more attuned to fish stocking programs than overseeing fish farms.

Meeker would much prefer his operation be managed by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) with whom he's developed a scientific research relationship.

Together they've collaborated on a half-dozen projects run through the federal Environmental Lakes Area field lab near Kenora, where they conduct research on the effects of freshwater net-cage aquaculture.

"There's the continuity there that's really reassuring," says Meeker, "We can deal with the (same) people over years."

Meeker is pushing for DFO's HADD designation (Harmful-Alternative Disruption or Destruction) for fish habitat.

That designation would formally acknowledge his operation is altering the environment, says Meeker, and would allow for more "intelligent" monitoring of his site.

"It would just make this (business) easier, instead of endlessly arguing with these people and trying to come up with a policy," says Meeker.

Meeker is also getting into his version of the value-added business by mixing fish waste with saw dust to make fertilizer. The association is conducting field trials on farmers' fields.

Ontario's Environmental Commissioner Gord Miller has had past concerns about aquaculture.

He raised a few hackles in his 2004/2005 annual report with an aerial photo taken of a former La Cloche Channel fish farm.

Although the floating cages were removed seven years prior, the impression of the pens were evident in the lake bottom sediment.

Miller reported the environmental impact was caused by fish feces and uneaten fish food that had fallen to the lakebed.

NOAA says the MNR-recommended site was an oxygen deficient environment that didn't allow for deposited matter to break down.

The MNR acknowledges it was a poorly-chosen site. Miller says many fish farmers he's spoken with are "sincere, concerned operators who really want to make sure it's done right." But he's also spoken with First Nations people who express legitimate concerns.

There is also conflicting scientific and technical data on its short and long-term environmental impact.

There's been confusion in regulatory control and he wants to see rigorous standards with a licensing process that allows the public to participate.

"It's years overdue and when we get that, we'll be able to address some of these questions."

www.ontarioaquaculture.com

By IAN ROSS

Northern Ontario Business