The Issues - Overview
Wild salmon are essential to
the environmental, cultural and economic welfare of British Columbia.
While there are many
pressures on B.C.'s wild Pacific salmon, a
major threat that is within our reach to control, are the risks associated with
open net-cage salmon farms.
Rigorous, peer-reviewed science overwhelmingly supports that these open systems create a variety of problems that risk the continued survival of B.C.'s Pacific salmon and all that depends on them.[1],[2]
The siting, stocking density and size of these farms exacerbate the problems. These highly stocked salmon farms incubate parasites and pathogens which pass through the open net-cage mesh. These disease-causing organisms distribute over great distances by currents and tides, transferring to wild fish. In some areas in B.C. where salmon farms are concentrated, mortality of wild juvenile salmon is over 80%.[3]
Some 130 of these salmon farms are clustered around Vancouver Island and up and down B.C.'s mainland coast.[4] The government of British Columbia has allowed the industry to grow significantly. In 1998, the farmed salmon in B.C. were all Pacific species and production was 42.3 thousand tonnes.[5] In 2001, production of farmed salmon was 68 thousand tonnes,[6] 80% of which was Atlantic salmon (+ 54 thousand tonnes).[7] Production of farmed Atlantic salmon in B.C. is now over 73 thousand tonnes.[8],[9]
The siting of these farms is, in many cases, on the out-migration routes of juvenile wild salmon.[10],[11]
The abundant science proving the negative impacts of open net-cage salmon farms has undergone a peer-review process before being published in respected journals.[12].
The problems associated with open net-cage salmon farms are not limited to British Columbia. International published science is clear that wild salmon are threatened wherever there are open-net cage salmon farms (Scotland, Ireland, New Brunswick, Norway).[13],[14],[15]
[8] 73.7 thousand tonnes in 2007 (93% of 79.3 thousand tonnes farmed salmon). Click for Source 8.
[9] +/- 76 metric tonnes 2008. Click for Source 9.
