The 'Namgis Closed Containment Project is a pilot facility that will demonstrate the commercial viability of producing Atlantic salmon in a land-based, closed containment recirculating aquaculture system (RAS).

The Project will be built and operated by the K’udas Limited Partnership which is 100% owned by the ‘Namgis First Nation. “K’udas” means “place of salmon” in Kwa’kwala.

Unified in wanting to prove the environmental and economic benefits of closed-containment salmon aquaculture, the SOS Marine Conservation Foundation is a valued partner in the K’udas Project. Tides Canada, in addition to providing funding to the Project, provides advisory support, including technical advice through the U.S. based Freshwater Institute. 

'Namgis' great concern for the health of wild salmon stocks has guided the decision to prove that there is an environmentally sustainable and economically feasible alternative to farming Atlantic salmon in open net-pens.

RAS technology, which continuously filters and recycles water to grow fish, has been successful in farming other
species. However, in order to catalyze a new land-based salmon farming industry, that eliminates the interaction with the marine environment, RAS needs to be proven for the Atlantic salmon now raised in open net-pens. 

When growing salmon in closed containment on land is proven to be economically viable as well as environmentally sustainable, this will catalyze the start of a new industry on the B.C. coast – one that is particularly well-suited for First Nations to embrace and that will remove the environmental impacts, biosecurity threats, and other negative impacts associated with open net-pen fish farming, including:

  • The discharge of therapeutants like antibiotics and pesticides into the marine environment (these therapeutants will not be used in the Project);
  • The amplification and spread of sea lice to the wild salmon populations;
  • The spread of disease among the salmon population within an open net-pen facility; from one open net-pen facility to another; and from farmed salmon in open net-pens to the wild salmon populations;
  • The risk of detrimental impacts to the marine organisms and the marine environment due to the discharge of waste into the marine environment; and
  • The risk of economic loss and the potential environmental damage due ot the escape of non-indigenous species. 
Please see the Project Backgrounder below for more detailed information.


Project Documents:
  • Project Backgrounder updated 2012-01-12. Click here for high resolution PDF. Click here for lower resolution document.
  • Click here for the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA) Decision for the Project
  • Click here for the 2011-11-22 Testimony on Closed Containment Aquaculture to the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans (FOPO) by Chief Bill Cranmer and SOS President, Eric Hobson
  • Click here for a summary of considerations regarding the Project's environmental security
  • Click here for Mike Berry's report on the AquaSeed coho farm (2011-10-04) as part of developing the Independent Environmental Assessment plan for the Project
  • Click here for the SOS Marine Conservation Foundation's reports on Closed Containment
  • Click here for the presentations given at Tides Canada's Aquaculture Innovation Workshop on RAS technology (September 2011)

Click here for 'Namgis Closed Containment Project Media Coverage.  


Click here for Non-Project Specific Media Coverage on Closed Containment for Salmon.


Project Information: Jackie Hildering; 'Namgis Project Community Liaison; 250-230-7136. 


Video from the not-for-profit Freshwater Institute explaining land-based recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS). The Freshwater Institute in West Virginia is the world's leading research facility for RAS and their technical expertise is being made available to the 'Namgis Closed Containment Project through Tides Canada.