Young Chinook salmon will be grown in the tanks once systems to pump in fresh ocean water and oxygen and remove waste have been installed and tested. For the first tank, that will be complete in the next two weeks, the company estimates.

The operation has a licence to produce 1,200 tonnes of salmon a year.

Traditional net pens used for salmon farming in B.C. are open to the ocean and have been criticized for damaging the marine environment. Fisheries scientists have found evidence that salmon farms transmit parasites and pathogens such as sea lice to wild salmon, leading researchers and environmental groups to call for closed-pen farming.

In addition, waste from open-net pens is released directly into local waters and is not always carried away by tides and currents as was anticipated.