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Author Topic: NOW Will They Listen?  (Read 2513 times)

Novabonker

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Rp3Flyfisher

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Re: NOW Will They Listen?
« Reply #1 on: November 07, 2011, 09:10:44 AM »

I HOPE LIKE HELL that they do, But I really doubt it!!!

Damm politics!!!!!

Rick
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chris gadsden

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Re: NOW Will They Listen?
« Reply #2 on: November 07, 2011, 10:36:14 AM »

As a counter to the recent salmon farm industry propaganda campaign as damage control to the recent find of ISA virus carried by four species of wild BC salmon here are a couple U.S. news accounts that came out today ...
 
 


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http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2016707358_salmon07m.html
 
Anxiety up as more salmon virus found in B.C.

Three weeks after a potentially deadly virus was found for the first time in two juvenile wild sockeye on the Pacific Coast, it has been found again — this time in other wild salmon from British Columbia's Fraser River. And while that's caused anxiety among researchers and salmon growers, it's too soon to say whether it signals a fish crisis.

By Craig Welch  Seattle Times environment reporter

 

Three weeks after a potentially deadly virus was found for the first time in two juvenile wild sockeye on the Pacific Coast, it has been found again — this time in other wild salmon from British Columbia's Fraser River.

At the same time, salmon farmers on both sides of the international border have been highlighting the work of a Norwegian expert who got slightly different results when he tested for the virus, infectious salmon anemia (ISA), in the first two young sockeye.

So, is there a fish crisis, or isn't there?

In a word: maybe.

Researchers, salmon farmers and wild-salmon advocates have been on alert since mid-October, when laboratory results in Canada showed that two young sockeye from Rivers Inlet in northern B.C. were carrying trace amounts of a European strain of ISA.

The reasons for the anxiety are clear. While ISA poses no harm to humans, a related strain of the virus cost billions of dollars and killed tens of millions of farmed Atlantic salmon in Chile in 2007 and 2008.

On Sunday, U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., toured a U.S. Geological Survey laboratory in Seattle that specializes in fish diseases to highlight the efforts of state and federal agencies to establish rapid-response plans in the event more evidence of ISA surfaces.

"In the past it has moved through salmon populations with devastating quickness, causing the chain reaction of dying stocks," Cantwell said.

The virus wiped out more than half the salmon in Chile. But Chile doesn't have wild salmon, and scientists fear any virus found here could not only hurt fish farmers but could mutate into a strain that weakens or kills millions of Northwest wild fish.

Thus far there is no evidence that any Pacific Coast fish are sick. And before last month, no tests in Washington state or B.C., where millions of Atlantic salmon are grown in net pens, had ever surfaced showing evidence of ISA.

And so far, the only two labs that have completed tests on potentially infected fish haven't reached the same conclusions. While the laboratory in Norway did find trace amounts of ISA, it was only in one of the first two young sockeye, and it was barely at detectable levels.

One seafood-industry media outlet said the results showed there was "no evidence to support the recent ISA virus scare."

But the results don't mean the virus isn't a threat, researchers said. It could be that the fish in question were just too degraded for adequate follow-up tests.

"These samples were not high quality," said Jim Winton, a fish virologist with the Geological Survey. "The Norwegian lab correctly said that not all of the samples could be tested positive."

But "I think this highlights again the need to begin to do our own surveys," Winton said.

Meanwhile, last week's test results by a highly regarded Prince Edward Island fish virologist finding ISA in adult coho, chinook and chum from the Fraser River have not yet been verified by a second round of testing. But the find itself has been enough to add urgency to the quest for information.

"If it can be verified, and a lot of this relies on verification, it's telling me it's in multiple species, in multiple generations, which leads me down a path that makes me think it might have been here for quite some time," said John Kerwin, who oversees disease testing in fish farms and hatcheries for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Would that make the risk higher or lower that the ISA virus could evolve into something harmful to wild fish? It's too soon to say, Kerwin said.

That's why the Geological Survey, the state and other federal agencies are putting together plans to begin screening hatchery, farmed and wild salmon in the Northwest for the virus — both juveniles migrating to sea and adults in coastal areas.

The survey plan is expected to be finalized in coming weeks.

chris gadsden

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Re: NOW Will They Listen?
« Reply #3 on: November 07, 2011, 10:36:53 AM »

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/connelly/article/Infectious-salmon-anemia-Getting-the-jump-on-a-2255528.php

 
Infectious salmon anemia: Getting the jump on a disease of 'devastating quickness'
BY JOEL CONNELLY, SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF



Read more: http://www.seattlepi.com/local/connelly/article/Infectious-Salmon-Anemia-Getting-the-jump-on-a-2255528.php#ixzz1d2RDVfgm

 

West Coast senators, promoted by discovery of a virus in British Columbia salmon, are telling federal fisheries agencies:  Get moving on Infectious Salmon Anemia (ISA) before it moves on us.

 

"In the past, it has moved through salmon populations with devastating quickness . . . The mistakes made in Norway and Chile were not to respond quickly enough," Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Seattle, said in Seattle on Sunday after meeting with federal, state and tribal fisheries officials.

 

"What is particularly important is that the U.S. has its own scientific evidence so we can have our own response plan," Cantwell added.  "To have our own response plan, we need to have our own scientific evaluation."

 

Salmon are not only an iconic presence in the Northwest, but remain a big deal economically -- despite decimation of runs by dam construction, overfishing and shoddy logging practices.

 

A recent study of Pacific salmon estimated the wholesale value of the annual sport and commercial catch comes to at least $2.2 billion, and supports 35,000 jobs in harvesting and processing.

 

Infectious salmon anemia poses no danger to human health.  Once salmon populations are infected, however, the disease quickly reaches a "tipping point" where it can't be stopped.  A total of 9.6 million farmed salmon had to be destroyed in New Brunswick to halt one outbreak.

 

The deadly virus was initially found in two sockeye smolts taken about 400 miles up the British Columbia coast from Vancouver.  Subsequently, the ISA  virus was found in the fins of three adult salmon -- a Chinook, a chum and a coho -- taken out of the Harrison River in the Fraser Valley early last month.

 

"This is the first time this virus has been detected in the Northwest," Dr. James Winton, chief of the fish health section of the Western Fisheries Research Center said in Seattle on Sunday.

 

The sockeye smolts were sent by Simon Fraser University to be tested at the Atlantic Veterinary College in Prince Edward Island, which has subsequently tested the Harrison River salmon.

 

But additional testing on the sockeye smolts, done at the University of Bergen in Norway, was not able to confirm the findings.

 

"The test material we received was of poor quality and all tests were negative except the one which was weakly positive," reported Dr. Arne Nylund, who conducted the tests.

 

Dr. Winton echoed Nylund's opinion. "These samples were not in high quality and they were collected for another purpose," Winton said.

 

Discovery of the virus has set off a furious debate in British Columbia:  The provincial and Canadian governments have encouraged and supported salmon farming: Atlantic salmon are being farmed in pens near fjords and river systems (e.g. Knight Inlet, Kingcome Inlet) that support major runs of wild Pacific Salmon.

 

Salmon migrating south out of the Gulf of Alaska through Johnstone Strait pass millions of salmon being raised in pens in the Broughton Archipelago off the B.C. Mainland, and near Campbell River on Vancouver Island.

 

In a tough letter last week, the bipartisan Senate trio  -- Cantwell and Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Mark Begich (D-Alaska) indicated the Canadian government could not be trusted.  Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans has been a major promoter of salmon farming.  The senators wrote:

 

"We urge the U.S. government to obtain samples from the two infected sockeye and run independent diagnostic tess to confirm the presence of the ISA virus in British Columbia.  We should not rely on another government -- particularly one that may have a motive to misrepresent its findings -- to determine how we assess the risk ISA may pose to American fishery jobs."

 

Dr. Winton was being diplomatic on Sunday, saying: "We will work with our Canadian partners but also have to have our own information."

 

The feds are responding.  Agencies will have drawn up a preliminary analysis plan by next week, said Mark Strom, a microbiology expert with the fisheries lab of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

 

NOAA plans to screen salmon in American waters for ISA, he added.  "We can respond immediately if a virulent strain of ISA is found," Strom said.

 

Fearing the finger of blame, salmon farming spokesmen in British Columbia are discounting the chances of an ISA outbreak, pointing to Dr. Nylund's finding.

 

Odd Grydeland, former president of the B.C. Salmon Farmers Association said "extreme environmentalists" are promoting the virus story.  He noted in an essay that the sockeye smolt samples came from a university "which has given an honorary doctorate to the most rabid anti-salmon farming critic in British Columbia, 'Dr.' Alexandra Morton."

 

Morton was one of the salmon activists who gathered the Harrison River samples.  She is a marine biologist who lives near the Broughton Archipelago, and has linked release of sea lice from salmon pens to the decimation of wild pink salmon populations in the area.

 

"Nobody in B.C. are saying with certainty that the ISA virus is not here, but there is a growing level of suspicion that positive that positive sampling results announced by environmentalist are suspect at best," Grydeland argued.

 

Salmon advocates, south of the border, have complained of a similar pooh-poohing in the upper reaches of NOAA.

 

A Senate-passed amendment says ISA must be taken seriously.  It was sponsored by Cantwell and other West Coast senators.

 

The amendment requires a report be delivered to Congress within six months which outlines surveillance, susceptibility of species and populations, gaps in knowledge, and recommendations for action.