Staff, farm sites safe following British Columbia tsunami warning

With storm Sandy dominating weather reports across the world this week, news of a  7.7 magnitude earthquake near Haida-Gwaii on Saturday has been sidelined.  

English: Atlantic salmon. Salmo salar. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Preplanning, rapid communication and proactive measures protected farmers and fish this weekend as BC’s salmon farmers responded quickly to a tsunami warning for Vancouver Island’s west coast.

Following the 7.7 magnitude earthquake near Haida-Gwaii on Saturday, salmon farmers voluntarily rolled out emergency preparedness protocols and moved staff from approximately 20 salmon farm sites located in the waters off the coast of British Columbia to predetermined safe locations.

All staff members are safe and no damage has been reported on any farm sites.

“Ensuring that our staff and farms are safe is of critical importance to our farmers,” said Mary Ellen Walling, Executive Director, BC Salmon Farmers Association. “The proactive measures taken this weekend are an example of the high level of care we take to farm responsibly in the ocean.”

Removing staff from farms following this notification is part of our farmers’ emergency response protocol, which includes planned evacuation routes and procedures, tsunami kits and post-event farm checks.

BC’S salmon farms are engineered to a very high standard to ensure they can withstand significant weather events.

Following this weekend’s events, members of the BC Salmon Farmers Association will provide feedback on the notification process and review their own responses as part of their focus to continuously improve procedures.

The BCSFA represents salmon farm companies and those who supply services and supplies to the industry. Salmon-farming provides for 6,000 direct and indirect jobs while contributing $800-million to the provincial economy each year.

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