Canada: Quebec’s first urban fish farm set to make a splash in Montreal with Arctic char
“It’s similar to Salmon and Trout that we find in the superstore but I would say it’s even better because of the freshness.”
By Brayden Jagger Haines
Global News
March 28, 2022
Excerpt:
Bringing fresh exotic fish from the farm to the plate, all in the same day and all raised right here in Montreal — that is the goal of upstart company Opercule, Quebec’s first urban fish farm.
Situated in the Ahuntsic-Cartierville borough, in the basement of an Urban Agriculture Coop building, are some 50,000 small Arctic char, swimming around and slowly growing in size.
“It’s going to be a real ‘catch of the day.’ The fish will be alive in the morning and delivered in the evening,” said co-founder Nicolas Paquin.
“We both had a passion for fish and wanted to do something new with our lives,” Paquin said.
Both founders previously had no experience in fish farming.
Paquin was a construction engineer and Dupaul-Chicoine was a musician.
After studying aquaculture together, what started as a pilot project in a garage in the last five years has turned into a major operation for Nicolas Paquin and David Dupaul-Chicoine, founders of Opercule.
Using a series of 12 large basins, the Arctic char will grow for the next year in a heavily controlled environment. The fish will transfer from basin to basin as they get bigger.
