Aquaculture’s offshore frontier: learning from the Canadian courts on ocean grabbing, ocean privatization, and property as process

Abstract

Many coastal nations have endorsed the Blue Economy as both an economic and environmental opportunity, despite numerous questions as to how industrial expansion into deep ocean waters might be regulated for sustainability. Aquaculture is one industry actively promoting a move offshore, with numerous offshore leases in development. Drawing on the history of aquaculture in the nearshore, and relying on a processual approach to property, we explore questions around the regulation of privatized ocean spaces: What can court cases involving aquaculture in the nearshore tell us about the role of law in promoting sustainable offshore ocean spaces? And what in turn does this suggest about extractive capitalism, the privatization of ocean spaces, and the law? We examine 46 Canadian court cases which cover a 30-year time frame and multiple Canadian jurisdictions. We argue that there are lessons here regarding the questionable ability of law to effectively regulate existing or future aquaculture operations once privatization emerges. The lessons from these Canadian court cases, taken together with a burgeoning literature on legal geography, more-than-human methodologies, and critical environmental law, suggest the varied legal dimensions of deep-sea aquaculture frontier imaginaries and highlight the real limits to regulating the extraction of resources in this perceived open space (terra nullius). We highlight crucial barriers to sustainability through what we are calling jurisdictional opaqueness in regulatory issues. The results include poor regulation and overlapping or contested jurisdictions, which relates in turn to inadequate consultation, frequent environmental problems (toxic chemicals, anoxia, salmon escapes, marine debris), and scientific disputes.