The federal government will table legislation providing a set of clear rules governing how fish farms, or aquaculture businesses, can be run.

Federal Fisheries and Oceans minister Jonathan Wilkinson says the proposed rules will set consistent national standards for the industry.

Wilkinson says it also allows the industry as a whole to look at new technologies and best practices to improve how farms are un in an environmentally sustainable way.

“Aquaculture is really important for the area where there is some sharing of jurisdiction between the province and the federal government,” he said. “So it is important that we are working in lockstep.”

“I announced a few weeks ago that we would be moving forward with a slightly new approach, which was really about implementing the precautionary principle in terms of the management of aquaculture. Moving towards a more area-based management approach where we are thinking about areas where these farms can exist where they don’t conflict with other users and with wild Pacific salmon stock.”

He says with a growing world population and an increasing demand for food aquaculture is an important and an enormous economic opportunity.