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[moosebreath]

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.

[swimmingwiththefishes]

Hey moosebreath I posted on this a week ago. Your article is more detailed though I'll give you that.

[moosebreath]

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.

[Fisherbob]

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

[Novabonker]

And that has what to do about our tax money bailing out the feedlotters farmfisherbawb?

[troutbreath]

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.

[Fisherbob]

"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

[moosebreath]

As usual nothing about the topic. The topic is us taxpayers paying your fines. Kinda like me paying your fine for a traffic violation.

[Fisherbob]

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.

[moosebreath]

Still cant answer the question. What has yur affection for Morton got to do with taxpayers paying fish farm fines, bawb?

[Novabonker]

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.

[Fisherbob]

He's still bitter about the bent nickle he donated years ago.Move on Bawb. Move on.

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.

[troutbreath]

You sound more jilted than anything about what you were hoping that truckload of cash would get you Bawb.

[moosebreath]

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

 ·

 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=

[Fisherbob]

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/