Gunner Point fish farm on track despite concerns over vanishing sockeye

Wendy Stueck
August 25, 2009
The Globe and Mail

A proposed new fish farm in Johnstone Strait has won a qualified approval from the Strathcona Regional District, which takes in the midsection of Vancouver Island and a stretch of the mainland north of Powell River.

But the Gunner Point farm still requires key permits from the province, and opponents want the government to kill the project.

"This is where the waters funnel through Johnstone Strait," Ruby Berry, a spokeswoman for Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform, said Friday. "All of the juvenile salmon that migrate through the Georgia Strait have to pass by this farm."

The proposed site would be at a marine bottleneck that would put young wild salmon in the path of sea lice from the penned fish and should not be approved, Ms. Berry said.

Read the full Globe and Mail story on Growfish.com

Read background news stories on the Gunner Point rezoning application

Read background news stories on the crash of the Fraser River sockeye