The Science is Clear: Fish Farms are Killing Wild Salmon
Yet another peer reviewed scientific study linking dramatic declines in wild salmon populations to salmon farming should be cause for the government to take immediate action says North Coast MLA Gary Coons.
“Right now were seeing even the Pacific Salmon Forum, which has long defended the industry, admitting that they can’t find any major flaws in the science linking fish farms to declining wild stocks,” said Coons. “It is time for the government to do what they should have done months ago; implement the recommendations made by the Special Committee for Sustainable Aquaculture.”
The Special Committee for Sustainable Aquaculture made 55 recommendations on how to make salmon farming less harmful to wild fish stocks. The recommendations included a total ban on new fish farms on the north coast, fallowing of existing sites during peak migration of smolts, as well as an industry-wide transition to ocean based closed containment within five years.
“The Agriculture Minister has had more than half a year to follow up with these recommendations, but instead, he has done nothing,” noted Coons. “In the meantime we’ve had these major studies come out and say, unreservedly, that these farms are killing our fish, and in the case of some runs, driving them extinct.”
The recently released Ford Myers study (below) considers the collective ways that salmon farming impacts wild stocks, including parasites, escapees and fouling of the water with feces and industrial chemicals.
This study, in conjunction with the new discovery (below) of a previously undescribed species of parasite that infects farmed fish and produces serious disease, indicates we need immediate action on the 55 recommendations!
“We know that open net aquaculture is killing our salmon and jeopardizing those cultures, ways of life and ecosystems that depend on wild fish,” said Coons. “If this government was truly committed to making British Columbia the best place on Earth they would be working to keep our salmon stocks healthy. We need to see action.”
