Target Marine Nov 19th Referendum Fact Sheet
The Rezoning Application
After 11 years of growing the sturgeon from egg to mature females, Target Marine is asking for rezoning of less than an acre of the 60 acre property to allow the last ½ hour of work on these fish. Target Marine proposes to create an ultra-clean indoor environment to process the sturgeon for caviar and meat. The hatchery would then be an “egg to plate” operation which makes sense from an economic, environmental and animal welfare perspective.
A bylaw and OCP amendment has been applied for. The District of Sechelt is holding a non-binding Referendum on our application on November 19th together with the Municipal Election.
The Land Based Hatchery
- The hatchery has been in continuous operation for more than 24 years, initially with Chinook and coho salmon. Salmon smolt production is planned to be phased out by the summer of 2012.
- The hatchery provides 20 direct jobs and a dozen indirect local jobs.
- The hatchery is one of the world leaders in innovative land based aquaculture, implementing high tech water recirculation systems on some tanks which conserve more than 99% of the water.
- The hatchery operates under Regulation and Licensing by the Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Agriculture, Environment Canada, and Fisheries and Oceans Canada.
- The existing hatchery zoning permits the culture tanks and systems, farm buildings, coolers, and ice machines. It also permits spawning, growing, harvesting and storing the fish. For more than 2 decades salmon, and more recently sturgeon, have had their eggs removed to produce the next generation of fish. The rezoning will allow the eggs to be put in a tin for sale, rather than hatch them.
The hatchery currently ships the sturgeon, along with all of the processing jobs, to Vancouver every second week for processing male sturgeon for meat.
- The hatchery is 100% locally owned on the Sunshine Coast.
The Property Site
- Target Marine owns only one site: the Gray Creek hatchery site. It used to own the Egmont Fish Plant, but sold it in 2007.
Marina
Target Marine’s property is approximately 60 acres in area, which is a similar size to the neighborhood of Tuwanek. Of that, the operations take up ~ 5 acres, within which the caviar production will fit. The rest has been left as forest. To the North of the property is the former Jackson Brothers log sort which operated until around 2004. The neighbour to the South, before becoming the Tillicum Bay Marina, was formerly the site of a log dump and herring processing plant. To the East is Crown land with logging leases. To the West is the ocean.
- The property was zoned Rural 1 for agriculture when the hatchery was built in 1987.
- There are no residences on the property nor can any residences be seen from the hatchery. Only two residences border the hatchery zone, both of which are supporters. Here is a quote from one of them:
“As the closest neighbour to the Target Marine fish hatchery facility, I can say with complete confidence that there is not a greener opportunity for the 60 acres that they occupy than the sturgeon/caviar operation that they are attempting to develop” – John Hutchinson (long time neighbour)
The Impacts of the Rezoning
- There will be no discharge from the processing facility to the creek or inlet. Any solid processing waste will be filtered out and sent for composting or rendering. Any liquid waste will go to a septic field.
- The goal is an average harvest of a pickup truck load once per day. The District of Sechelt has put an annual cap on processing that reflects this goal.
- The rezoning will result in a significant reduction in traffic/transportation with an “egg to plate” operation. Alternatively, if the fish have to be shipped live in water to another facility, the product has to be shipped back to the hatchery, and then eventually shipped out again for sale.
- There will be no sound impact on any neighbour. Technicians will carefully handle the fish in the facility one at a time, by hand. There will be no large automated processing machinery: there will be a table, a knife, a bowl, and a scale.
- There will be no odour impact on any neighbour. Fish will be handled, cut, and packaged fresh: fish offal will go for organic recycling (composting or rendering).
- There will be extremely low water use in the processing; about ¼ of the flow from a garden hose.
The Supporting Documents
- One objective of the Sechelt Inlets Coastal Strategy, which has an aquaculture designation for the hatchery, is to “ensure sufficient areas exist for the support of a self-sustaining aquaculture industry”.
- The Vision Plan for Sechelt has an objective “to encourage clean, low-impact and value-added activities; to support entrepreneurship, innovation . . . and small-to-medium sized business expansion; to develop and promote the District as a tourist destination; and to develop a skilled and diverse workforce”.
- The Sensitive Ecosystems Inventory List shows that the proposed area for the processing is not sensitive ecosystem. Maps can be viewed on the Sunshine Coast Habitat Atlas website.
Vote YES in the Referendum on November 19th!
Come for a tour!
M-F @ 2:00 pm Target Marine’s production of sturgeon and caviar has been deemed sustainable by Ocean Wise.
+
I was given a tour of the Target Marine fish hatchery and was very impressed. Super pleased it was land based and not a Norwegian salmon farm destroying our local oceans.
Immense care goes into the sturgeon, ensuring they are organic, clean, safe.
Then we got to the part about what all the fuss was. I nearly fell over. Basically a small processing plant, dwarfed by what’s already there, to ensure these giant 300lb sturgeon are treated humanely, and with as little suffering as possible.
I am voting YES to this great local Sunshine Coast business attracting international attention.
I’d like to hear what your thoughts are. Please post a reply below! Thanks…
It’s Always A Good Day on the Sunshine Coast! Duane Burnett
LINKS
http://www.northerndivine.com/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Target-Marine-YES-Sunshine-Coast-Caviar/159970604058839
Sechelt Council Municipal Election Nov 19th facebook event page
TARGET MARINE HATCHERIES LTD.
7333 Sechelt Inlet Road, Sechelt, BC V0N 3A4
( 604.885.4688 7 604.885.7949
(Toll Free 1.855.5 CAVIAR (855.522.8421)
www.northerndivine.com
As a candidate for a Sechelt Councillor seat I totally support the future of Target Marine. I will work hard to retain jobs in the District of Sechelt and hopefully will contribute to increasing employment opportunities. As a member of the Mayor’s Economic Development Task Force it became clear to me that the District of Sechelt has discouraged longstanding employers like Target Marine. If the electorate vote for me I will be doing my utmost to tear down roadblocks to constructive entrepreneurs like Target Marine.
I visited Target Marine yesterday and was given a tour of the site. Nestled on 60 timbered acres, it is not visible from any road, house nor from the ocean. There was no smell neither. To me the whole operation is harvesting what has been planted, much like an orchard where fruit is picked and sold to either a food processing plant or to the public. One can say it is also much like a poultry farm where chickens are being raised and the eggs sold. There is nothing industrial in either operation. It is farming. The plan is to can the eggs, put a label on it and sell the product. This is neither industrial, rather of a commercial nature. It is much like my wife making apple sauce from apples grown in our own backyard. Would that be industrial? Commercial? No way. It is common sense. To process the end product, a small buildings is being planned where 1 or 2 persons spoon the eggs into a small tin, put on a lid and label it. Ready for consumption to the public or buyer at large. Is this industrial? No, it is common sense to see the product develop from A-Z.
You got my vote Target Marine and those of all common sense people on the Sunshine Coast.
Yours truly,
Bill Endert.