| Summary: | Salmon aquaculture is the rearing of salmonids for commercial purposes. These practices are
typically carried out in saltwater farms located in coastal waters. The process of siting these
facilities requires identifying and selecting areas that are economically, socially and
environmentally suitable to locate them. Siting salmon aquaculture facilities has become a
controversial resource management issue in British Columbia (B.C.), where distance-based
criteria ultimately determine the location of these facilities.
This thesis focuses on providing insights and concepts to inform and examine the salmon
aquaculture facility siting process in B.C. It is argued that regulatory processes and outcomes
in the context of a new industry could respond to mechanisms and factors that shape
governmental agendas, illustrating how policy can behave reactively rather than in a
precautionary manner. In this case, the outcomes of such reactive policies are reflected in
siting criteria that yield implicit environmental and socio-economic disadvantages and tradeoffs.
This way, siting criteria derive from expert judgements based on best available
information while their associated uncertainties may lead to consider less-desirable sites
while underestimating or overestimating risks, and overlooking important regional
objectives, cumulative impacts and stakeholder values.
The thesis further suggests that the future evolution of the salmon aquaculture facility siting
process in B.C. could benefit from siting processes that have already been developed and
implemented by other sectors. Different lines of reasoning that deal with processes of public
negotiation, analytical decision-making and a systems' approach are explored as ways by
which the salmon aquaculture facility siting process could evolve in the future toward
creating more comprehensive policy. === Science, Faculty of === Resources, Environment and Sustainability (IRES), Institute for === Graduate
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