Canada: Quebec’s first commercial urban fish farming company sets up shop in Montreal
Opercule plans to produce around 30,000 kilograms of Arctic char per year
By Philippe-Antoine Saulnier
CBC News
Feb 27, 2022
Excerpt:
In the basement of an industrial building in Ahuntsic-Cartierville, some 50,000 small fish splash around in a circular basin while waiting for their feed ration.
These arctic char are the first fish to be produced in the first commercial urban fish farm in Quebec.
“The hatching took place in mid-December and we’ve been feeding them at full capacity for three weeks,” said David Dupaul-Chicoine, president of Opercule.
The operation is based on the grounds of the Centrale agricole on Legendre Street, which includes other companies specializing in urban agriculture in the city.
It was Dupaul-Chicoine’s garage, in the Villeray district, that this urban fish farming project was born about five years ago. Dupaul-Chicoine, who was then working in music, had enrolled in aquaculture courses in Gaspésie, where he met his future partner, engineer Nicolas Paquin.
The garage pilot project, which lasted three years, validated farming techniques in the city and tested the market.
“We were producing about a tonne a year in my garage,” says Dupaul-Chicoine.
Over the next few years, Opercule plans to produce around 30,000 kilograms annually.
