B.C. wild salmon in danger of extinction
Stephen Hume
Vancouver Sun
December 20, 2007
Five years ago, a senior fisheries biologist in Galway, Ireland, warned what lay ahead for British Columbia's wild salmon: Infestations of sea lice around fish farms followed by a collapse of wild stocks wherever baby salmon migrated through concentrations of the parasites.
Dr. Greg Forde was not a radical environmentalist, as the aquaculture industry routinely characterizes critics. He worked for Ireland's western regional fisheries board, struggling to cope with a collapse of wild stocks in a sea lice-infestation that emerged after fish farms came to that coast.
Posted December 20th, 2007
News Release: Kwicksutaineuk Ah-kwa-mish Supports Science Sea Lice Article
Kwicksutaineuk First Nation
Marketwire.com
December 18, 2007
The Kwicksutaineuk Ah-kwa-mish First Nation call on Premiere Gordon Campbell and Minister Pat Bell to begin the fallowing process of Fish Farms in the Broughtan Archipeligo immediately.
This call for action is in response to a article that was published in Friday's edition of Science, one of the world's foremost scientific journals, which says wild pink salmon runs on the British Columbia central coast will be extinct in as little as four years because of a cluster of salmon farms that are creating lethal infestations of sea lice in that area.
Posted December 18th, 2007
Report: Declining Wild Salmon Populations in Relation to Parasites from Farm Salmon
Rather than benefiting wild fish, industrial aquaculture may contribute to declines in ocean fisheries and ecosystems. Farm salmon are commonly infected with salmon lice (Lepeophtheirus salmonis), which are native ectoparasitic copepods. We show that recurrent louse infestations of wild juvenile pink salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha), all associated with salmon farms, have depressed wild pink salmon populations and placed them on a trajectory toward rapid local extinction. The louse-induced mortality of pink salmon is commonly over 80% and exceeds previous fishing mortality. If outbreaks continue, then local extinction is certain, and a 99% collapse in pink salmon population abundance is expected in four salmon generations. These results suggest that salmon farms can cause parasite outbreaks that erode the capacity of a coastal ecosystem to support wild salmon populations.
Posted December 14th, 2007
