Hans Tammemagi
Vancouver Sun
March 28, 2008

Salmon farming in B.C is a deliciously controversial issue full of polarized views and media sensationalism.

I was first introduced to the issue in a sold-out hall where David Suzuki, Canada's environmental guru, spoke. He was scathing in his condemnation of salmon farming, arguing that farmed fish eat almost double their own weight in wild fish, helping to deplete the ocean's fisheries, which are already in crisis.

Read the full article in the Vancouver Sun.

Alexei Barrionuveo
March 27, 2008
New York Times

PUERTO MONTT, Looking out over the low green mountains jutting through miles of placid waterways here in southern Chile, it is hard to imagine that anything could be amiss. But beneath the rows of neatly laid netting around the fish farms just off the shore, the salmon are dying.

A virus called infectious salmon or I.S.A., is killing millions of salmon destined for export to Japan, Europe and the United States. The spreading plague has sent shivers through Chile’s third-largest export industry, which has left local people embittered by laying off more than 1,000 workers.

Read the full article in the New York Times.

Lisa Stewart
Westerly News
March 27, 2008

"Something's wrong and we're not sure what it is." That was the comment March 20 to the Clayoquot Sound Central Region Board (CRB) from Fisheries and Oceans' assistant area director Wilf Luedke.

Luedke spoke to the CRB on a subject the board has talked about at previous meetings - that there were once thousands of Chinook salmon in Clayoquot Sound's Bedwell and Mooyah rivers and now there are barely 100 - that there were once half-a-million sockeye in Kennedy Lake system and now there are so few they can't be counted - that the last count showed only 13 fish in Clayoquot Sound's Megin River.

Read the full article at Westerly News.

Andrew Findlay March 6th, 2008 Straight.com

Last June, Brian Gunn, president of the Campbell River–based Wilderness Tourism Association, travelled to Norway with a group of environmentalists to meet with the CEO and shareholders of the second-largest fish-farming company in the world. He hoped to convey the message that net-pen salmon aquaculture is threatening B.C.’s coastal-tourism industry.

Read the full article in Straight.com

Read related article in be WILD in bc (see page 10)

Andrew Findlay
March 6th, 2008
Straight.com

Last June, Brian Gunn, president of the Campbell River–based Wilderness Tourism Association, travelled to Norway with a group of environmentalists to meet with the CEO and shareholders of the second-largest fish-farming company in the world. He hoped to convey the message that net-pen salmon aquaculture is threatening B.C.’s coastal-tourism industry.

Read the full article in Straight.com

Read related article in be WILD in bc (see page 10)

Westcoaster.ca
March 21, 2008
By Keven Drews

Why are so few chinook returning to some Clayoquot Sound rivers?

Representatives of Fisheries and Oceans Canada and two regional boards will try to answer that question when they sit down to talk at a series of upcoming meetings.

On Thursday, the Clayoquot Sound Central Region Board voted to hold the meetings with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the West Coast Vancouver Island Aquatic Management Board on the issue.

Not dates have yet been set.

Read the full article at westcoaster.ca.

Vancouver Island News Group
Thu 20 Mar 2008

A new report published by BC Pacific Salmon Forum tries to sort through the science on sea lice and make it palatable for the unscientific.

Science and Sea Lice, What Do We Know? is written by Brian Harvey, a Victoria scientist who worked around the world in both fish conservation and aquaculture. He was commissioned by the BC Pacific Salmon Forum to create a summarized bibliography of relevant scientific papers on sea lice in the Broughton Archipelago.

The full 78-page report is available at www.pacificsalmonforum.ca

February 24, 2008
The Vancouver Province

Closed containers are the wave of the future when it comes to farming salmon, according to AgriMarine Industries.

After successful tryouts in prototype closed containers, Campbell River-based AgriMarine will unveil its first full-size farm in May.

Read the full article from the Vancouver Province

Allison Auld
Canadian Press
February 11, 2008

HALIFAX - Salmon farming operations have reduced wild salmon populations by up to 70 per cent in several areas around the world and are threatening the future of the endangered stocks, according a new scientific study.

Read the Full Article on CNEWS

Vancouver Sun
Scott Simpson
February 09, 2008 

In a major blow to British Columbia's salmon farming industry, a government-funded research group says it now accepts a recent scientific study that warns of mass extinctions of wild pink salmon on the central coast due to salmon farming.

Read the Full Article from the Vancouver Sun

BC Ministry of Agriculture and Lands
Press Release
January 8, 2008

The Province released its 2006 Compliance and Enforcement and Fish Health Reports today. Both indicate that B.C.’s aquaculture industry is committed to upholding a high level of environmental standards and is serious about co-existing with wild salmon stocks, announced Agriculture and Lands Minister Pat Bell.

“The annual reports are part of the government's commitment to closely monitor aquaculture operations in an open, transparent manner and to ensure a safe and sustainable industry,” said Bell. “The aquaculture industry has created tremendous opportunities for B.C.’s coastal communities and those economic opportunities need to continue to be in balance with the protection of wild salmon stocks.”

Read the full press release and and get links to the reports