Ivan Vindheim was recently promoted to CEO of Norwegian fish farming giant Mowi. He’s a confident guy. Most CEOs are.
But these folks spend a lot of time in their corner offices in high rises in the city. So they lose touch with what’s happening on the ground. Or, you know, in the ocean.
As Harvard Business Review recently wrote: “Senior executives tend to be shielded from organizational problems and data; they are given limited and filtered information about their operations, employees, and customers.”
So people lie to the big bosses? Heavens no! Why would they lie to keep the boss happy? Hmmm…
Vindheim has said some pretty wild stuff lately. So he’s either clueless or not being properly briefed by his staff in BC.
Either way, the Mowi CEO is out of touch with British Columbians.
Three out of four British Columbians are worried about the damage open-net pen feedlots can do to wild salmon.
But, apparently, the CEO of Mowi doesn’t share that worry. He thinks they’re fine.
In an interview with the Norwegian publication ILAKS.NO, the new boss dismissed the idea of using closed containment pens.
Closed containment Pet puts a barrier between the feedlot salmon and wild salmon. Some use pens that sit in the ocean like a giant floating fish tank. Others are like fish tanks on land.
Experts predict that all salmon farming will be done in closed containment pens by 2030.
“Personally, I have no faith in this,” Vindheim said. “We simply can’t afford it. Nor is it proven technology, so it’s unrealistic.”
But Vindheim’s views are out of touch with reality.
After consulting with First Nations, the federal government pulled the licenses of seventeen fish farms in the Broughton Archipelago and nineteen in the Discovery Islands. The cancellations followed decades of protest and concern over sea lice and other diseases that infect wild salmon as they swim by the feedlots.
It’s also wrong to say that closed containment isn’t workable.
Innovation and change take time, but they’re happening. For example, Taste of BC Aquafarms in Nanaimo has spent years developing its land-based closed containment system to grow steelhead. The local company is now making money and preparing to expand. They were bought by Florida-based Blue Star Foods, who clearly know a good thing when they see it.
And the Danish company Atlantic Sapphire is building an on-land closed containment fish farm in Florida that produces 90,000 tonnes of salmon annually.
Mowi, formerly known as Marine Harvest, is one of the world’s biggest fish farming companies. It’s a big player in BC. Their feedlots produce 45,000 tonnes of Atlantic salmon annually.
But it’s not hard to read between the lines of the Mowi CEO’s comments—why innovate when you can stay cheap, dirty, and easy? After all, Canada doesn’t seem to care.
But we say get real, Mr. Vindheim. You might be happy to take the lazy way out, but Vancouver Islanders and the oceans demand better.
