News
A public hearing was recently held in Sechelt to discuss the OCP admendment and rezoning requested by Target Marine Hatcheries Ltd. to enable the company to process fish, specifically sturgeon eggs into caviar. The company has been raising sablefish (black cod) for 24 years and sturgeon for 11 years. They want to be able to harvest the eggs and process them on their own property. They plan to raise a maximum of 5000 female sturgeon. It takes 10 years before the eggs can be harvested from each fish.
Target Marine is located next to Tillicum Bay Marina on Porpoise Bay Inlet. The farm is on 5 acres of a 62 acre property. All the fish tanks are on land, not in the sea as are the open net pen fish farms. The water is recirculated after being filtered. The water is eventually treated according to Provincial Ministry of Environment standards and discharged into a septic tank. The solid waste goes into a composting system. There are now trials to make this composted waste into fertilizer with the company, Net Zero Waste.
It seems that Target Marine intends to follow organic standards, and the new processing facility would be ultra-clean. Stated in their brochure, the fish would be processed fresh causing no odor, and there would not be an increase of trucking noise. According to Justin Henry, the General Manager and presenter at the public meeting, a national committee has been formed within the Canadian General Standards Board to develop an organic standard for fish to be used by Target and other fish producers in the future.
There were a small number of very vocal residents at the meeting who were not in favour of this rezoning. They were upset about the noise of the trucks, the possible size of the plant in the future and the increase of industrial facilities in “their” residential area which might decrease their property values. According to Henry, the company has no plans to expand into the rest of the 62 acres. It will be used as a buffer for the residents and a protection of
In addition, the company files a yearly application that the operation will not harm the wild sturgeon stock.The closest wild sturgeon stock is in the Fraser River. The two residents who live bordering the fish farm have stated there is no noise problem. Henry stated at the meeting that Target would gladly limit the zoning change to caviar only and put limitations to any size increase of the facility in order to ease some concerns by residents.
Most of the people attending this meeting were positive and encouraged the Target staff, judging by the comments made and the applause.
The proposed changes will go before the Sechelt council planning committee and council before another public hearing is held.
Update: Sechelt council tabled the application at their last meeting until the completed OCP is brought to council. There is no indication when that will be heard. Meanwhile Target will have to wait until it is brought up before council for consideration again.
If the changes are not approved, the company still plans to harvest and process the eggs. They would have to truck the eggs to another site for processing.