With climate change making headlines around the world, many shoppers are looking to fill their carts, pantries, and stomachs with more thoughtfully produced options. With Sustainable Blue, salmon lovers can indulge in their favourite recipes and know that what they’re consuming is Ocean Wise recommended and raised without the use of added antibiotics or growth hormones.
Sustainable Blue, a pilot program launched in September 2021, uses a state-of-the-art saltwater aquaculture system in Nova Scotia to raise their salmon in a thoughtful way that aims to reduce waste. The land-based salmon farm uses recirculation to limit or eliminate waste run-off. Since the farm is land-based, it doesn’t pose a concern for salmon escaping and mixing with the wild population.
Sustainable Blue is a saltwater recirculation farm with a 100% closed loop. Wastewater from the land-based tanks is removed, filtered, and reintroduced to the same tank.
Wild taste
Since Sustainable Blue’s closed-loop systems keep sea lice and other diseases and bacteria out, their salmon are raised without added antibiotics and growth hormones. In fact, because of the way they’re raised and what they’re fed, many believe that they have a much closer taste to wild-caught Atlantic salmon than other types of farmed salmon.
In Roger’s opinion,
It’s a sweeter taste. Our customers love it. And they love the fact that they are raised without antibiotics Roger LeBlanc, Seafood Manager, Sobeys store #602.
Ocean Wise recommended Atlantic salmon is raised in an ecosystem with the intent to replicate the lives of wild salmon from incubation to harvest.
Providing a natural environment for farmed salmon
The completely land-based, closed-loop enterprise aims to limit any interference with delicate ocean ecosystems and wild salmon.
Sustainable Blue starts with certified disease-free Atlantic salmon eggs, incubating them for two weeks until they begin to hatch. Once the fry hatch, they are moved into feed tanks, where they start to swim against a current. Like wild Atlantic salmon, Sustainable Blue’s salmon are then transferred from freshwater tanks to saltwater tanks. They remain in the saltwater tanks until they are ready to be harvested. The whole process is intended to replicate wild Atlantic salmon living conditions and takes about two years
Sustainable Blue salmon are fed a diet of 100% marine proteins and oils, which are good for human consumption.
The Sustainable Blue facility does its best to mitigate its impact on coastal ecosystems and the wild salmon population, especially when it comes to wastewater.
At Sustainable Blue, solid waste is removed from the facility and used to generate electricity. Wastewater is cleaned and returned to the tanks. Not a single drop is returned to delicate ocean ecosystems.
Customers have more options for salmon
Sustainable Blue provides shoppers with an option to do good for the environment and they are loving it.
When Roger is giving customers the low-down on what sets Sustainable Blue apart from other salmon fisheries, he sees other customers perk up and listen, and they, too, will opt for Sustainable Blue’s salmon. He added that when Sustainable Blue isn’t out for shoppers, they’ll come asking for it.
For Roger, this is a crucial indicator that customers want to make environmental-friendly choices, and Sobeys is giving them the option to do just that.
Certain Sobeys stores in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island carry Sustainable Blue salmon, making Sobeys one of the major retailers in Canada to sell Ocean Wise-recommended Atlantic salmon.
