Blue Star’s Taste of BC Aquafarms reported that it hatched its first batch of Chinook salmon. “To date, the fish are performing well in growth trials with good FCR, growth and very low mortality,” the company said. The company intends to raise them to an average size of 3 kg as it evaluates the potential of future species diversification within the Pacific salmon family.

The company intends to complete the construction of its new, state-of-the-art hatchery in Q3-2022. This project will to evaluate the performance of the next generation designs planned for its large-scale expansion before they are finalized.

Ben Atkinson, president of Taste of BC added that a “the first six months of 2022 have been focused on increasing standing biomass within our pilot facility as we continue to limit test system capabilities. At the end of Q2-2022, we finished with a standing biomass of 40MT in our facility, which was originally designed for 27MT, without compromising water conditions or fish performance. We are extremely pleased with the capabilities of our pilot system which provides a solid foundation upon which we are designing our forthcoming expansion.”