Coastal Shellfish Building an
Industry
By Jim Timlick about 500,000 in 2019. The company’s immediate future appears even more promising as it is anticipating a major spike in production to about 2.5 million in 2020 and 6.5 million in 2021.
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he notion of shellfish aquaculture has been something of a Holy Grail for quite some time – a great idea that no one seemed able to figure out how to deliver effectively. That dream appears close to becoming a reality thanks to the efforts of a First Nations-owned company based along British Columbia’s Pacific coast.
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Resource Connector North 2020
These are significant numbers considering that scallop aquaculture is extremely difficult to establish. In countries such as China and Chile, similar efforts took nearly 20 years to establish. In Canada, nearly three dozen scallop hatcheries were launched over the past two decades and only a few remain in operation. Coastal Shellfish is located in the heart of the Great Bear Rainforest, the largest temperate rainforest in the world, and is on the verge of becoming one of the country’s major suppliers of scallops and potentially other types of shellfish. Last year, Coastal Shellfish produced about 300,000 Japanese scallops and expects that number to increase to
Michael Uehara, CEO of Coastal Shellfish, says one of the advantages the company has over similar operations is its location. It not only has the ability to seed, grow, and harvest all of its shellfish in the waters around Prince Rupert, its hatchery and processing plant are also located nearby which eliminates many of the logistical challenges that plagued other companies. In addition, Prince
