Aquatic animal domestic movements

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA):

  • safeguards Canada's aquatic animal resources
  • implements controls, such as permits, to contain certain aquatic animal reportable diseases within areas of Canada where they are known to occur

Whether a permit is required depends on the declarations of the reportable disease status of the provinces, territories, marine waters of Canada and the specific businesses (compartments) within Canada.

Each declaration lists the aquatic animal reportable disease to be controlled, as well as the following situations that require a permit:

  • species of aquatic animals (finfish or mollusc)
  • description of the things
  • the end uses for the moved aquatic animal or thing

Domestic movement permits

A CFIA movement permit is required if the declared aquatic animal or thing is moving from:

  • a declared infected area to a declared buffer area, provisionally-free area or free area
  • a declared buffer area to another declared buffer area, provisionally-free area or free area
  • a declared provisionally-free area to a declared free area

Commercial harvesters of wild molluscs will not be issued a permit to move susceptible species of molluscs out of an infected area for the purpose of depuration, relay (including salting up and short term container relaying), dry storage, wet storage or processing commercial. These movements are only allowed to occur within the infected area or to another infected area for the same diseases. Please note that all molluscs to be harvested for human consumption are subject to the Canadian Shellfish Sanitation Program.

A CFIA movement permit is not required if:

  • the aquatic animal is a crustacean
  • the animal, thing or end use is not listed on the declarations
  • the movement will occur within the same declared area as where the animals or thing are located
  • the movement is from a free area to any other area
  • the movement is from a provisionally-free area to a buffer or infected area
  • the movement is from a buffer area to an infected area
  • the movement is from an infected area to another infected area

The movement permit is either issued to whoever is sending or to whoever is receiving the aquatic animals or things.

The CFIA movement permit contains conditions that control disease risks associated with the aquatic animal or thing to be shipped or received, and the water, ice, or other medium, materials, equipment and conveyances used during the shipment.

  • If the permit is issued to whoever is sending live or dead aquatic animals, the animals or their carcasses must be segregated, inspected and tested for the declared reportable diseases prior to the movement
  • If the permit is issued to whoever is sending a thing, the thing will require decontamination and segregation prior to the movement
  • If the permit is issued to whoever is receiving aquatic animals or things, their facility must be a Closed Premises, meaning that there are measures in place to prevent the spread of aquatic animal reportable diseases from the facility. Closed Premises may be inspected prior to receiving the aquatic animals or things to be moved

The CFIA is not currently charging a fee for issuing a movement permit. No fees will be charged for inspection and testing at this time. Fees for permit issuance, inspection and testing may be implemented in the future.

Application forms

The following application forms are available:

Prior to completing the application, the applicant should perform the following:

  • review the declarations or contact the CFIA Area Office or the CFIA National Centre of Permissions to ensure that a permit is required for the aquatic animal or thing to be moved. Additional information, including the permit conditions, is also available in the industry guidance documents for laboratories, researchers, finfish culturists and mollusc culturists
  • investigate whether authorization or permission is required for the same movement from another federal department or a provincial or territorial ministry. Contact information for Introduction and Transfer Committees is available in the industry guidance documents

The completed application for a CFIA movement permit should be sent by email, facsimile or regular mail to the CFIA National Centre of Permissions. The relevant contact information is available on the application form.

Please sign up to receive important updates on this program via email.

Compartments

An aquatic animal business may choose to become a compartment recognized by the CFIA if it is:

  • located in a declared buffer or infected area for one or more of the reportable aquatic animal diseases AND
  • regularly moving any of the listed aquatic animals or things to other declared buffer, provisionally-free or free areas

Once recognized, the CFIA will declare the location of the aquatic animals or things as a free area, allowing movements from that facility without a CFIA movement permit.

The Application for Recognition as a Compartment Under the Domestic Movement Control Program (CFIA/ACIA 5748) is completed and sent to the CFIA National Centre of Permissions.

Information for the aquatic animal industry:

Date modified: