Works Cited

•         Sustainability reporting. (2011, March 15). In http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca. Retrieved May 26, 2011, from google.
•          Prentice, J. (2010, October 10). The federal sustainable development strategy. In http://www.ec.gc.ca. Retrieved May 26, 2011
•          Fish processing. (2011, May 8). In http://en.wikipedia.org. Retrieved May 26, 2011
•          Aquaculture statistics. (2010, November 10). In http://www.statcan.gc.ca. Retrieved May 26, 2011

Introduction

One of the three primary industries in Canada, fishing is a highly recognized commercial enterprise. There are many Canadians that depend on sea food for their diet. In fact about 8.6kg of fish is consumed per person/year in Canada. There are three major fishing regions (fisheries). They are the Atlantic coast fishery which is off the coast of the Maritime Provinces such as New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, the Pacific coast fishery which is off of BC, and the freshwater fishery which is the fishing done in Inland lakes, mostly the great lakes. The three types of fish found are Pelagic which are surface fish, groundfish that stay in deep water, and shellfish that live in the shallow waters. 

Sustain and Protect

The government is working hard to protect the fish that are in Canadian banks. Due to the excessive and destructive fishing practice the numbers of fish has decreased drastically. To try to sustain and protect the fisheries, Canadians are working on developing performance indicators that describe trends and conditions in the aquaculture industry. “Fisheries and Oceans Canada” has found ideas from work done by “Global Action Initiative” and other natural resource/aquaculture sectors  to help develop the reporting framework. From this project, there can be an improvement progress against this problem. The “Canadian Aquaculture Sustainability Reporting” process will support regional and national aquaculture development plans, provide Canadians with information on aquaculture sustainability and many other things.  The government also came up with the “Federal Sustainability Development Strategy” which will provide an entire government picture of actions in order to achieve sustainability in the environment. 

Interaction and Impact of Levels of Industry

Aquaculture goes from primary to secondary to tertiary to even quaternary industries. The primary level is the actual process of catching fish. The secondary level is when the fish is processed to be suitable for the tertiary industries. There are many fish processing plants. The main concern of processing fish is to prevent them from decaying/deteriorating. Prevention strategies include control of temperature (refrigeration or freezing). Others also include keeping the fish vacuum packed, so they are oxygen deprived. Most of the time more than one method is used. The tertiary level is when the fish reach supermarkets and grocery stores to serve as food for people. There are many stores and workers that need fish for the liveliness of their businesses. Since there is a very high demand for ready-made fish or fish products that need little preparation, there is research being done to see how such products can be made while maintaining their taste and quality. In this way the chain goes on. These interactions within levels of industries can impact in developing the natural resource because the quaternary industry requires more fish to research and develop different kinds of ways to use the fish products; but at the same time tertiary industries also need fish to run their businesses, which requires more fish overall and not enough time to reproduce.

Aquaculture Production Graph

This graph shows the total aquaculture production in Canada. According to it, the highest production rate is in British Columbia, in the Pacific Fishery with approximately 76,420t. The fish most commonly caught at the west coast is salmon, which is a pelagic fish. The second highest production rate with approximately 24,883t is in New Brunswick, which is part of the Atlantic Fishery. The most common found fish here was Cod, but due to overfishing there aren’t many left. Other fishes in this region include herring and shellfish such as lobster and shrimp. Quebec and Manitoba produce the least fish with 875t and 7t respectively. They are a part of the freshwater fishery. Saskatchewan and Alberta produce too little fish to be accounted for.

Map of Fishing Regions

This map shows the three main fishing regions in Canada. The three circled spots represent the location of these fisheries. The one on the far right circling the maritime provinces is the Atlantic (east coast) fishery. The one on the far left circling the coast of British Columbia is the Pacific (west coast) fishery. The one in the middle circling the great lakes represents the freshwater (inland lakes) fishery. Although the freshwater fishery includes other inland lakes the highest amount of fish come from the great lakes.