AquaBounty cutting ‘substantially all’ staff, plans to shut down P.E.I. salmon hatchery | CBC News

AquaBounty Technologies Inc. says it is getting out of the salmon hatchery business in Prince Edward Island, and intends to cut “substantially all” of its staff and cull all remaining fish at its site in Bay Fortune.

The Massachusetts-based company had said earlier this year that it was looking for a buyer for its operation in Rollo Bay, P.E.I., but at that point it said it intended to hold onto its Bay Fortune facility, its last operating fish farm.

On Wednesday, AquaBounty’s board issued a news release saying it didn’t have the cash to do that.

“AquaBounty will immediately begin to wind down its Bay Fortune operation, its only remaining operating farm, including the culling of all remaining fish and a reduction of substantially all personnel over the course of the next several weeks,” the news release quoted David Frank as saying.

Frank is the company’s chief financial officer and interim chief executive officer.

Other senior managers have left the company, the news release said. They include CEO Dave Melbourne, who resigned effective Dec. 6, while chief operating officer Alejandro Rojas and chief people officer Melissa Daley’s positions have been eliminated.

“We prioritized maintaining operations at the Bay Fortune facility, but do not have sufficient liquidity to continue to do so,” Frank said in the news release. “We have been working for over a year to raise capital, including the sale of our farms and equipment. Unfortunately, these efforts have not generated enough cash to maintain our operating facilities.

“We therefore have no alternative but to close down our remaining farm operations and reduce our staff.”

AquaBounty is traded on Nasdaq as AQB. Common stock was trading under 60 cents US at midday Wednesday, down from a 52-week high of $3.05. 

The company refused a CBC News request for an interview.

Genetically modified salmon

AquaBounty has owned the Rollo Bay site since 2016, after buying a former sea smolt hatchery and turning it into a broodstock and egg production operation for genetically modified, or GM, Atlantic salmon to supplement its Bay Fortune site.

The salmon were bred using genes from other fish that the company said let them grow much faster than wild Atlantic salmon, while needing less feed.

The resulting AquAdvantage salmon received FDA approval in 2015 and Health Canada approval the following year, allowing its production and sale for consumption.

We will continue to work with our investment banker to assess alternatives for our Ohio farm project, and we will continue to market and sell available assets to generate cash.— Interim CEO David Frank

When the company received approval in 2019 to begin commercial production of its salmon in Canada, environmental groups expressed concern. 

“More GM salmon means more risk to wild Atlantic salmon. That is the science,” Mark Butler of the Ecology Action Centre in Nova Scotia said at the time. “This decision is the first step in a dangerous expansion of GM fish production. We need a national consultation on improving regulation before new GM animals are approved.”

AquaBounty has been building a new salmon farm in Pioneer, Ohio, selling an aquaculture operation it owned in Indiana to help finance that project. 

“Over the course of the next few months, we will continue to work with our investment banker to assess alternatives for our Ohio farm project, and we will continue to market and sell available assets to generate cash,” Frank said in Wednesday’s news release.

“We will keep all stakeholders apprised of our progress.”