9420.pdf

2 BACKGROUND INFORMATION
2.1 General
The fish and shellfish processing industry is faced with increasing problems of waste
handling and disposal, plant sanitation, raw material availability and cost, production
efficiency, increased competition (from other countries as well as other protein sources),
and increasing Iabour and energy costs. At the same time regulations protecting the
environment from pollution are becoming more stringent. If waste handling and operating
costs significantly increase at fish processing plants, some plants may no longer find it
profitable to stay in business.
If pollution is viewed as an indication of an inefficient manufacturing process where both
product and energy are wasted, then it maybe more cost effective to reduce pollution by
improving the process rather than by adding expensive treatment facilities at the end of
discharge pipes, which in turn produce sludge for later disposal. The ideal food
processing plant takes in raw materials and generates products. Water and energy are
efficiently recycled and byproducts are recovered for internal use or for external markets
(Gates, 1991).
2.2 Seafood and Marine Products in Canada and the West Coast
The Canadian seafood and marine products industry is comprised of firms engaged
primarily in the processing and marketing of fish, shellfish and marine plants and animals
as well as by-products such as fish meal and fish oil (Ind. Sci. and Tech. Canada, 1991 b).
Canadian fish products are harvested from oceans off Canada’s Atlantic and Pacific
coasts as well as from inland freshwater lakes. These three fisheries are based chiefly
on groundfish, pelagics, salmonides, molluscs, crustaceans and freshwater fish.
The Canadian seafood and marine products industry is a major world exporter of such
products. It provides hundreds of small communities with an important source of jobs
and resources. Statistic Canada estimates that in 1990 there were 460 fish processing
establishments in Canada employing 27,617 people, with 57 establishments (not including
small enterprises) in B.C. employing 4,366 people (Table 2.1). Other estimates include
smaller companies, and put the number of fish processing plants in B.C. in 1990 at 160
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