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[Rodney]

Hurt by aquaculture industry - Frustrated BC business owners ask why Government doesn't value their economic contribution?

(Port McNeill, BC, Nov. 9, 2007) In an unprecedented move, a diverse group of BC business people have placed an advertisement in a national newspaper. The ad strongly criticizes current Government policy (Federal and BC) that supports fish farms to the detriment of the natural environment and wild salmon stocks.

The timing of the advertisement is coincident with the unveiling of the SaveBCsalmon.ca website. Citizens can participate in their web-based petition.

Facing a pending government decision about fish farming, this previously unallied group of wilderness tourism operators, sport and commercial fishermen, seafood processors and concerned coastal residents pooled their resources to purchase the full page ad in the National Edition of today's Globe and Mail.

These businesses and individuals want fish farms moved away from BC's major juvenile salmon migration routes. Science shows that juvenile salmon die with even 1-2 sea lice. In nature, young and mature salmon (which host sea lice) rarely mingle. Fish farmers and Government must respect this natural law if wild salmon are to continue to exist.

Young Pink Salmon, from the Broughton Archipelago (2006), being predated upon by sea lice.

For twenty years, business people and residents on the BC Coast have maintained an accommodating attitude toward fish farming. Armed with rapidly evolving scientific evidence that sea lice associated with salmon farms are decimating local salmon stocks, accommodation is turning to anger.

"Fish farming is worth $600 million to the BC economy," said Craig Murray owner of Nimmo Bay Resort. "Wilderness tourism and fishing combined bring in over $ 1.6 billion to BC and is growing. Tourism is now a 10 Billion dollar industry and Premier Campbell has been challenged to double its revenue in the Province by 2015. But we can't survive without wild salmon, and government is making us the loser group! There are too many outside interests that compromise tourism and our wild salmon in BC. Both fresh and salt water anglers across BC and beyond should be aware of this injustice.

"Members of our organization have supported research on sea lice and even wild salmon habitat restoration, from their own pockets. We know the problem is real, we are not crying 'Wolf,'" stated Brian Gunn, president of the Wilderness Tourism Association. "We are businesspeople who feel the government is abandoning us, by allowing our lifeblood to drain away. We have had it."

"I contributed to the ad, because anglers across BC abide by a long list of conservation measures to protect adult salmon - only to have the young fish killed by sea lice. What a waste," observed Chris Bennett of Blackfish Lodge.

"I just don't get it," says Steve Kelly of Coastal Springs Float Lodge. "When the Department of Fisheries and Oceans say they need to protect wild salmon, they just close us and the season down. But here, with a rising pile of evidence about the danger of sea lice, they allow fish farms to be filled up year after year. This just results in more sea lice killing more baby salmon. Where is the government science on this issue?"

"My family helped buy this ad because we feel that the Minister is taking the Coast the wrong way," says Donna Mackay, of Mackay Whale Watching. "We are very concerned. This summer, the Orca whales (killer whales) that our business depends on were hunting over a huge area of ocean. We believe it was because of a lack of wild salmon. For our business, it was bad news, but worse for the Orca's which are already listed as a threatened species. They cannot survive without wild salmon."

On May 16, 2007, the Special Legislative Committee on Sustainable Aquaculture (SCSA) tabled their report. After traveling the length of British Columbia to hear about the fish farm controversy, the SCSA made a daring recommendation - move the fish farming industry from open net pens into closed containment within 5 years to protect wild salmon. Pat Bell, the BC Minister of Agriculture and Lands in charge of fish farm siting has been silent on responding to the Report, but he has approved four more open net pen sites since May 2007.

To view the Advertisement or a map of salmon farm locations, go to their website.

For further information, contact:

Donna Mackay, Mackay Whale Watching, 250-956-9865

Craig Murray, Nimmo Bay Resort, 250-956-3297

http://www.fishingwithrod.com/fishy_news/071109_1.html

[newsman]

Nice to see what others are doing in the fight, but I wonder if it will have any effect. I have received some info from high up that the DFO would like to see the wild salmon terminated. Still checking my sources, but if what I have heard is true the future looks grim.

[purplehelmet]

Seems true, but that's some serious conspiracy s**t.

[mattcass]

With the all the life cycle requirements salmon have from spawning grounds, to over-wintering habitat, to ocean migration routes, and in the open ocean itself, it's no surprise that their protection falls to the bottom of the list when so many other industries demand the same resources.

Conspiracies aside, I spent 3 months in the Broughton Archipelago this spring. I helped researchers from SFU study the behavioral interactions between the salmon, sea lice, and other species like the stickleback. I saw the schools of juvenile pink and chum salmon covered in sea lice. Yes it really is as bad as savebcsalmon says it is. Infection rates were over 80% this year, and that's down from previous years. Problems are showing up all over the place. Halibut are even being effected. They have sores and blemishes that fishermen have never seen before. There's really no denying the science anymore and something really needs to be done.

Of course DFO and the farms will say that there is no evidence, or the methods and results are questionable, or returns in the fall are no different than before the farms. Well the latest word from the Broughton is that a local river, the Viner, saw just 85 chum counted this season. The hatchery couldn't operate there were so few fish and the stream walker who's been doing surveys for 20 years has never see it this bad.

I highly recommend everyone to visit callingfromthecoast.com and check out the videos. They are a fantastic overview of a lot of the issues in the Broughton.

Here's an anecdotal story from the first days of the fish farms...

Before the farms in the Broughton were in place, the farming companies had to consult with the community. They were concerned about the effects their farms would have on already established businesses. In particular, the sport fishing industry as well as the prawning industry, among others. So the sport fishing guides were asked, where do you catch your fish? What areas are the most valuable to you? Obviously the guides were reluctant to give up this information as any guide would be. Alex Morton, in her passionate crusade to protect the Broughton, convinced the guides to give up their favorite spots. Those areas had to be protected.

So the prized spots where you could always count on a catch were given up. Best to avoid stepping on the toes of the local economy... but wait! All those areas that the fish were caught had the best conditions for fish. The freshest water. The most sweeping currents. The best place to catch, and raise, salmon. I don't have to tell you where the fish farms ended up. That is what the industries calls 'consulting with the community.'

I've got a dozen more stories just like that one. All just as bad and devious. Not just from the farmers either.

[Rodney]

Matt, good info. To successfully tackle this problem, everyone should really stay objective. There are individuals who are working hard to gain support not just at the local level, but also internationally. This was published today on Denmark's sportfishing society website asking for anglers to sign the petition:

http://www.sportsfiskeren.dk/nyheder/Nyheder_2007/November/Underskriftindsamling_til_fordel_for_canadiske_laks/

[blueback]

I just noticed, read and signed the petition. I really can't understand why there isn't more noise about this. I should think this entire FWR membership would line up to sign this one (not to mention a number of other stakeholders). If people believe it is really too late, apathy will make prophets of them all.   

[blueback]

WOW; OK, so why aren't more folks interested in this? Just curious guys. Anybody? 

[mattcass]

I'm not surprised by the lack of response. DFO has done a great job of misleading the public into thinking there is some sort of debate about this issue. To sum it up, there are two sides to the argument. 1) DFO's point of view that is supported by their studies that fit their models and 2) everybody else.

If you want a slightly technical understanding of the issues, keep reading....



Although not a statement made by DFO, here's a letter written into the province this week in response to a story about a new study involving sea lice.

"Lice Study Doesn't Stand Up"

Scientists often use theoretical models to help understand complex interactions in nature.

But the model used in the recent report that focused on the risk to wild B.C. salmon from sea lice generated by fish farms doesn't stand up to the data measured by DFO.

When researchers exposed pink and chum salmon to either 243 or 735 lice per fish, they didn't measure any mortality at all. It seems Pacific salmon have very effective immunological responses against sea lice. DFO-led research has also shown native sticklebacks appear to be a significant source of sea lice.

Previous scare stories about farmed salmon have been proven wrong. Now DFO research has raised strong doubts about a link between sea lice, wild salmon, and salmon farming.

Robert Wager, Nanaimo

Now on the surface that may seem like a reasonable argument. The author is, after all,talking about legitimate research. Unfortunately for anyone that is familiar with the research, sea lice biology, and infection patterns these statements are taken completely out of context and intentionally misleading. To truly understand why statements like those made in that letter are deceiving, it's necessary to understand sea lice biology.

Sea Lice Life Biology

Adult wild salmon in the ocean naturally have sea lice. I'm sure many of you anglers have caught salmon in the ocean and seen the small, black lice on the fish, typically near the anal fin. On an adult salmon the lice are completely benign. The fish have scales to protect them and while some lice may burrow underneath scales to feed on the flesh of the salmon, they are simply too small on such a large fish to do any harm.

The large, visible stage of sea lice is the adult stage. Also referred to as the 'motile' stage because the lice can actively move around on the salmon. This is the stage at which the lice reproduce. A male will find a female on the salmon, the two will mate, and the female will begin to produce egg strings. These long, 1 to 2 cm long strings contain the eggs. As the eggs develop they are released into the water. The eggs develop, hatch, and can then attach themselves to a fish if one swims by. If the do not find a fish host, they will die.

Baby lice that are lucky enough to find a fish attach to the fish and develop. Naturally, this is the 'attached' stage of the lice. It is immature and not yet ready to reproduce. It will take a week or two to develop and then becomes the 'motile' stage, finds a mate, then the cycle continues. The life span of a sea lice is about 4-6 weeks (i believe).

Lice and Salmon Migration

Lice are a salt water species. They cannot survive in fresh water. When adult salmon return to the coast from the open ocean and enter freshwater environments, the lice die. During the adult salmon migration through coastal waters, mature sea lice on the salmon were releasing eggs. Like in the open ocean, the eggs develop and attempt to find a host.

Unfortunately for the lice, the only large mass of fish in the immediate area (normally, without fish farms) are the adult salmon migrating to fresh water environment. Without suitable hosts, the lice that are brought by the adult salmon to the coastal ecosystem quickly die. Their life cycle is less than a month so any adults that may remain in the area die long before the spring. This leaves coastal waters sea lice free when the juvenile salmon migrate out in the spring.

Some adult salmon may reside on coast during the spring but the total amount of salmon is very minimal and not enough to threaten juvenile salmon with any kind of substantial sea lice infection.

[mattcass]

The Fish Farm Problem

Fish that are added to open water pens are initially sea lice free, but quickly become infected. What is the source of the infection? Adult salmon. As stated earlier, the adults carry sea lice back to the coastal waters. Normally there is no significant mass of fish in the coastal environment to carry-on the sea lice infection. However, a fish farm with millions of adult salmon is the perfect host.

Given the close proximity of fish in farms and the sheer numbers of fish, it's no surprise that sea lice infections quickly become a major problem. Around 50 adult lice can be found on an average farmed salmon. Multiply that by 100,000 fish, then multiply that by thousands of eggs released per lice. The number of sea lice eggs produced by a single farm is in the billions.

In addition, the sea lice are able to over winter on the farms. Juvenile salmon that would normally migrate out through clean coastal waters are now swimming through billions of sea lice eggs. The juveniles quickly become infected. Those lice develop into adults.

Sea Lice and Juvenile Salmon

A typical juvenile pink or chum salmon is only 1 to 3 grams and roughly 30-60 millimeters long. They have yet to even develop scales. They are tiny.

An adult female sea lice, with developing eggs and a voracious appetite, is completely devastating to a juvenile salmon. I have seen juveniles literally chewed to the bone by the lice. It may take only 1 or 2 lice to kill a juvenile salmon. When a salmon farm is producing billions of eggs, the likelihood of a juvenile becoming infected is incredibly high. Once infected, there is little chance for a baby salmon.

Furthermore, the juveniles rarely only have to pass one fish farm. In the Broughton Archipelago they often have to pass 5 or 10 farms before reaching Johnstone Straight. Then there are even more farms along the north-east coast of the island.

Misinformation

Let's return to the editorial letter written above and examine some of the statements.

When researchers exposed pink and chum salmon to either 243 or 735 lice per fish, they didn't measure any mortality at all.

There are two key questions to ask here. 1) What stage of sea lice? and 2) What size of fish?

1) What stage of sea lice?

243 and 735 lice is a lot of lice per fish. The lice however, were the just-developed attached stage. This is also 'exposure' NOT 'infection.' Infecting a salmon of any size with 243 or 735 lice would be impossible. Although it is hard to discern, I believe the study states that just 7 days after exposure to 243 lice, the number of lice on a total of 160 pink or chum salmon (320 fish total) was 34 and 50 sea lice, respectively. Only 1/3 of the pinks were infected and of those pinks, the average number of lice per fish was just 0.9! The numbers for chum are just slightly higher.

By the time the sea lice had developed into adults (21 days) the number of sea lice had dropped to just 2 on all the pinks. That's an average of 0.1 lice per fish, +/- 0.1 lice per fish. That effectively means none of the fish were infected! These are all numbers from the study by the way.

Is anyone surprised that with just 2 sea lice on 160 pink salmon that none of them died? Of course not! No mortality is almost expected.

2) What size of fish?

I said before that the typical size of an out-migrating juvenile salmon that is found to be infected with sea lice is just 1-3 g. Well in this study the average size of the exposed pink and chum salmon were 19.0 g and 17.2 g, respectively. So 160, 19 gram pink salmon had a total of 2 adult sea lice on them and none of them died.

Onto part two...

DFO-led research has also shown native sticklebacks appear to be a significant source of sea lice.

Getting into the stickleback issue requires a whole separate level of explanation I am not going to get into. There's a lot of debate going on right now as to whether sticklebacks are a source of sea lice infection to juvenile salmon, or in fact, a sink for sea lice (e.g. the sticklebacks absorb sea lice away from the salmon).

I will state these facts from a study that was published by the same author that did the pink/chum infection experiment analyzed above (DFO scientist).

The author sampled a HUGE number of sticklebacks from the coastal waters of the Broughton Archipelago. In total, over 1,300 sticklebacks were examined and from those sticklebacks came 19,960 of one sea lice species, and 2,340 of another. The more abundant sea lice species is the one most commonly found on juvenile salmon, so let's focus on that.

Of those 19,960 sea lice over 97% were in the development stage. That's the 'attached, not going anywhere, and definitely not infecting juvenile salmon' stage. In fact, out of the 19,960 sea lice only 5 were adults. Put in percentage terms, thats 0.025%. It was not stated if those adults were male or female.

With only 0.025% of the population at the reproductive stage, how exactly are the sea lice maintaining an infection on sticklebacks? And since the developmental sea lice can't jump onto juvenile salmon from sticklebacks, how are lice from sticklebacks infecting salmon? Both are very important questions. Regardless, the author of the paper concluded that sticklebacks appeared to be a significant source of infection to juvenile salmon. Don't ask me how.

--------------------------------------


If you managed to get through all that, you'll have come to realize that there is a HUGE amount going on with this issue. I've completely omitted any references to modeling because that data is currently beyond my off-hand knowledge level. But let me tell you the most important thing of all this.

Europe has had fish farms for ages. They have been through all this research we are doing now and unequivocally concluding that fish farms are the source of sea lice infection to juvenile salmon. They have made laws to avoid the issues we are having right now with our juvenile salmon. The data collected here by researchers other than DFO, matches the data from Europe. It is only DFO data and DFO models that work together. Nothing else fits with what DFO is saying.

[BwiBwi]

Is fish lice a problem... yes
Does current fish farming practice concentrate fish lice population.... yes
Is fish farm needed...  yes

The petition is aimed to shutdown all fish farm activities.  However, with the population expantion and food resource requirement, fish farm is just not avoidable.  Once bylaws' passed to ban fish farm it will be hard to reverse it.  This is not what the government want to see.

What need to be changed is the method those farm utilizes.  But not banning fish farm.

[mattcass]

The petition is aimed to shutdown all fish farm activities.  However, with the population expantion and food resource requirement, fish farm is just not avoidable.  Once bylaws' passed to ban fish farm it will be hard to reverse it.  This is not what the government want to see.

What need to be changed is the method those farm utilizes.  But not banning fish farm.

The petion is absolutely NOT trying to shut down fish farms. That is clearly stated in the letter:

Ministers Bell and Hearn you are in the hot seat. We can have wild salmon and farm fish, but unless you fix what is broken, you will extinguish BC’s greatest renewable resource.

You can give Broughton and Fraser River salmon immediate sea lice relief. Remove fish farms from Broughton and Discovery Island wild salmon migration routes

This group is in no way trying to shut down the industry. Instead, they are asking the industry and the government to be responsible in the placement of these fish farms and switch to a system of raising fish that separates them from the environment.

[BwiBwi]

Thanks mattcass.  We've came across different group of people and different petitions.  The ones I've seen wants fish farms to be shutdown.  Not just remove the ones causing immediate problem.

[trutta]

I have absolutely no faith in DFO or Gordo and his buddies in doing anything to stop the fish farmers. Several years ago I made an appointment with our MLA Harry Bloy to discuss with him my fears about fish farming.  I used the examples of how the fish farms wiped out the sea trout in Ireland and Scotland. I tried to give Bloy some insight into the whole industry.  At the end of the meeting his reaction was, "You don't expect us to shut them down, do you?"
Sadly these people would be cheering all the way to the bank if our wild stocks disappeared.  Tthey could go ahead with the Moray Canyon Dam - a project on the Fraser concieved years ago - generate power and then divert the water down to the parched dry desert regions in the States.
Today I gave up a day's pay to go out and do research on coho on Burnaby Mountain.  We found several fish so this is good news.  If you're not part of the solution you're part of the problem.  There comes a time when the public has to stand up to challenge those who do wrong; somehow sports fishermen haven't got there yet.  When we had the protest in Kelowna to address the situation there was a group of maybe 50 people but we were successful in achieving some benefical things.  Just think of all the thousands of fishermen and guides in the Lower Mainland - if we all got together to show our concerns just maybe something might change.

[troutbreath]

I agree Trutta. Lots of sport fishers do have their heads in the sand when it comes to issues affecting fish and other wildlife. I think most are just interested in catching fish, which are becoming more endangered by the day.

The issues around farmed fish are not new at all, and there has been info on the problems with this practice available for years (over 20). These people just go to where the rules are laxer when they're caught out, like South America. That is when they are not funding political parties like the BC Liberals to try to keep their wretched foot in the door. Do the fish here a favor and don't vote Liberal.

[salmon river]

Dramatic Declines In Wild Salmon Populations Linked To Exposure To Farmed Salmon

Comparing the survival of wild salmonid populations in areas near salmon farms with unexposed populations reveals a large reduction in survival in the populations reared near salmon farms. Since the late 1970s, salmon aquaculture has grown into a global industry, producing over 1 million tons of salmon per year. However, this solution to globally declining fish stocks has come under increasing fire. In a new study Jennifer Ford and Ransom Myers provide the first evidence on a global scale illustrating systematic declines in wild salmon populations that come into contact with farmed salmon.

Previous studies have clearly shown that escaped farm salmon breed with wild populations to the detriment of the wild stocks, and that diseases and parasites are passed from farm to wild salmon. However, until now, there has been no assessment of the importance of these impacts at the population level and across the globe. Here, Ford & Myers compared the survival of salmon and trout that swim past salmon farms to the survival of those fish that never pass a salmon farm.

Too bad politicians don't seem to care.

Why can't the 'farmers' make man made lakes and pump salt water into them on shore to raise their fish?

Read the rest of article here