Fishing with Rod Discussion Forum
Fishing in British Columbia => Fishing-related Issues & News => Topic started by: moosebreath on November 27, 2013, 11:29:11 AM
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http://asf.ca/nl-aquaculture-industry-protests-too-much.html
NL Aquaculture Industry Association “Doth Protest Too Much, Methinks”Published on January 30, 2013Opinion - Bill Taylor, President, Atlantic Salmon FederationJust when I think the blind support by government and industry for farming salmon in open net pens in the ocean has reached its pinnacle, I read Miranda Pryor’s piece on behalf of the Newfoundland Aquaculture Industry Association, published in the Harbour Breton Coaster on January 14, 2013.The “family-owned fish farm” that most recently was reported to have an outbreak of Infectious Salmon Anemia (ISA) at its site in Pot Harbour belongs to Cooke Aquaculture, a company that has operations in New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Maine, Chile and Spain, according to its website.In 1996, outbreaks of ISA, a highly contagious disease, required the slaughter and industrial disposal of millions of farmed salmon in southwest New Brunswick. From 1997 to 2000, 73 more sites became infected. In 2003, 2.7 million fish were killed as a result of the ISA epidemics sweeping through the waters. In 2007, 528,000 fish needed to be destroyed.In 2001, 2.5 million infected fish in Cobscook Bay, Maine, were killed, followed by other outbreaks in 2002 and 2003 that killed at least another 150,000 salmon.In 2012, ISA epidemics hit aquaculture operations in Shelburne and Liverpool Bay, NS and Butter Cove and Pot Harbour NL, resulting in the slaughter of more than a million farmed salmon.Since ISA outbreaks in eastern Canada began, more than $100 million of taxpayers’ dollars have been used to compensate fish farmers for having to kill ISA-infected salmon that were grown out in open net pens in the ocean.Outbreaks of ISA in Chile have resulted in the deaths of tens of millions of fish. Chile is now trying to rebuild its industry, but outbreaks continue to occur.While ISA is rarely seen in wild fish, it reaches epidemic proportions when thousands of fish are confined within small spaces. The same is true of sea lice. Open net pen cages are the perfect breeding grounds for both. I think this should give everyone an understanding that results in deep concern with “the reality of fish farming practices and fish health regulations” to which Ms. Pryor refers.The “internationally recognized certification” of salmon aquaculture practices to which Ms. Pryor also refers is industry-led, not an endorsed, arms-length, third party certification that takes environmental impacts into account.Why should society accept and shut up about millions of taxpayers’ dollars being paid as compensation for ISA-destroyed salmon, when money can be better spent investing in more environmentally-sustainable grow out operations, such as closed containment? Feasibility studies, like the one ASF supports at The Conservation Fund’s Freshwater Institute (see background at www.asf.ca) are proving that salmon can be grown completely separate from the natural environment with no detection of pathogens or sea lice in the system. The technical and economic feasibility analysis of a commercial-scale operation indicates that the capital cost would be higher in closed containment operations than in open net pen operations, but the operating costs would be about the same or less, even with the expense of treating wastes – something the open net pen systems simply allow to fall unchecked into the ocean. The operating costs associated with farm escapes and treatments for disease and sea lice are eliminated in closed containment systems. When you take into account the significant cost reflected in negative impacts to the environment and industries dependent on its health (such as sport fishing, lobster fishing and tourism), closed containment becomes the grow-out method of choice among concerned fish buyers and consumers.Contrary to Ms. Pryor’s statement, Justice Cohen did make references in his report on Fraser River Sockeye in BC that are relevant to Atlantic Canada. One of Justice Cohen’s applicable comments was his recognition of the potential conflict in the mandate of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) to both develop salmon farming and protect Canada’s wild salmon. He recommended that the Government of Canada remove from the mandate of DFO the promotion of salmon farming as an industry and farmed salmon as a product. Endangered and threatened wild Atlantic salmon in southern Newfoundland, in the inner and outer Bay of Fundy and along the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia are vulnerable to the effects of migrating near the open net pens in the ocean and interactions with escaped farmed salmon that enter our wild salmon rivers – a concern that was also highlighted in a recent report by the Committee on the Status of Wildlife in Canada.Ms. Pryor’s comment that “on the east coast there is no confirmed evidence of major lobster kills near fish farms” certainly flies in the face of one such incident that actually resulted in charges in New Brunswick. Three Cooke Aquaculture officials were charged by Environment Canada with illegally dispersing dangerous pesticides in the Bay of Fundy, resulting in the deaths of thousands of lobsters in 2009. Just Google: Cooke Aquaculture trial and read about it.Sadly, it is difficult to work towards solutions with governments and industry who, despite volumes of evidence, continue to publicly deny the impacts of open net pen salmon aquaculture on our coastal waters. The good news is that headway is being made. There are many species of fish, including Atlantic salmon, being farmed in closed containment facilities in Spain, Denmark, the Netherlands, Ireland, the United States, Canada (Sustainable Blue, NS and Namgis First Nation, BC among the growers) and China. In Scotland, the world’s biggest onshore salmon farm is being built with the potential to revolutionize production. Dunkeld-based FishFrom is planning to produce about 3,000 tonnes annually in closed-containment facilities for retailers such as Marks and Spencer.Bill Taylor is President and CEO of the Atlantic Salmon Federation (ASF), based in St. Andrews, NB. ASF is dedicated to the conservation, protection and restoration of wild Atlantic salmon and the ecosystems on which their well-being and survival depend.
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Hey moosebreath I posted on this a week ago. ::) Your article is more detailed though I'll give you that.
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Sorry swimmingwiththefishes, I didn't notice your post. Pisses me off that our tax $$ are going into cess pool net pens. Those that pay taxes that is.
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http://www.mainstream-group.com/portal/wps/wcm/connect/msca-content-en/mainstream-canada/news/conflict-and-criticism/blog+post+full+of+errors%2C+ignorance+about+salmon+farming+and+business
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And that has what to do about our tax money bailing out the feedlotters farmfisherbawb?
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I think Bawb is saying that the dirty fish farmers make just as much money killing diseased fish as selling dirty ones. A win win for them. A joke on the tax payer and the ocean environment.
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"Over nine quarters of public reporting by the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans on grants and contributions, members of the BC Salmon Farmers’ Association accounted for just 0.22 per cent of the funding given to fisheries in Canada. Of over $250-million reported, about $555,000 went to BCSFA-related projects."
"Reid seems to think that it is unfair for salmon farmers to be compensated for disaster under any circumstances. Clearly he is ignorant that all Canadian farmers — and commercial fishermen — receive government grants and are eligible for government compensation in certain circumstances."
http://www.salmonfarmers.org/most-recent-funding-totals-show-salmon-farmers%E2%80%99-continued-small-impact
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As usual nothing about the topic. The topic is us taxpayers paying your fines. Kinda like me paying your fine for a traffic violation.
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As usual nothing about the topic. The topic is us taxpayers paying your fines. Kinda like me paying your fine for a traffic violation.
You will have to excuse me for not being an obedient listener anymore. I see you are, thinking I am a salmon farmer. I am just bringing up info and questions that Doc Morton and her American marketing gang do not seem to want their loyal listeners to know. :)
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Still cant answer the question. What has yur affection for Morton got to do with taxpayers paying fish farm fines, bawb?
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Still cant answer the question. What has yur affection for Morton got to do with taxpayers paying fish farm fines, bawb?
He's still bitter about the bent nickle he donated years ago.Move on Bawb. Move on. :o
(http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t82/Willy1956/bent-coins_zps241775f3.jpg) (http://s158.photobucket.com/user/Willy1956/media/bent-coins_zps241775f3.jpg.html)
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He's still bitter about the bent nickle he donated years ago.Move on Bawb. Move on. :o
(http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t82/Willy1956/bent-coins_zps241775f3.jpg) (http://s158.photobucket.com/user/Willy1956/media/bent-coins_zps241775f3.jpg.html)
You may be right NB. It is never too late to get educated. You should try it. I know I feel much better now after waisting money on some ones cause that never gets it right. :)
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You sound more jilted than anything about what you were hoping that truckload of cash would get you Bawb. ;D
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He continues to post his Mainstream/Reid link on other topics. Grasping at straws. I doubt he even read this topic starter. Some thing else for you not to have a peek at.... ::)
Warts and all
Published on November 27, 2013
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It’s a good thing Cooke Aquaculture is farming salmon, instead of elephants or llamas or warthogs. Because the most that the aquaculture firm can expect the taxpayer to pay for every diseased salmon that has to be destroyed is $30 a fish, including the costs of trucking the fish, destroying it, and cleaning contaminated vehicles and equipment.
That’s the figure included in Canada’s Compensation for Destroyed Animals regulations, regulations that insulate animal farmers from the costs incurred when animals — numbering from one into the thousands — are ordered destroyed.
The picture would be much worse if the aquaculture company was destroying thousands of warthogs: taxpayers pay up to $8,000 apiece to destroy every single good old Phacochoerus aethiopicus. Llamas and elephants are similarly expensive.
Salmon, though, are expensive enough: the Atlantic Salmon Federation has argued in the past that their research has shown that destroying diseased aquaculture salmon has cost Canadian taxpayers more than $100 million between 1996 and 2012.
Salmon producers are paid based on a combination that includes the market value of the fish, along with its age and weight, and the $30 number is the maximum. Still, it adds up in a hurry.
The biggest problem for salmon producers? Infectious salmon anemia, or ISA. It’s the disease that, most recently, has resulted in a six-month closure of Cooke Aquaculture’s Harbour Breton processing plant. Right now, the company has been ordered to dispose of several hundred thousand salmon, and has said it feels that it doesn’t want to start restocking pens until this province adopts a bay management strategy that would require full fish health protocols for all growers.
Interestingly, the provincial government started a consultation process to “inform the Provincial Aquaculture Strategy” on Monday. Here’s what the news release said: “Interested parties can submit feedback to the provincial government via the Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture website: www.fishaq.gov.nl.ca. The site now includes a consultation web page that provides information about the consultation process, features a background document about the industry, and explains how to provide input electronically or via regular mail.”
The goal? To establish “what must be done to continue fostering the success of aquaculture in Newfoundland and Labrador.” The plan does include consideration of bay management plans, but that’s about as close as the government ever gets to talking about now-regular and expensive ISA problems.
We’ll save you the trouble of going to the site: except for one single mention of the words “disease management,” fish health problems aren’t mentioned. There is not one mention of ISA or any other disease.
Nor is there any mention of the taxpayer support that goes into the industry through payment for diseased and destroyed fish.
Yet, the documents state; “This document is designed to stimulate public feedback by highlighting industry accomplishments and identifying strategic issues relevant to the continued sustainable development of aquaculture in Newfoundland and Labrador.”
Here’s a simple fact: the amount of compensation being paid to the industry should be front and centre when the merits of the business are being weighed and input is being requested. Leaving it out will only create an artificial impression.
http://www.thetelegram.com/?controll...416&rateValue=
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Here is a link for those that believe what they "want" to hear. :)
http://www.theonion.com/articles/42-million-dead-in-bloodiest-black-friday-weekend,30517/
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Here is a link for those that believe what they "want" to hear. :)
http://www.theonion.com/articles/42-million-dead-in-bloodiest-black-friday-weekend,30517/
Grasping at straws again bawb,
When you're on the spot and you're looking to say some concrete sh*t but you have nothing to say....lol
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Did you pay for this course by A Morton MB? :)
"Course Description: Thinking of establishing a nonprofit corporation? Learn what is involved in creating and operating a nonprofit charitable, educational, or scientific organization. Discover the advantages, requirements, and process of incorporation; whether to have members; the process and strategies for obtaining the preferred 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status; and the function and content of required bylaws, organizational resolutions, and other corporate documents."
http://npoglobal.com/events
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See what I mean about " grasping at straws", bawb? :P
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See what I mean about " grasping at straws", bawb? :P
You made the news :)
http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/auckland/news/nbint/272345834-clown-epidemic-in-england
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You afraid of clowns, bawb?
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You afraid of clowns, bawb?
Not at all lol. I find them entertaining. You should go back to clown school and brush up on your skills :)
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You just like posting dumbassed links. When you're grasping at straws, don't be choosy about the color, bawb.
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Critics slam federal payouts for salmon anemia compensation
The federal government has paid more than $33 million in compensation for five separate outbreaks of infectious salmon anemia in Newfoundland and Labrador, according to documents obtained by The Telegram.
In response to an inquiry in August from St. Barbe Liberal MHA Jim Bennett, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency — which had previously said it wouldn’t disclose compensation amounts paid to producers ordered to destroy salmon infected with the disease — provided the amounts paid to two New Brunswick companies in each of the outbreaks, dating back to July 2012.
In all, $33.1 million has been paid to Gray Aqua for three outbreaks — in Butter Cove, Goblin Bay and Pass My Can Island — and Kelly Cove, a division of Cooke Aquaculture, for two outbreaks — in Pot Harbour and Manuel’s Arm. The amount paid per fish varies by the outbreak, as compensation is intended to reflect market value for what the company would have received for healthy stock, to a maximum of $30 per fish.
Bennett, speaking to The Telegram, said the provincial aquaculture industry isn’t sustainable if it has to depend on compensation to be viable.
“If the feds realize how much they’re paying in compensation and decide to pull the plug on this type of reimbursement, then the industry simply couldn’t survive,” said the Liberals’ fisheries critic, adding the compensation makes aquaculture farming a no-lose prospect for producers.
“They go into a pristine environment — our waters — they take no precaution measures like closed containment, which would eliminate this completely.”
The provincial industry’s largely open-pen system results in farmed salmon catching diseases from wild stock — or infecting the wild stock, said Bennett.
“This can only be resolved by going to closed containment, either on land or using tanks in the ocean. Either technology would work. It is more expensive, but it’s nowhere near as expensive as having to pay this compensation for diseased fish.”
The economic effects of diseased fish aren’t felt just by the producer, noted Bennett — destroyed fish don’t benefit the processing and grocery industries either, he said.
Provincial Fisheries and Aquaculture Minister Keith Hutchings said there have been challenges to the aquaculture industry in the province, but contends overall it’s doing well.
“We recognize some challenges. We’ve invested heavily in our biosecurity,” he said. “We’ve gone through a consultative process now with industry which has been very receptive, developed a whole lot of information and feedback — we’ll look at that in terms of growing into our next five years and what we need to do to continue to improve.”
As for the amount of compensation paid, Hutchings said reimbursement has to be enough of a motivation for producers to report salmon outbreaks so the damage can be minimized and preventive measures taken.
“If a producer — whether producing cattle, sheep, vegetables or farmed salmon — the incentive now, if they see an irregularity in their product they’re growing, is to report that, and that the disease is then recognized, and the process starts to eradicate it,” said Hutchings.
If the reimbursement wasn’t there, producers would have less incentive to report disease, he said.
That’s not good enough, says Bill Taylor.
“Two wrongs don’t make a right,” said the president of the Atlantic Salmon Federation, a New Brunswick-based group that is heavily critical of salmon-farming methods and regulation. That producers might cover up outbreaks if they’re not compensated well enough isn’t a point in the industry’s favour, he said.
“If they would be inclined to, then that tells me that there needs to be better checks and measures, more effective control and management and monitoring by both the provincial government in Newfoundland and the federal government.”
The provincial industry is unsustainable if it requires that much compensation for producers to keep going, said Taylor.
“We certainly understand that some things happen to farmers, salmon farmers included, that are beyond their control, and there’s insurance and certain avenues for compensation available for failures and things of that nature,” said Taylor.
The problem with Newfoundland’s industry, he said, is its largely open-pen system.
“There are going to be continual issues like infectious salmon anemia, diseases and sea lice outbreaks, and pollution at the bottom of the sea floor that affect other species.”
The federation has warned the provincial and federal governments about potential problems with the industry.
“We take absolutely no satisfaction in saying ‘told you so,’” said Taylor. “That Canadian, Newfoundland taxpayers have to foot the bill to the tune of in excess of $30 million is an absolute disgrace.”
Newfoundland producers have “a sweet deal,” said Taylor.
“They’re using a public resource, which is our marine environment, which you and I own just as much as they own. They are paying next to nothing for the leases to put their sites there, and they are being paid handsomely in compensation for their poor practices. So when you have a disease outbreak, it’s very little skin off their nose, because they’re compensated for poor practices.”
Miranda Pryor, executive director of the Newfoundland Aquaculture Industry Association, called the compensation a security to keep the industry going.
“It’s no different, really, from all food-producing sectors, from the agricultural sector,” she said. “If this were to happen with chicken or beef, or say it’s an off-year for any crop production, like wheat and things like that — we’ve certainly known of instances over the years where unfortunately something does happen and the federal or provincial government has stepped in to help ensure an industry can continue.”
Pryor said the cost of transferring all provincial aquaculture production to land pens would be considerable, but that’s not the only factor, she said; raising salmon in a natural environment reduces risk factors for the farmed salmon, and she disputes the claim that contained pens would eliminate disease.
“It’s not their natural environment. Production levels have to be much higher so you have much more fish in a much more contained area,” she said. “There’s a lot of considerations.”
Pryor said she understands why the public would be concerned about compensation.
“For the most part, the companies may still break even, but there’s no benefit. The financial benefit that they would have made if the product could have been grown to market size would have been considerably more.”
In 2013, said Pryor, the industry produced about $180 million in sales.
“Obviously, yes, we share the concern, but we feel we have a long future ahead.”
A request for an interview with a Canadian Food Inspection Agency official was declined. A spokeswoman for the agency provided a written response on how compensation is determined.
“Compensation is determined on a case-by-case basis, following an assessment of the particular situation,” states the response. “To determine the actual amount of compensation, an assessment team would visit the premises. The assessment team would consist of CFIA veterinarians and may also include industry representatives and/or economists.”
Calls requesting interviews with Tim Gray of Gray Aqua and Glen Cooke of Cooke Aquaculture were not returned
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Pryor said she understands why the public would be concerned about compensation.
“For the most part, the companies may still break even, but there’s no benefit. The financial benefit that they would have made if the product could have been grown to market size would have been considerably more.”
She as most involved with the dirty fish scanal couldn't give a raison about whether they kill off all the wild Atlantic salmon in the area with their poor practices. You can practically smell the antibiotics from their fish farms on this side of the continent. :P
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"8. When the federal government orders the eradication of farm animals in any agricultural operation, whether it is a salmon farm, poultry operation or a cattle farm, the government pays compensation to the farmer."
http://thechronicleherald.ca/opinion/98042-salmon-farming-facts
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I hope you were eating some farmed salmon when you posted that bawb. :D
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Nope..... Chicken wings. :)
Meanwhile a few steps south of our boarder no chickens were harmed. Lucky?
Anyone happen to know what the tax payer bill was on this?
http://www.nature.com/news/2004/040405/full/news040405-3.html