Fishing with Rod Discussion Forum
Fishing in British Columbia => Fishing-related Issues & News => Topic started by: VAGAbond on July 29, 2009, 09:13:14 PM
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Hello
This week the Fraser River sockeye run was critically downgraded. This was no surprise to me as I looked at this generation of Fraser sockeye and they were infected with sea lice near the fish farms from Campbell River to eastern Johnstone Strait. While they are bigger than pink and chum salmon when they enter the sea, they are damaged by the lice, you can see an image on the website www.adopt-a-fry.org The pattern keeps repeating. If they caught farm lice when they were young, they never come home. As soon as the farm salmon are removed, they do come home.
Actor William Shatner is lending his star power to our efforts and wrote to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. His letter is on our website.
One of the signatories on our letter to the Minister of Fisheries generously donated his services to produce a full page information ad on salmon farms. You can see Gary Dunham, of Mercury Graphics in Langley BC's work on the "Action" page at www.adopt-a-fry.org Thank you Gary for your patience and talent.
Many people have heard about the salmon farming controversy, but they don’t know the specifics. I have included some of the many issues that are causing the problems with this industry. I would really like to hear from you about which local newspapers this should appear in. If you could send me a link to the paper that would be really great. Any financial assistance in running this ad in your community would also be welcome.
The downgrade of the Fraser sockeye is a warning we can choose to ignore or react to. Alaska is seeing huge sockeye returns and they do not allow Atlantic salmon to be penned on their salmon migration routes. We can make many guesses as to what happened to our sockeye, but it does not make sense to ignore the one that has been researched and published and seen worldwide. Commercial, sport and tourism operators are taking losses to protect our wild salmon and yet the fish farms just keep getting bigger and more numerous.
There is something very wrong here and if we want our wild salmon we need to speak now or forever lose our fish.
Standing by,
Alexandra Morton
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http://www-ops2.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/xnet/content/salmon/sc%20stad/HeydonCreek/HeydonCreekSockeye2009-3.pdf
Heydon Creek sockeye enter Johnstone Strait directly. They are seeing a strong return this year. If sea lice were the problem, wouldn't this run be crashing too?
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http://www-ops2.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/xnet/content/salmon/sc%20stad/HeydonCreek/HeydonCreekSockeye2009-3.pdf
Heydon Creek sockeye enter Johnstone Strait directly. They are seeing a strong return this year. If sea lice were the problem, wouldn't this run be crashing too?
I think the sealice are a problem when the fry need to pass by a fish farm on their way out to the ocean.... Do the Heydon Creek sockeye pass by a fish farm?
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From this map: http://www.agf.gov.bc.ca/fisheries/Finfish/cabinet/marine_fishfarms.pdf
There is 1 fish farm (1136 - Shaw Point) that is in the path from the spawning grounds to the open ocean.
(The purple triangles are applications)
Hate to be a fish spawned in Frederick Arm - 11 fish farms to go past to get into the Strait.
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Thanks for bringing this issue up again. Maybe some of the blinded forum readers will finally see the light and point their frustration in the right direction and not at fellow anglers.
Check this link out; it's very eye opening:
http://www.adopt-a-fry.org/?page_id=202
Any anglers that purchase and eat farmed BC salmon need to give their heads a shake.
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Thanks for bringing this issue up again. Maybe some of the blinded forum readers will finally see the light and point their frustration in the right direction and not at fellow anglers.
Check this link out; it's very eye opening:
http://www.adopt-a-fry.org/?page_id=202
Any anglers that purchase and eat farmed BC salmon need to give their heads a shake.
I agree with you on the fish farm issue; but insulting forum members you don't agree with as "blind" is a cheap and unnecessary. If your arguments are good enough you do not need to make personal slags.
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From this map: http://www.agf.gov.bc.ca/fisheries/Finfish/cabinet/marine_fishfarms.pdf
There is 1 fish farm (1136 - Shaw Point) that is in the path from the spawning grounds to the open ocean.
(The purple triangles are applications)
Perhaps that farm is using "SLICE" a form of injested pesticide that kills sea lice. See http://www.farmedanddangerous.org/page/sealicechemical (http://www.farmedanddangerous.org/page/sealicechemical)
SLICE
One of the most significant and well-studied impacts of salmon farming on wild salmon is the transfer of sea lice from fish farms to juvenile wild salmon during out-migration. Attempts to control sea lice outbreaks on salmon farms by industry and government have been through emamectin benzoate, sold under the commercial name SLICE.
Emamectin benzoate, the active ingredient in SLICE, is a pesticide that is administered to farmed fish through their feed. In BC, there is a withdrawal period of 68 days between when SLICE can be administered and fish can be harvested for human consumption.2
To date, SLICE has:
* not been tested for food safety by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency
* not been licensed by Health Canada; or
* not been permitted for use through the Pesticide Control Act
Yet, SLICE is still the preferred chemical for sea lice control in Canada. In BC, salmon farmers are approved to use SLICE through the Emergency Drug Release Program which allows the use of non-approved drugs when recommended by veterinarians for emergency situations.
SLICE is not used for the occasional emergency. Outbreaks of sea lice are so prevalent in industrial net-pens that the use of SLICE has become standard operating procedure. In 2003, 37 million farmed salmon in Canada were treated with SLICE. A steady dependence on SLICE by the BC salmon farming industry has been recorded by the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands.3
Emamectin benzoate belongs to a class of chemicals called avermectins, which are axonic poisons affecting nerve cells.4 Farmed fish ingest SLICE as a coating on commercial food pellets. Digestion releases the drug to pass through the lining of the fish’s gut and into the fish’s tissues, from where it takes about a week to be eliminated.5 Although SLICE contains emamectin benzoate (0.2%), an active ingredient in pesticides, it is classified as a drug because it is fed to the fish rather than applied externally.
Overuse or over-reliance on any single compound has been shown to lead to the development of resistance by the target organism. Evidence of resistance to SLICE has recently been reported in Chile.
SLICE lacks specificity; it puts marine organisms in the vicinity of treated salmon farms at risk. A report commissioned by the World Wildlife Fund’s Salmon Aquaculture Dialogue (SAD) found that sea lice therapeutants (such as SLICE) negatively impact the environment through its effects on non-target wild crustaceans such as shrimp, crabs and prawns, and may remain in the environment from ten days to six months.
Makes me want to go out and buy some farmed salmon for dinner tonight.... not! ???
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Heydon Creek sockeye enter Johnstone Strait directly. They are seeing a strong return this year. If sea lice were the problem, wouldn't this run be crashing too?
The fish farms on Okisollo channel between Quadra and Sonora island have been identified as a significant problem for Fraser Sockeye smolts. The Heydon Creek Sockeye don't go past these farms.
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I agree with you on the fish farm issue; but insulting forum members you don't agree with as "blind" is a cheap and unnecessary. If your arguments are good enough you do not need to make personal slags.
Sorry, you misunderstood my post.
I didn't call people 'blind', I called them 'blinded'.
Just like I was when I believed sockeye bite in the Fraser.
Big difference there.
There are no personal slags in my post, as no names are mentioned.
And as far as impersonal slags go, we all do it all the time.
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While this seasonal issue is in the news and a hot topic, it's an ideal time to be contacting our MLA's and MP's.
This won't get resolved by leaving Alexandra and David Suzuki to look after the Salmon - we've all got to raise our voices AND take some action - in a positive and constructive way. "We" need to stop complaining and being part of the problem. We need to each be part of a solution.
Shutting down recreational fishing is not really an effective part of a solution and although volunteering not to fish is a generous gesture, the few thousand fish that rec. fishers take hardly makes a difference. We HAVE TO do bigger things.
I haven't seen anyone write that they would take the 8 hours they would spend on a one day fishing trip and use it to:
* go door-to-door and tell people about the problem, or
* get a petition signed, or
* pass out form letters at the Mall, or
* get their local businessmen who are affected by wild salmon survival to contribute to a salmon protection cause, or
*......
on a side note, IMO - if the First Nations wanted to do something to help their cause, they would do what they could to get the Rec fishers on their side. F.N can catch more in one good day that us Rec fishers harvest all year.
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It is really hard to convince the public and thus the politicians given the huge lack of awareness of this subject. As an example of the degree of ignorance , I took a working associate who had expressed an interest in fishing out to a local river when the salmon were there in numbers to let him try it. One of his questions just about knocked me over. He wondered whether the spawning salmon were migrating up the river or down. As one who grew up here and absorbed this knowledge with my mother milk, I could hardly comprehend this ignorance. But this was an otherwise competent member of our society and a voter.
When you address these issues in a public forum, don't make any assumptions about prior knowledge.
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Full page color ad in today's Chilliwack Times, well layed out. ;D Did anyone else see it in any other papers?
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New message from Alexandra Morton
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Hello All
Every time I send an email out to this list you ask what can you do. I am sorry for so many emails, but time is of the essence. As our wild salmon stocks suffer an enormous setback, the Minster of Fisheries is in Norway with a large delegation promoting Canada to the Norwegian fish farming industry. An organization called Pure Salmon (www.puresalmon.org) is there and will be delivering all 300 pages of our letter to Fisheries Minister Shea at the Aqua Nor tradeshow. Pure salmon has sent a letter to the King of Norway which I signed and have have pasted below.
Vancouver filmmaker Damien Gillis is showing this film in Norway asking them to stop killing our salmon.
http://www.puresalmon.org/video2.html
When I was in Norway last spring it was clear that Norway has no idea how Canadians and Americans feel about their industry. With our top Fisheries representative telling Norwegian fish farmers that Canada is open for business, this is not surprising. There are 10,000 emails on this list. If you want to set the record straight yourself - here are the people in Norway to contact:
The royal palace of Norway: post@slottet.no
The Norwegian Fisheries Minister, Helga Pedersen: helga.pedersen@fkd.dep.no
The Norwegian Prime Minister's: postmottak@smk.dep.no
Pure Salmon: lkaran@pewtrusts.org
Canadian Minister of Fisheries: Min@dfo-mpo.gc.ca
http://www.puresalmon.org/video2.html
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This is a very important video and I hope everyone watches it. Alexandra Morton and colleagues are on the verge of making a large political stride in the fight to move/eliminate/change the Norwegian aquaculture farms in BC coastal waters. Please pass this link on to anyone you know. If our voice is unified and strong, we can make this very necessary change happen.
www.adopt-a-fry.org (http://www.adopt-a-fry.org)
http://www.puresalmon.org/ (http://www.puresalmon.org/)
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Got this link from another site. I am asking everyone I know to give me their contact info so I can mail out letters on their behalf. Don't be apathetic to the cause and help out! All the hard work is done you just have to put your information in.
Thanks to Grant for doing the hard part.
http://www.grantbrown.ca/salmonfarms/
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I'll be using the addresses in the top of these emails and writing my own letters. I hope more people get on board. I wish it was legal to post academic literature, I have access to electronic copies of journals and have read tons of literature from Scotland, Norway, Ireland, and Canada about the adverse effects of open pen fish farms and the evidence is strong and conclusive. Fish farms are killing juvenile salmon fry and smolts on their outward migration to the sea.
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One small question, is there any way possible for me to contribute to this if I am only 12 years of age and I don't pay taxes and stuff like that yet?
I would really like to help the cause so just let me know.
Thanks Nicolas.
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fill it out ... your still a concerned angler... regardless of age....
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Templates downloaded and 4 letters to posted from me shortly.....
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I am sending one to the PM, one to my MP, one to our 'Beloved' premier... (sorry - had to pick myself off the floor from laughing so hard) and one to my MLA.... :)
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http://www.callingfromthecoast.com/
If this isn't persuasive, and scientific literature isn't persuasive, then what is?
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Please explain to me why the Skeena Sockeye have also crashed this year as well...No Fish Farms there!
As well, Harrison River Sockeye numbers are up...
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http://www.callingfromthecoast.com/
If this isn't persuasive, and scientific literature isn't persuasive, then what is?
If you have a minute go to www.fisheries.no (Norway Government fishery website ) and can anybody explain to me how Norway Government can have the proper plan to save salmon available with everybody invloved without personal, political and other "agendas" and why we cannot have it here in Canada ?????? Norway recognizes the threat of sea lice to wild salmon, they already experienced almost collpase of their wild fish stocks due to unregulated and unmonitored fish farming.
Here are articles from Norway website:
Salmon lice
There are considerable disease interactions between wild and farmed stock, especially among salmonid fish.Certain diseases can threaten the existence of wild fish stock. One such disease is infection with Lepeophtheirus -sea lice, which
represents a threat to migrating salmon and smolt in salt water estuaries and fjord (inlet) systems.
Salmon lice pose a threat to both farmed salmon and wild salmon stocks. There is a documented link between the incidence of lice in farmed salmon and in lice found on wild salmon. The most important means of reducing the problem of lice in wild stocks is therefore to prevent, monitor and combat salmon lice in fish farms, as stipulated in the National action plan to combat salmon lice.
Counts of salmon lice in Sognefjord from 2000 until 2004 show a clear decline in the incidence of salmon lice. This clear decline proves that the work of reducing levels of salmon lice in general in fish farms has a positive effect on the incidence of salmon lice larvae in the fjord system. Annual salmon lice counts were introduced in the Hardangerfjord in 2004. “The Hardangerfjord project”, which is a cooperative effort between the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research, the Department of Ecology and Natural Resource Management (INA) at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, the National Veterinary Institute, the Norwegian Institute of Fisheries and Aquaculture Research and the Hardanger fish health network have for two years in succession shown that there are low levels of lice on wild fish and low levels of lice on exposed test fish in netpens.
Furthermore, the monitoring of salmon lice among wild fish will also be part of an evaluation and monitoring programme in connection with the creation of national salmon watercourses and fjords. The Norwegian Food Safety Authority will be responsible for implementing this monitoring programme.
Norway has in place a programme with cooperation with the environmental authorities to combat sea lice. Norway has the National Action Plan to combat sea lice in fish farms and wild salmon, managed by The Directorate of Fisheries.
AGAIN - WHY WE CANNOT HAVE IT HERE IN CANADA ?????? :o
Also, scientists from numerous univerisites (Hawaii, Alberta, Victoria...) have proven that if infected by sea lice, 95% of slamon smolts will die and if infected by sea lice, 99% of salmon run will disapear within two generation.
All this our Govenrment politic and "agenda" makes me sick to my stomach..
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This is disgusting and dismaying.
http://www.canadainternational.gc.ca/norway-norvege/commerce_canada/aquanor07/aquaculture.aspx
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So, why exactly do you think Fish Farms are bad? Sea Lice....what else?
If you think getting rid of fish farms will somehow miraculously make all the Fraser River Sockeye come back you are unfortunately mistaken.
Whether you like it or not they are here to stay.
If you get rid of them say good bye to a lot of the coastal communities of Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast.
The disappearing salmon stocks is happening up and down the Pacific Coast....California, Oregon, Washington, and unfortunately throughout BC
One cannot blame Fish Farms for everything! It's just very convenient.
So if you succeed and "drive them out of town" and still the fish don't come back, what's next on the list? BC Ferries, Cruise Ships?, Whale watching tours?
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Why is it disgusting?
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So, why exactly do you think Fish Farms are bad? Sea Lice....what else?
If you think getting rid of fish farms will somehow miraculously make all the Fraser River Sockeye come back you are unfortunately mistaken.
Whether you like it or not they are here to stay.
If you get rid of them say good bye to a lot of the coastal communities of Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast.
The disappearing salmon stocks is happening up and down the Pacific Coast....California, Oregon, Washington, and unfortunately throughout BC
One cannot blame Fish Farms for everything! It's just very convenient.
So if you succeed and "drive them out of town" and still the fish don't come back, what's next on the list? BC Ferries, Cruise Ships?, Whale watching tours?
Well, yes, the problem IS heavily concentrated sea lice population in and around fish farms HER in BC AND pesticides used to treat farmed salmon in order for them to survive. These pesticides are not allowed by Canada Health and can stay in the salmon meat up to 1 year.
It is proven taht these pestcicdes are unhelathy to human being and other aqauculture.
You are somewaht missing the main point about fish farms: the problem is not to have them here, but TO HAVE them properly controlled, have an action plan (developed by the Government with close cooperation with scientists) to combat sea lice overpopulation (regardles if it is a wild or farmed salmon) and maybe to use a different technology of a fish farm to raise farm slamon and not to build the fish farms on the wild salmon main route.
If you would have a minute and visit the Norway website www.fisheries.no then you will EXACTLY know what is the problem with uncontrolled fish farming. Norway paid a "hughe price" already by almost wipping out all their salmon and other sfish tock before recognizing the fatal damage of unconttolled and unregulated fish farming. If a salmonid smolt is infested, 95% will not survive. Here in BC we have no any developed action plan to ::)combat sea lice (all 13 species) and actually the Government is turning "blind eyes" and "deaf ears" to this extremely serious problem.
If we will not combat sea lice and fish farming here will have a "free ride", you can be absolutely sure that all salmon runs and other fish stock will soon be depleted (it takes two fish generations only to wipe out a run) and the ecological catastrofe will happen.
Are you still supporting to have and to allow the uncontrolled fish farming here in BC waters ??? :o
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I dont think anyone is saying run them out of town. Get the pens out of the water! mykisscrazy are you telling me its helping???
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mykisscrazy are you telling me its helping???
No he's not saying that. He's saying:
One cannot blame Fish Farms for everything! It's just very convenient.
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So, why exactly do you think Fish Farms are bad? Sea Lice....what else?
If you think getting rid of fish farms will somehow miraculously make all the Fraser River Sockeye come back you are unfortunately mistaken.
Whether you like it or not they are here to stay.
If you get rid of them say good bye to a lot of the coastal communities of Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast.
The disappearing salmon stocks is happening up and down the Pacific Coast....California, Oregon, Washington, and unfortunately throughout BC
One cannot blame Fish Farms for everything! It's just very convenient.
So if you succeed and "drive them out of town" and still the fish don't come back, what's next on the list? BC Ferries, Cruise Ships?, Whale watching tours?
Fish farming is good because humans consume farmed Salmon rather than wild stocks of fish. It's a predictable and renewable commodity. This sharply contrasts the classical model for seafood production and distribution which sought wild stocks and were largely dependent on seasonal variation and "finding the fish". This is what caused the Atlantic Cod fishery to collapse. However, open net-cage farms producing fish such as salmon have significant ecological implications. They cause devastating damage to the marine environment through the use of pesticides, detergents, and other harmful chemicals. Thousands of open-caged Atlantic Salmon in close contact with one another is an abundance of food (hosts) for Salmonid parasites such as sea lice (Lepeophtheirus salmonis). This increases the carrying capacity of the aquatic habitat these parasites live in and in response they multiply by the millions. The parasites in their mobile stage can freely diffuse or swim out into the open ocean through the pens and do so rapidly. Due to the positioning of most Salmon farms, they are near estuarine coastal water which is directly in the path of small salmon fry and smolts on their outward migration to sea. Specifically pink, chum, and sockeye salmon are most vulnerable as they are the smallest in size when they reach the ocean. These "clouds" of parasites have been documented to wipe out wild salmon runs (Norway, Scotland, Ireland, Chile, Broughton Archipelago, BC). Getting rid of them altogether is not a feasible option because Salmon farming is a vital component of coastal economies. What we demand is closed system aquaculture. Simply put, it is a much better way to farm fish. It ensures no contact between wild and farmed fish, eliminating nearly all of the negative impacts. The problem is that these Norwegian aquaculture companies are not forced by law to spend millions of dollars to transform open-net fish farms into closed containment farms. If there is no political pressure they will pillage our coast until the wild salmon are gone and people become more dependent on farmed salmon.
I hope that cleared things up for you,
jon
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Talked to Rafe yesterday at the rally. He recounted a conversation with an expert on fish farm consequences in Galway, Ireland in which the Irish researcher asked in frustration whether people in our part of the world could read. The negative information is there, we just have to pay attention.
Yes, fish farms have a place and they are not going to go away but to have our Federal Government selling our coast in Norway given the present level of concern is unbelievable.
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MYKISSCRAZY I think your out to lunch ::)
Comparing the Fraser run and Skeena is comparing apples to Oranges.
Yes you are right that the skeena salmon dont migrate past fish farms the way
Fraser sockeye do. Why compare them?
Lets compare apples to apples. If the skeena fish had similar migration routes (fish farms)as
the Fraser sockeye then were on the same page. BUT THEY DONT !
If I am not mistaken the Skeena numbers are not that far off of the previous runs.
The Fraser is WAY off.
Are you employed by the fish farm industry?
How about closed containment farming. GO FOR IT.
Can you honestly say open net fish farming is good?
MYKISSCRAZY eh...
Bluesteele
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Why not compare them?
Like I said, Skeena sockeye are also in trouble. They too had good numbers of smolts heading out to sea. Why haven't they come back? They did not swim past any fish farms in their area.
No I am not employed by the Aquaculture Industry.
What I am saying is that one cannot put all the (if any ) blame on this industry.
Look up and down the entire Pacific Coast.
The coho southern range is slowly being pushed northward, same with Chinook, Steelhead, and our beloved sockeye. There is no sea pen aquaculture in the California, Oregon, and Washington, so what the heck is going on?
It's convenient to blame this industry
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Why not compare them?
Like I said, Skeena sockeye are also in trouble. They too had good numbers of smolts heading out to sea. Why haven't they come back? They did not swim past any fish farms in their area.
No I am not employed by the Aquaculture Industry.
What I am saying is that one cannot put all the (if any ) blame on this industry.
Look up and down the entire Pacific Coast.
The coho southern range is slowly being pushed northward, same with Chinook, Steelhead, and our beloved sockeye. There is no sea pen aquaculture in the California, Oregon, and Washington, so what the heck is going on?
It's convenient to blame this industry
Your comments are a convenient way to absolve the industry of any blame. That's why you are getting the arguments.... ::)
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I am new to this discussion, but I find it hard to believe, after watching the video on juvenile sockeyes full of sea lices around the fish farms, that our government is not convinced that the lices are killing off sockeye runs. What kind of reasoning is that?
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It is reasoning influenced by money.
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Sea lice probably don't kill salmon smolts directly and that point will probably be made by farming proponents. I have read statements that salmon smolts resist lice well and that may be true. Put lice loaded smolts in a tank and they probably survive. But a salmon smolt loaded with lice might be just a teeny bit slow and there are a million dogfish etc. etc waiting to eat him. So lice don't kill smolts but they result in the smolt being dead. It is a question of semantics.
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I've seen photos of freshly dead salmon smolts covered in lice. A smolt 1 inch long can be killed by 4+ sea lice.
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There is a lethal limit scientifically derived and is a function of the weight in grams of the fish. Let me find the function..