Fisheries, Aquaculture and Rural Development: History

History

The aquaculture sector on PEI has a short, but exciting history. In the past decade, the sector has grown from a small developmental industry with a landed value of less than $5 million to an industry under full commercial production and a landed value in excess of $30 million. The Island industry primarily involves the culture of mussels, oysters and salmonids.

Quick Facts:

The mussel industry has grown from 100,000 pounds in 1980 to over 46 million pounds in 2011 and represents 19 per cent of the total landed value of all species on the Island.
More than 1,000 fishers and aquaculturists are involved in the oyster fishery (the total oyster fishery consists of both raising oysters on leased grounds and fishing oysters from public fishing grounds).
The finfish aquaculture sector has six freshwater based farms involved in hatchery and grow-out operations. These serve as an important source of disease free hatchery products to marine sites in other provinces.
Over the past number of years, numerous species have been evaluated as potential aquaculture species for PEI. These include sea scallops, bay scallops, quahaugs, soft shell clams, bar clams, Arctic charr, halibut and striped bass.

This information has been taken from the website:
Fisheries, Aquaculture and Rural Development
URL: http://www.gov.pe.ca/fard/index.php3?number=78246&lang=E

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