Terri Theodore
June 29, 2010
The Globe and Mail

Two environmental groups say they won a six-year battle over access to documents on sea lice, only to have the government change the rules and refuse the information for their next request.

In 2004, Ecojustice and the T. Buck Suzuki Environmental Foundation requested sea lice infestation information from 2002 and 2003 but the government wouldn't release the documents until B.C.’s privacy commissioner ordered it to do so.

When the groups asked for the exact same records for the period between January 2004 and March 2010, the government again refused to release the information, but this time it used different grounds for denial.

David Lane, executive director at the T. Buck Suzuki Environmental Foundation, said Tuesday the government shouldn't be able to bring up different excuses every time they ask for information.

“If this were in court we'd be saying this was tried already,” he said in an interview.

In the first refusal the government relied on Section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act, arguing the release of the information would cause harm to third-party interests.

The latest denial comes under Section 17 of the Act, which gives a long list of reasons for refusing, including that releasing the information could mean revealing trade secrets from the government.

Read the full story in The Globe and Mail

Read related story:

• The Province; June 30, 2010; "It's clear the Libs put aquaculture ahead of wild fish" 

June 26, 2010
The New York Times

The Food and Drug Administration is seriously considering whether to approve the first genetically engineered animal that people would eat — salmon that can grow at twice the normal rate.

The developer of the salmon has been trying to get approval for a decade. But the company now seems to have submitted most or all of the data the F.D.A. needs to analyze whether the salmon are safe to eat, nutritionally equivalent to other salmon and safe for the environment, according to government and biotechnology industry officials. A public meeting to discuss the salmon may be held as early as this fall.

Some consumer and environmental groups are likely to raise objections to approval. Even within the F.D.A., there has been a debate about whether the salmon should be labeled as genetically engineered (genetically engineered crops are not labeled).

The salmon’s approval would help open a path for companies and academic scientists developing other genetically engineered animals, like cattle resistant to mad cow disease or pigs that could supply healthier bacon. Next in line behind the salmon for possible approval would probably be the “enviropig,” developed at a Canadian university, which has less phosphorus pollution in its manure.

The salmon was developed by a company called AquaBounty Technologies and would be raised in fish farms. It is an Atlantic salmon that contains a growth hormone gene from a Chinook salmon as well as a genetic on-switch from the ocean pout, a distant relative of the salmon.

Read the full story in the New York Times

Read related stories:

• McClatchy Newspapers; July 11, 2010; "FDA nears approval of genetically engineered salmon"
• Digital Journal; June 27, 2010; "Company hopes its first commercial GM fish will be approved by US"
• London Times; June 16, 2010; "Today's special will be 'super salmon'"

Courier Islander
June 25, 2010

Alexandra Morton, oops, make that Dr. Alexandra Morton, received an honourary doctorate from Simon Fraser University June 16.

Dr. Morton was honoured by SFU for her work on sea lice research and fish farming practices and her dedication to the preservation and conservation of the Pacific Ocean and its species.

It was Dr. Morton who won a stunning court case that revealed the federal government and not the provincial government had governing authority over the fish farming industry.

That change of authority is expected to happen later this year or early 2010.

Her research into sea lice and its impact on out-migrating young wild Pacific salmon has also caused concern in many corners about the affect of the industry on wild salmon populations.

She also just completed what was called the Get Out Migration, a walk from her home in the Broughton Archipeligo to Victoria.

Thousands lined the streets and highways on her walk to the legislature and a crowd of about 5,000 joined her on the lawns there to urge the governments to move salmon farms out of the ocean to closed containment systems.

Source: Courier Islander

John Ross
June 24, 2010
The Scotsman 

A PETITION bearing 17,000 names will be handed to the Scottish Parliament today calling for urgent action to protect wild salmon and trout from "damaging" fish farm practices. Lord David Steel will hand over the document on behalf of the Salmon and Trout Association to the petitions committee, amid claims that the government is not doing enough to safeguard wild stocks.

The association says wild salmon and trout in the west Highlands and Islands have been "decimated" by sea lice infestations from salmon farms, and siting farms on salmon rivers and lochs has potentially disastrous implications.

Source: The Scotsman

Related article: 

• The Press and Journal; June 24th, 2010; "Holyrood to get petition condemning west coast fish farms"

Kevin Libin
June 18th, 2010
Financial Post

Last month, 1,000 British Columbians showed up on Government Street in Victoria for a protest against salmon farms. Their signs read "ban fish farms." They called them dangerous. Said they spread disease to wild salmon stocks. They're messing with ecosystems. The fish is bad for you. They violate traditions of coastal First Nations. Their messages seemed heartfelt; their victory felt imminent.

"I'm thinking we get to keep our salmon," Alexandra Morton, the activist biologist who led the protest, said to cheers.

She had reason to be optimistic they were winning their battle. The movement against fish farms on the Pacific coast has proved a potent one. The B.C. government has been paralyzed on the issue. In 2008, it slapped a moratorium on granting any new licenses to fish farms on the north coast, despite record demand from Europe. Last year, Ms. Morton sued the province in court arguing that oceans were a federal matter, and the province had no right to even regulate aquaculture: the province lost.

Read the full story in The Financial Post

Mark Hume
June 16, 2010
The Globe and Mail

A $14-million federal judicial inquiry into the collapse of sockeye salmon stocks on the Fraser River has begun with a lot of tough questions about credibility and funding.

The commission, led by British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Bruce Cohen, came under fire on its first day of hearings Tuesday when participants complained funding is inadequate given the massive number of internal government documents to be released, the scope of the inquiry and the need to cross examine witnesses.

The Globe and Mail has learned the Cohen Commission has assigned $3.4-million from its overall budget to more than 20 groups – representing commercial fishing interests, various industries, native communities, governments and others – that have been granted standing.

But Alan Blair, representing the BC Salmon Farmers Association, said in his opening remarks that participants don’t have the funding they need to deal with all the work they face.

Mr. Blair said 21,000 documents have already been released by the government, 14,600 documents were added to that pile on Monday, and “several hundred thousand more” are to come.

“We surely need to have resources [to deal with that],” he said. “This should not be an uneven playing field.”

David Butcher, who is representing the BC Fisheries Survival Coalition and Southern Area E Gillnet Association, challenged the commission on its appointment of an advisory panel of scientists, several of whom have worked in the past with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

“We have no funding for [calling our own] expert evidence. We have had no say in the appointment of people to your expert panel,” Mr. Butcher complained.

He said “it is critical” for the Cohen Commission to allow its expert advisers to be cross examined on the advice they provide.

Read the full story in The Globe and Mail

Read related stories:

• Courier Islander; June 18th, 2010; "Inquiry into the Inquiry"
• Kelona Capital News; June 15, 2010; "Cloud hangs over inquiry"
• Westerley; June 15, 2010; "Commission to begin probing the decline of Fraser sockeye today" 

Read background news stories

Catherine Boyle
June 16, 2010
The London Times

The first genetically modified animal produced for human consumption could be served up at family mealtimes within two years.

An AIM-listed company is inching closer to winning approval from the US Food and Drug Administration for its “super salmon”, which reach adult size in half the time it takes normal salmon to develop.

If the transgenic salmon are approved in the United States, the company will seek approval in the European Union.

Yesterday, AquaBounty, based in Massachusetts, said that it had received two letters from the FDA’s Centre for Veterinary Medicine confirming that five of the seven sections of its application to market AquAdvantage Salmon — eggs that hatch into fast-growing salmon — had been reviewed.

The company has devised a method of placing a gene from Chinook salmon into the eggs of Atlantic salmon — the salmon most commonly farmed. One year after the eggs hatch, the salmon reach an average weight of 1,340 grams, compared with 663 grams for ordinary Atlantic salmon. The company claims that the new fish could be cheaper to farm, as it will eat less over the course of its lifetime. A cheaper way of farming salmon could be welcomed by the industry, which is under pressure to produce more salmon as demand for the fish grows.

There has been much controversy about farmed Atlantic salmon escaping from their pens and disrupting the ecosystem. In March, an escape from a Scottish salmon farm on Loch Lochy led to worries about the long-term survival of wild Atlantic salmon stocks if their habitat was flooded with food rivals.

Pete Riley, campaign director of GM Freeze, an umbrella group for organisations concerned about GM food, said: “We are extremely concerned about the potential for these fish to escape. The past record of the fishing industry in preventing escapes is very poor. If these fish are growing at twice the rate they’re supposed to be, there may be other things wrong with them.”

AquaBounty insists that it will produce only sterile female fish, to minimise the risk of the fish interbreeding to create a new strain, which could upset delicate ecosystems at sea.

The company hopes that its eggs will be approved in time for this year’s breeding season, meaning that the first transgenic salmon could be on plates by 2012. As GM food does not have to be labelled, the consumer would not know if they were eating one of these fish.

Ron Stotish, chief executive of AquaBounty, said: “In every measurement and every respect, these fish are identical to Atlantic salmon.”

A similar product for sea trout is next on the company’s list. It has been trying to get its salmon approved for more than a decade and made a loss of $4.8 million in 2009 as it awaited the FDA’s decision.

Source: The London Times 

Mark Hume
June 14, 2010
Globe and Mail

A federal judicial inquiry appointed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper to investigate the staggering decline of sockeye salmon in the Fraser River hasn’t yet started its hearings, but already it is under attack.

In a series of press releases last week, Conservative MP John Cummins challenged the credibility of a panel of scientists that is providing advice to the commission headed by British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Bruce Cohen.

He says four of the six scientists are in conflicts of interest because of past ties to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, which will come under scrutiny because it manages the sockeye fishery.

Mr. Cummins is a former commercial fisherman and was party critic of Fisheries and Oceans from 1999 to 2004 (and vice-chair of the Commons committee for about the same period).

In an interview, Mr. Cummins said he has already written off the Cohen Commission – even though its first public hearing isn’t until Tuesday and it is still nearly a year away from issuing its report.

“Right now I don’t think there’s a hope in hell for the Fraser fishery because I don’t see anything good coming out of the Cohen Commission,” he said.

If nothing else, Mr. Cummins’s early assault on the commission illustrates the emotional tension that exists on the West Coast over the issue of salmon and it is a signal to Mr. Cohen that he is entering troubled waters.

While Alaska continues to enjoy record catches, B.C. has experienced catastrophic declines, particularly on the Fraser, where only one million sockeye returned last year, nearly 10 million less than predicted.

Mr. Cummins praises Mr. Harper for ordering an inquiry – but in the next breath rips into the commissioner he appointed.

Read the full story in the Globe and Mail

Read background news stories

Read related stories:

• Abbotsford News; June 24th, 2010; "Clouded sockeye inquiry". 
• Prince Rupert Daily News; June 28th, 2010; "Cummins concerned about Fraser River inquiry"
• Prince Rupert Daily News; June 21st, 2010; "Wallace responses to Cummins concerns"

Dan Maclennan
June 11, 2010
Courier Islander

It's been years in the making, but a Campbell River-based closed containment aquaculture project has finally received the go-ahead.

Proponents of the Middle Bay Sustainable Aquaculture project say funding has come through for the first of four huge tanks to be moored out at Middle Bay.

"In just the last few weeks everything's just suddenly coming to a head," Rob Walker, director of development for the Middle Bay Sustainable Aquaculture Institute, told the Courier-Islander. "It's amazing how fast things are moving.

"We're all really excited. It's finally happening. We've been at this a long time."

The project, a partnership between the Institute and Agrimarine Industries, has been on the drawing board in one form or another for years. It's taken years to find funding, line up investors, get regulatory approvals, complete engineering and much more, but the project appears to finally be getting into the nuts-and-bolts stages. The partnership will see the institute providing assets such as tanks, walkways, mooring and equipment, while Agrimarine will handle the operating side including fish and labor. Additional funding is coming from Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. 

Read the full story in the Courier Islander

Gloria Galloway
June 11, 2010
The Globe and Mail

As Captain Kirk, he often lectured his crew to respect life and not to take things for granted. So it seemed appropriate, if a tad surreal, to hear William Shatner lecture reporters on the importance of salmon to British Columbia’s ecosystem.

“Salmon feed and nurture not only the animals that are on the land but the sea as well, and the plants and trees and shrubbery,” the 79-year-old actor’s disembodied voice told a news conference Thursday that had been organized by the New Democrats.

“The fauna and the flora of the British Columbia river shores and rivers are nurtured by the salmon. Without the salmon, they die. And when they die, [there is] a huge rent in the tapestry of nature in that area. It is a basic species that must be saved.”

Mr. Shatner called into the event from Los Angeles and did not take any questions after his five-minute speech about the fish. But he made an impassioned appeal for their protection.

The purpose of the news conference was to highlight a private-member’s bill drafted by Fin Donnelly, a New Democrat from British Columbia, that would require the Pacific salmon-farming industry to move its operations out of coastal waters and into closed containment to prevent the spread of the sea lice that have been blamed for the decline of the species in the wild.

Read the full story in the Globe and Mail

Read related stories: 

• Metro; June 29th, 2010; NDP says bill could save B.C. salmon stocks"
• The Record; June 12th, 2010; "Shatner supports fish bill - actor help city MP fight to have fish farms moved onto land"
• National Post; June 11th, 2010; "Captain Kirk's new enterprise: protecting B.C.'s wild salmon population"
• The Vancouver Sun; June 11th, 2010; "Shatner makes plea for B.C.'s wild salmon population - Actor calls on Canadians to back new regulations on fish farm to prevent pathogen spread" 
• The Vancouver Sun; June 10th, 2010; "Kirk's new enterprise - saving B.C. salmon"
• Metro News; June 10th, 2010; "Shatner joins salmon fight"
• Winnipeg Sun; June 10th, 2010; "Save B.C.'s wild Salmon: William Shatner" 

Mark Hume
June 9th, 2010
Globe and Mail

A federal judicial inquiry into the state of sockeye salmon stocks in the Fraser River which begins hearings next week has released a discussion paper detailing its areas of interest.

The organizational structure of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans; the harvesting sector, which will include an examination of pre-season planning; and the methods for forecasting run sizes and conservation efforts, will all come under examination by the inquiry led by British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Bruce Cohen.

But the key focus of the commission appears to be on fish biology and ecosystem issues - a category in the discussion paper which includes numerous, lengthy sub-sections, including water pollution, salmon farms, logging, diseases and parasites, predators, non-retention fisheries, climate change, urbanization and agricultural activities and hydro.

“The commission will contract out, to recognized experts, research projects on a wide range of fish biology and ecosystem issues,” states the discussion paper, released Wednesday. “The scientific reports will be provided to participants and posted on the Commission’s website.”

One of the more contentious issues to be examined will be the role salmon farms may have played.

“The commission intends to examine whether there is a linkage between salmon farm operations and Fraser River sockeye survival, including reductions of sockeye smolt survival from sea lice exposure, impacts of farm wastes on seabed and ocean habitat quality, effects of Atlantic salmon escapes on Fraser River sockeye, as well as any potential for the spreading of disease,” states the discussion paper.

Read the full story in the Globe and Mail

Read background news stories 

Nelson Bennett
June 9, 2010
Richmond News

The Richmond Conservative MP who is largely responsible for Prime Minister Stephen Harper striking an inquiry into the Fraser River sockeye fishery is now questioning Commissioner Bruce Cohen's judgment over the appointment of his science panel.

MP John Cummins (Delta-Richmond East) says Brian Riddell, a former Department of Fisheries and Oceans scientist, should be in the witness box, not on the panel of scientists appointed by Cohen to advise him.

"Here's a guy that, for 30 years, was an insider with DFO," Cummins told the News. "He was the go-to guy for fisheries managers. He's the guy that should be the first witness."

Cummins also questions the appointment of former DFO advisor Paul LeBlond to the panel.

Otto Langer, a Richmond biologist who quit DFO in frustration in 2001, does not question Riddell's scientific credentials, although he does question his judgment.

"To be quite honest, I respect him and I think he's a good scientist," said Langer, who has received official standing and will be making a submission to the commission as part of a coalition of environmental groups.

Langer questions Riddell's public comments on the inquiry itself. Riddell has stated he does not feel that the Fraser River fishery is something that requires a judicial inquiry, but rather should be considered strictly a science issue.

"Why would you criticize almost the existence of the panel -- saying it's strictly a science issue -- when you accepted an appointment to sit on and advise the panel?" Langer wondered. " I just think it was a big mistake and an error in judgment."

Read the full story in The Richmond News

Read related stories:

Agassiz Harrison Observer; June 8, 2010; "Advisors taint salmon inquiry, MP charges" 

Derwin Gowan
June 7th, 2010
Telegraph Journal 

Sea lice do not wait for fish farmers, pesticide companies, researchers and regulators to catch up, scientist Larry Hammell says.

Dr. Larry Hammell poses with a small salmon at the New Brunswick Agriculture and Aquaculture Department laboratory in St. George.

Last year, this bane to New Brunswick's salmon aquaculture showed resistance to emamectin benzoate, sold as SLICE, the industry's silver bullet since in 2000.

"SLICE was super-effective and no other product was coming into the market," said Hammell, director of the Centre for Aquatic Health Sciences at the Atlantic Veterinary College in Charlottetown. "We need another product."

The industry needs it before the warmer water causes the sea lice to grow in floating cages in the Bay of Fundy this summer, he said.

At a closed meeting in St. George recently aquaculture representatives discussed "well-boat" treatment for sea lice.

With this system, fish farmers pump salmon into a large boat with a waterproof hold or tank in which to treat the fish before returning them to their sea cages.

The New Brunswick Salmon Growers' Association expects a leased well-boat to arrive in the Bay of Fundy soon. "I hope (this) week," executive Pamela Parker said in an interview Friday.

The salmon growers still need approval from Canada's Pest Management Regulatory Agency for the pharmaceutical products they would use in the well-boat.

Read the full article in the Telegraph Journal 

Randy Shore
June 3rd, 2010
The Vancouver Sun

Overwaitea has received a top rating in the second annual Greenpeace report on sustainable seafood.

Called Taking Stock: Ranking Supermarkets on Seafood Sustainability, the report awarded the B.C.-based grocery chain that includes Save-On-Foods a score of 51 per cent, the only passing grade of the eight chains ranked.

All eight grocers continue to sell some of the fish on the Greenpeace Redlist, which identifies food fish that are destructively fished or farmed. But Overwaitea's decision to adopt specific criteria to determine which fish they will sell put them ahead of their closest competitor in the rankings, the Loblaw Group, which includes Real Canadian Superstore and T&T Supermarket, said Greenpeace oceans campaigner Sarah King.

Both Overwaitea and Loblaw have stopped selling four of the 15 species on the Redlist in Superstore and Save-On stores in B.C. T&T is in the early stages of implementing the Loblaw policy, which extends to canned and packaged products including pet foods.

Overwaitea has partnered with Sea-Choice.orgto define its sustainable seafood policy. Loblaw is relying on murky guidelines and Marine Stewardship Council certification, which Greenpeace does not recognize, King said.

The council is considering certifying Fraser River sockeye as sustainable "and that fishery is in collapse," she noted.

Overwaitea's decision to seek salmon from land-based farms helped to put them over the top, she said.

"Greenpeace advocates moving salmon farms out of the water into on-land enclosed systems and Overwaitea is supporting that," King said.

"Supermarkets have stopped selling imperilled species such as shark, skates and bluefin tuna, which are not big sellers," said Beth Hunter, Greenpeace oceans campaign coordinator. "Now retailers need to focus on no longer selling fish that may be consumer favourites, but are still destructively fished or farmed."

Source: The Vancouver Sun

Read background stories

Mark Hume
June 3rd, 2010
The Globe and Mail

A new U.S. study on sockeye shows the salmon fishing strategy for British Columbia needs to be reorganized to do a better job of protecting weak stocks, rather than on maximizing the catch when runs are large, salmon experts say.

“I think it has huge implications to our current sockeye situation,” Craig Orr, executive director of Watershed Watch Salmon Society, said in reaction to a research paper released Wednesday by the University of Washington.

The study found the key to maintaining healthy salmon stocks over time lies in ensuring there is a wide diversity of stocks within a given species.

The researchers looked at Bristol Bay, Alaska, where the annual run of 30 million sockeye has remained stable since 1950 because of a harvest strategy that ensures weak stocks are protected, while maximizing the commercial catch. During that same period, sockeye runs in B.C. rivers, such as the Fraser and Skeena, have gone through dramatic ups and downs.

Mr. Orr said the problem in British Columbia has been that fisheries target big runs of salmon where many stocks are mixed together. The result has been an erosion of the smaller stocks, which diminishes the population diversity the Alaska study found to be so important.

“The … paper clearly shows that our best bet for maintaining both Fraser sockeye productivity and fishing opportunities for Fraser sockeye is to manage for diversity,” Mr. Orr said.

“Right now we tend to base fisheries on the strength of one or two dominant runs … and we are prepared to fish those runs hard, even if it means overfishing less productive stocks, sometimes to the very brink of extirpation.”

Read the complete story in the Globe and Mail

Quinton Winks
June 2nd, 2010
Alberni Valley Times

Port Alberni opened its arms to a land-based salmon farm last week, a timely move to attract industry before pending regulatory changes shift fish farm oversight from the province to the federal government.

Local Mayor Ken McRae invited officials at Mainstream Canada, one of the country's biggest fish-farm companies, to make use of a piece of city land. The property is near the waterfront and is well suited to a closed-containment salmon farm, McRae said.

"It's right on the water and there's First Nations around because they like to involve the First Nations and they have a reserve right next door," he said.

According to McRae, the shift of regulatory responsibility to the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans in January could mean more pressure on the fish farming industry to shift its operations to land. But whether that's true remains the topic of speculation.

In recent years fish farms have been in the crosshairs of environmentalists and government, who blame the farms, and the parasites that feed on farmed fish, for the collapse of wild salmon stocks. Although scientific evidence is inconclusive, many are still pushing to move salmon farms entirely on land. 

Read the full story in the Alberni Valley Times

Dan MacLennan
May 28, 2010
Courier Islander

A series of provincial government memos about a 1995 sea lice outbreak at an Okisollo Channel fish farm show how government and salmon farmers have worked together to suppress information, biologist Alexandra Morton charged this week.

"I don't think anything has changed at all," Morton said Wednesday. "There's a lot of secrecy with the help of the provincial government. If they're suppressing the information on sea lice, what about all the viruses and bacteria that occur on these farms as well? This does raise a lot of questions."

But the BC Salmon Farmers Association (BCSFA) says Morton's allegations are seriously outdated and simply untrue about the industry today.

Read the full story in the Courier Islander

Peter Kenter
May 19, 2010
Daily Commercial News

A pilot project headed up by the Interprovincial Partnership for Sustainable Freshwater Aquaculture Development (IPSFAD) aims to prove that derelict and unused buildings once used for chickens, hogs or horses can be renovated into thriving fish farms.

Although the first project is located in Warren, Man., it’s designed to provide a blueprint for similar projects in Ontario and Quebec.

“Typically the type of barn that lends itself to conversion is long and narrow,” says Grant Vandenberg, President of IPSFAD. “That describes a hog barn or some of the barns used in recent year to collect mare’s urine as a source of hormone therapy for post-menopausal women.”

With some hog farmers leaving the industry in the wake of unstable prices or bans on pig farming in certain regions, derelict barns are plentiful. They’re also often outfitted with concrete walls, a water supply, electricity and a waste retention system. 

Read the full story in the Daily Commercial News

Read related story on the FishSite; May 19, 2010; "Pilot Project Turns Poultry Or Pigs Into Trout"

Janaya Fuller-Evans
May 22, 2010
Burnaby Now

The Fraser River came in third on this year's endangered rivers of B.C. list, moving up one spot from last year's place as the fourth most endangered river in the province.

The Fraser has ranked in the top five of B.C.'s most endangered rivers for 17 of the 18 years that the list has been compiled by the Outdoor Recreation Council of British Columbia.

The river earned the dubious distinction due to pollution, industrial development and urbanization affecting the river.

Two B.C. rivers tied for first place, making the Fraser fourth in the number of most endangered rivers, though third in the rankings.

The most worrying issue with the river this year was the dismal sockeye salmon return, according to Mark Angelo, chair of the Rivers Institute at BCIT.

Angelo, who is also chair of the Outdoor Recreation Council's B.C. Rivers program and a Burnaby resident, said it was the lowest sockeye return recorded in 52 years.

Read the full story on Burnaby Now

Keven Drews
May 21, 2010
Westcoaster.ca

B.C. First Nations butted heads with open-pen fish-farm critics and other B.C. First Nations in Oslo, Norway this week.

Tofino businessman Lewis George, known as Chief Maquinna in Ahousat, B.C., and fellow band member Wally Samuels joined representatives of the Cape Mudge First Nation, located near Campbell River, on a fact-finding mission to the headquarters of Cermaq, the parent company of B.C.’s second-largest salmon-farming firm, Mainstream Canada.

Their visits coincided with a move by open-net fish-farm critics, the Pure Salmon Campaign, asking the company at its AGM to make management changes and relocate its open-pen salmon farms onto land, especially in B.C.

Pure Salmon wants companies to adopt closed-containment technology.

Travelling to Oslo, too, was a delegation of Canadian salmon-farm critics, including Darren Blaney, of the Homalco First Nation, located in the upper Sunshine Coast, Nicole Mackay, of the Wilderness Tourism Association of British Columbia, and Neil Frazer, a Comox, B.C.-born academic who is a professor of geophysics at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Read the full story on Westcoaster.ca 

Randy Shore,
May 18, 2010
The Vancouver Sun

Fish can tell us about the environmental stressors that are depleting their numbers in B.C. and around the world, if we can just figure out what they are saying, according to an organizer of an international symposium on fish behaviour.

"Fish are the canaries in the mine shaft," said Felix Breden, chairman of SFU's biology department. "They can help us learn much more about climate change and human impacts on the environment."

"The missing sockeye in the Fraser River are obviously telling us that there is a problem," he said, citing B.C.'s most infamous ecological mystery.

More than 100 scientists who have gathered at Simon Fraser University this week are pooling their knowledge to find novel ways to use observed fish behaviour to monitor pollutants in the environment.

Read more in The Vancouver Sun

Larry Pynn
May 17, 2010
Vancouver Sun

A member of the scientific advisory panel for the Cohen commission of inquiry into the decline of Fraser River sockeye salmon questions whether the exercise is necessary to resolve what is a science issue.

"I don't believe you needed to go to a judicial inquiry," said Brian Riddell, a 30-year scientist after with the federal fisheries department who is now chief executive officer of the Pacific Salmon Foundation. "I'm sure there are strong political reasons 10 on why it was done."

Riddell said salmon decline is a "science issue" and that if the inquiry highlights the need for more research to be done into the marine system "then it could be worthwhile."

However, he said it's a "sad comment on resource management" charged that Canada had to go as far as ordering a judicial inquiry airfare and that separating the politics package from the science is going to be a challenge.

Read the full story in The Vancouver Sun 

Also in the The Times Colonist; May 18th; "Judicial inquiry into salmon decline not needed, expert says"

Read related stories:

• Courier Islander; May 26, 2010; "Necessity of Cohen commission questioned by longtime scientist"

Read background news stories

Miro Cernetig
May 15, 2010
Vancouver Sun

You may have heard about the move to find an official fossil for British Columbia. The 80-million year-old elasmosaur, a deep-diving dinosaur that once fed off our coast, is one of the extinct front-runners for the posthumous honour.

But before we get to picking an official fossil to join our official flower (the Pacific Dogwood), official mammal (the white Kermode bear), official bird (the Steller's jay) and our official tree (the western red cedar), I have a suggestion. 

We might want to find ourselves an official fish. Many people think we already have one. Actually we don't. It's time we honoured the salmon. Salmon are the icon of this province.

They are part of first nations' heritage, the leitmotif of a sophisticated aboriginal culture that endures. Salmon runs were essential to building the province's early, post-colonial economy. Today, salmon remain a vital part of the ecological food chain that feeds those grizzly bears, bald eagles and orcas that make us one of the continent's last, great wilderness destinations.

Read the full story in The Vancouver Sun

Read related stories:

• Straght.com; June 2, 2010; "Plan introduced to declare Pacific Salmon as B.C.'s fish"
• The Vancouver Sun; May 18, 2010; "Salmon is a true symbol of our province" 

Mark Hume
May 6, 2010
The Globe and Mail

Canada’s controversial salmon farming industry, whose growth has stalled because of public concern about impacts on wild stocks, could make a dramatic shift to land-based facilities, according to a groundbreaking new report.

The study by Dr. Andrew Wright, an independent British Columbia consultant, states that land-based farms make sense environmentally, technically and economically.

The report, to be released Thursday, challenges the long-held industry view that closed containment facilities are too costly and technologically challenging to build. It is expected to add fuel to the debate in B.C., where there have been growing public demands to have fish farms moved out of the ocean, away from wild salmon migration routes.

“What I concluded is that closed containment is both technically and economically feasible, and extremely profitable when coupled with hydroponics, so you use the waste as the feedstock for an associated business beside it,” said Dr. Wright, whose research was partly funded by the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

He said the salmon farming industry, which on both coasts typically raises stock in open-net pens in the ocean, has not grown to meet market conditions because of fears it is causing environmental damage by spreading sea lice to wild fish, and is polluting the ocean floor with unused food and fish feces.

But Dr. Wright said those concerns could be swept aside by a move to land-based operations, where water would be constantly recirculated and waste would be used to fertilize associated agricultural crops.

“When you look at this fully integrated closed containment and crop notion, not only do you make more money … but you are actually building closed systems that make more environmental sense,” he said.

Read the full story in The Globe and Mail 

Read related stories:

• The Vancouver Sun; May 7th, 2010; "Fish farms should be on land: report"
• CBC Radio; May 12, 2010; Dr. Andrew Wright interviewed on BC Almanac. Listen to the full BC Almanac podcast (interview is in the last 10 minutes of the program). 
• North Island Gazette; May 13, 2010; "On-land fish farms practical, says report"
• The Green Majority (radio); May 14, 2010; "Save Our Salmon" 
• Nanaimo Daily News: May 14, 2010; "Land-based fish farms possible: Expert Nanaimo businessman with two decades of experience says closed containment systems would be power hogs" 
• Habour City Star; May 14, 2010; "Expert skeptical of Atlantic salmon farms - Report says land-based farms can be eco-friendly"

Les Leyne
May 12, 2010
The Times Colonist

There was a face-off in a Parliament Hill committee room a few weeks before Alexandra Morton started her march to Victoria that illustrates how confusing the fish farm issue is.

Morton testified by video-conference and briefed MPs on her belief that net-pen fish farms breed sea lice and diseases that infect wild salmon and are mostly responsible for declining wild runs.

Two days later, the provincial government's ranking aquatic veterinarian testified to the opposite.

It's entirely in keeping with the flavour of this argument that the scientific back and forth got ignored and the walk to Victoria got all the attention.

That seems to reconfirm that this is a political argument, not a scientific one.

And it's going to be resolved politically, not with some smoking-gun scientific discovery.

Read the full story in The Times Colonist

Judith Lavoie
May 12, 2010
The Times Colonist

Ground zero for B.C.'s fish-farm battles is Broughton Archipelago, where salmon farms are bang in the middle of wild-fish migration routes. But it's also an area where aquaculture companies and environmental groups are tentatively working together for the first time.

Marine Harvest Canada and the Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform initiated an uneasy truce last year, and now fish-farm companies Grieg Seafood and Mainstream Canada have joined an effort to reduce sea lice on farm fish and fallow some farms during out-migration of pink salmon through the archipelago.

The Broughton Archipelago Management Plan shows more can be achieved with a ceasefire than war, said Crawford Revie, Canada research chairman at the University of Prince Edward Island and a delegate at the international sea lice conference in Victoria, which ends today.

Scientists looking at lice from both sides of the fence are part of the management plan, which means advice given to policy-makers is seen as independent, Revie said.

"We are seeing whether, instead of just throwing mud at each other, we can come up with pieces of reviewed science that move us beyond polarization."

Read the full story in The Times Colonist

Judith Lavoie
May 11th, 2010
The Times Colonist and The Vancouver Sun

It is almost inevitable that sea lice at B.C. salmon farms will become resistant to the chemical pesticide used to kill them, scientists at an international sea lice conference in Victoria said yesterday.

"One of the biggest issues is that in Norway and Chile there's a documented resistance to treatment -- and that is really huge," said Ben Koop, biology department professor at the University of Victoria and a conference organizer.

"I think resistance on the West Coast is inevitable. It worries everybody, but because our ecosystems are different, I would expect a slow evolution to resistance," he said.

The only universal treatment for sea lice at salmon farms is the product Slice, which uses the chemical emamectin benzoate to kill lice.

However, lice living in isolated communities, treated only with Slice, develop resistance.

Read the full story in The Times Colonist  or The Vancouver Sun

Read related stories:

• Courier Islander; May 14, 2010; "Sea lice pesticide resistance 'inevitable'" 

Brennan Clarke
May 8, 2010
The Globe and Mail

As Alexandra Morton watched her supporters pour on to the legislature lawn Saturday, she couldn't help noticing that the final leg of her fish-farming protest walk looked an awful lot like the kind of healthy, wild-salmon run she has spent the past 20 years trying to save.

“I was really, in the true sense of the word, overwhelmed to stand on the legislature steps and see the surge of people coming down Government Street,” Ms. Morton said. “The lawn was full, the streets were pouring. … I felt like I was watching the sockeye go up the Adams River.”

In one of the largest environmental demonstrations the city has ever seen, close to 4,000 people turned out for the culmination of Ms. Morton's 500-kilometre “Get Out Migration” walk that began April 23 in Campbell River.

For Ms. Morton, the event was a turning point in her ongoing battle against open-net salmon farming on B.C.'s coast, much of which she waged in relative anonymity from her home in the Broughton Archipelago, where as much as one-third of the province's farmed salmon is produced.

“I've lobbied government and done the studies and gone through all these steps and nobody would listen. About two months ago, I realized what we need here is the people,” she said.

“I think we're past the point where people are going to sit there and let them take this resource away.”

Research by Ms. Morton and others indicates that farmed salmon pens in the Broughton Archipelago, home to some of B.C.s most important salmon runs, are breeding grounds for pathogens and parasites such as sea lice that infect wild salmon.

Salmon farming companies say they're equally concerned about the region's disappearing salmon stocks, but reject the idea that salmon farming is to blame. 

Read the full story in The Globe and Mail

Read related stories in:

• PQB News; May 31, 2010; "Future of fish farms in B.C. controversial"
• Quesnel Observer; May 13, 2010; "Island fish farm protesters rally"
• The Westerly News; May 12, 2010;""Salmon protest regarded as largest sit-in in legislature"
• The Cowichan Valley Citizen; May 12, 1010; "Morton greeted with 'powerful' rally"
• Watershed Sentinel; May 12, 2010; "The great Get Out Migration against open net pen fish farms in BC"
• Courier Islander; May 12, 2010; "500-kilometre protest walk ends in Victoria" 
• Delta Optimist; May 12, 2010; "Foes join hands to fight fish farms - Cummins and Crey see eye-to-eye over threat to wild salmon stocks"
• Maple Ridge News; May 11, 2010; "Two walks focus on wild salmon"
• The Vancouver Sun; May 10, 2010; "500-km walk protests salmon farms - Demonstrators rally to raise awareness of penned fish farms' impact on wild stocks"
• Cowichan News Leader; May 10, 2010; "Get Out Migration walkers deliver wild salmon message to Cowichan" 
• Examiner.com; May 9, 2010; "British Columbia farmed salmon is under attack"
• BC Local News; May 9th, 2010; "Fish farm protest draws big crowd"
• The Times Colonist; May 9th, 2010; "Sea of people marches to fight fish farms" 
• The Vancouver Sun; May 9th, 2010; "Sea of people marches to fight fish farms"
• Environmental News Examiner; May 9th, 2010; "British Columbia farmed salmon is under attack" 
• Top News (Singapore); May 8th, 2010; "Sea lice fatal to salmon - biologist fears salmon extinction by 2010"
• The Times Colonist; May 8th, 2010; "Walk for the wild side steps up" 
• The Province; May 8th, 2010; Biggest ever B.C. fish-farm protest sends message to Victoria" 
• CHEK News; May 8th, 2010; "Salmon Walk Ends". To view, click the link and type "Salmon Walk Ends"  into the search field
• Global TV News; May 8th, 2010; "Fish Farms Protest"
• BC Local News; May 8th, 2010; "Fish farm protesters rally at legislature" 

Derrick Penner
May 7th, 2010
The Vancouver Sun

A B.C.-based conservation group has put forward a business case to move salmon farms from their contested existence in the ocean onto land.

The SOS Marine Conservation Foundation, on Thursday, released a report that analyzes land-based systems and concludes contained tank-based farms, without ocean pollution concerns or fears of transferring sea lice to wild salmon stocks, would be profitable.

"I would say [establishing land-based farms] is a must do," in a province that needs to develop new industry, report author Andrew Wright said in an interview.

The fish-farming industry does have an opportunity to grow, Wright added, "but because of the current mode of practice, it has no social licence to expand."

The B.C. industry produces some 80,000 tonnes of salmon a year, but its growth has remained stalled over environmental concerns.

Read the full story in The Vancouver Sun

Read related stories: 

• The Globe and Mail; May 6, 2010; "Land-based salmon farms make economic sense, report finds" 
• CBC Radio, BC Almanac; May 12, 2010; Dr. Andrew Wright interviewed on BC Almanac. Listen to the full BC Almanac podcast (interview is in the last 10 minutes of the program). 
• North Island Gazette; May 13, 2010; "On-land fish farms practical, says report"

Jack Knox
May 7, 2010
Times Colonist

Alexandra Morton has been a voice in the wilderness, literally and figuratively, for more than 20 years.

Way up in the Broughton Archipelago, off the northeast coast of Vancouver Island, the biologist has been sounding the alarm about fish farming since 1989.

Wild salmon stocks are being wiped out by sea lice from fish farms that sit smack in the middle of their migration routes, she warns. The fragile, inter-connected ecology of the coast is in peril. Morton isn't the only one sending this message, but it's her name that has become synonymous with the cause -- and the frustration of environmentalists who feel ignored by those in power.

Read the full story in The Times Colonist

Read / view related stories:

• Courier Islander; May 7th, 2010; "Morton says B.C.'s salmon 'a gift we won't be given again'"
• Richmond News; May 7th, 2010; "Fish foes join hands to fight fish farms"
• Coast Reporter; May 7th, 2010; "Coast rallies for plight of wild salmon"
• Westerly News; May 6th, 2010; "Tofino mother-daughter pair continue foot journey with others to Victoria" 
• Nanaimo Daily News; May 5th, 2010; "Protesters take aim at retail giant on march down Vancouver Island"
• Cowichan Valley Citizen; "May 5th, 2010; "Fish farm crusader brings her message to Cowichan"
• A Channel News; May 4th, 2010; "Fish Farm Protest"

Judith Lavoie
May 6, 2010
Times Colonist

Thea Block wrote "Salmon Are Sacred" to celebrate NDP fisheries critic Fin Donnelly's introduction of a private member's bill requiring B.C. fish farms to move to closed pens.

The bill was inspired by Block, who won a contest last year when Victoria MP Denise Savoie asked high school students to submit proposals for legislation.

Block, who works on her father's fishing boat out of Cortes Island during the summer, said she wants to ensure future generations can catch wild salmon.

"I don't want it spoiled because we didn't take steps to protect our wild salmon. That's why I entered my idea for closed containment in the contest," she said.

The bill is way down the list of private member's bills, which do not usually get past initial stages of legislation, but Donnelly said it's a good first step. 

Read the full story in the Times Colonist 

Read related news story in the:

• Prince Rupert Daily News; May 17, 2010; "Private bill submitted to contain open net fish farming"
• New West News Leader; May 7th, 2010; "MP makes motion to save wild salmon"

Mark Hume
May 4, 2010
The Globe and Mail

Native leaders representing 94 bands on the Fraser River have called for the resignation of federal Fisheries Minister Gail Shea, saying her department’s policies have put declining stocks of chinook salmon in peril.

But a spokesman for the minister said she is confident the Department of Fisheries and Oceans is managing the stocks carefully, with conservation as a top priority.

The British Columbia bands are angry because they say commercial and sports fishermen are killing endangered chinook in the ocean, while native fishermen on the river are forgoing fishing opportunities in order to protect salmon.

The bands have asked that all sport and commercial fisheries for chinook be shut down in the ocean, but DFO has so far declined.

Read the full story in The Globe and Mail

May 4th, 2010
Kamploopstheweek.com

Save-On-Foods has become the only retailer to sell sustainably grown coho salmon farmed on land in a closed-containment system.

Parent company Overwaitea Food Group has secured exclusive rights to retail SweetSpring brand freshwater coho salmon grown by Aquaseed, the first commercially viable land-based salmon farm.

SweetSpring Salmon has been placed on the Super Green list by the Seafood Watch Program, one of the most recognized sustainable seafood assessments available. SweetSpring Salmon is rated as a SeaChoice “best choice” product.

In June 2009, the Overwaitea Food Group announced its six-point sustainable seafood plan in conjunction with SeaChoice, a national program that ranks seafood using a comprehensive assessment system and provides information to consumers.

Since then, the Overwaitea Food Group has delisted a number of threatened species, developed an industry-leading sustainable-seafood reference guide for customers and staff and introduced new choices for consumers, including Western Family spot prawns and SweetSpring salmon.

SweetSpring Salmon is being sold exclusively at Save-On-Foods, Overwaitea Foods, PriceSmart Foods, Cooper’s Foods and Urban Fare store locations in B.C. and Alberta.

Source: KamploopsThisWeek.com

Read related stories:

• Williams Lake Tribune; April 20, 2010; "Local grocer offering 'Super Green' SweetSpring Salmon"

Mark Hume
May 4th, 2010
The Globe and Mail

A coalition of Canadian and U.S. environmental groups have asked an international body to investigate allegations the federal government is allowing a Metro Vancouver sewage plant to regularly discharge toxic waste into Georgia Strait.

In a submission, nine groups ask the Commission for Environmental Cooperation of North America to document “the failure of the Canadian government to adequately enforce its environmental laws.”

Douglas Chapman, a spokesman for Fraser Riverkeeper, the lead environmental group in the action, said he hopes the CEC will investigate why the federal government took over and stayed a private prosecution of Metro Vancouver in 2006.

In that case Fraser Riverkeeper alleged the Iona waste water treatment plant was routinely discharging effluent that failed to meet toxicity standards.

Mr. Chapman said Metro Vancouver’s own records show that on 25 testing days between 2001 and 2009 the Iona plant “discharged primary treated sewage effluent that was acutely toxic to fish.”

But he said Metro Vancouver has never been charged with violating the Fisheries Act.

“The aim of this submission is to promote the enforcement of the Fisheries Act,” states the application to the CEC. “By preventing the charge against Metro Vancouver … the Canadian government has failed to enforce the Fisheries Act … A factual record of this failure could encourage the Canadian government to enforce its environmental laws and regulations, thus fostering the protection of the environment for present and future generations.”

Read the full story in The Globe and Mail 

Christina Toth
May 4, 2010
The Abbotsford Times

You could hear their singing before you could see them clearly.

The big canoe looked tiny as it floated down the middle of the muddy Fraser, its 10 paddlers urging their vessel downstream into the Mission Harbour on Thursday evening.

On board were Sto:lo Nations members from the Chilliwack and Hope areas, Mission residents and others who want to save the West Coast salmon from extinction.

In a 10-day river voyage spearheaded by Mission's Elena Edwards, paddlers from several communities along the river are out in support of salmon researcher Alexandra Morton's campaign to protect the species. Morton has documented the negative effects on juvenile salmon from the sea lice that thrive around commercial fish farms on the coast, and she says the lice are killing the young salmon just as they head out to sea.

Read the full story in the Abbotsford Times

Read related stories:

• Times Colonist; May 2, 2010; "'Near-misses' alarm fish-farm foes"

Click here to read related stories prior to May 1st. 

Associated Press
April 29, 2010
Seattle PI

SEATTLE -- A federal judge has set aside Washington's water quality standards for salmon farms, saying federal regulators didn't use the best available science in approving them.

U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency and National Marine Fisheries Service ignored the government's own recovery plans for endangered salmon and orcas when they found that a formal environmental review of the state's standards was not necessary.

Under the ruling Wednesday, the agencies must reconsider whether the farms are likely to harm wild salmon. If they do pose a threat - such as by the transmission of sea lice from penned fish to wild ones - the EPA could require stricter controls on aquaculture in Puget Sound.

Wild Fish Conservancy filed the lawsuit that led to the ruling.

American Gold Seafoods operates all eight salmon farms in the sound. The company did not immediately return a call seeking comment Thursday.

Source Seattle PI 

Dan MacLennan
April 30, 2010
Courier Islander

A salmon farm protester lobbed Atlantic salmon onto the Marine Harvest balcony Wednesday when the Get Out Migration came to town. The fish were said to be escapees from Marine Harvest?s Port Elizabeth farm. The farm suffered the embarrassing and controversial loss of more than 40,000 fish last October.

Alexandra Morton's Get Out Migration continued to spark growing support, criticism and publicity as it passed through the Campbell River region Tuesday and Wednesday.

Tuesday saw a small flotilla of protest boats visiting fish farms in Okisollo Channel, just north of Quadra Island, although the promised eviction notices did not materialize. There was a swim around a fish farm and a celebration/rally on Quadra. On Wednesday about 300 people gathered at Campbell River's Spirit Square to hear Morton and others speak. Atlantic salmon, escaped from Marine Harvest's Port Elizabeth farm last October, were piled in front of the company's door and lobbed onto a second floor balcony in the Discovery Harbour Shopping Centre.

"Atlantic Salmon do not belong in the Pacific," Morton said. "We're just returning them to the Norwegian company Marine Harvest. We don't think they made every effort to recapture them. It's been impossible to communicate with these companies by letter, by science. They require a physical demonstration like this."

Read the full story in the Courier Islander

Read related stories:

• Nanaimo News Bulletin; April 30, 2010; :Morton migrates for salmon"
• Comox Valley Record; April 30, 2010; "Anti-fish farm migration passes through Comox Valley"
• Comox Valley Echo; April 30, 2010; "Salmon farm opposition 'threatens many jobs'
• Comox Valley Echo; April 30, 2010; "White doves welcome Morton to Fanny Bay"
• A-News; April 29, 2010; "Calling for Closed Containment"
• PQB News; April 29, 2010; Greens join Morton's walk"
• Alberni Valley Times; April 29, 2010; "Farms blamed for dead salmon" 
• The Westerly; April 29, 2010; "Tofino mother-daughter pair on 316-kilometre trek to Victoria in support of wild salmon"
• Westcoaster; April 29, 2010; "Unreal" Support for Tofino's Wild-Salmon Walkers
• Chek News; April 28, 2010; "Alex Morton Salmon Fight"
• Courier Islander; April 28, 2010; "Get Out Migration comes to C.R."
• Comox Valley Echo; April 27; "Campagnolo supports walk to save wild salmon"
• A- Channel News; April 27, 2010; "Fish farm fight" 
• Campbell River Mirror; April 27, 2010; "Fish farm protest today at Spirit Square"
• Comox Valley Echo; April 27, 2010; "Salmon walk making stop to support CoalWatch"
• Hope Standard; April 27; "Paddlers trying to save wild salmon" 

 Read related stories published prior to April 27

Grant Warkentin
April 27, 2010
Campbell River Mirror

B.C.’s biggest fish farming company believes the time is right to see if salmon farms on land are commercially viable.

“We’ve heard the call for closed containment,” said Clare Backman, Marine Harvest Canada’s director of environmental compliance and community relations. “We’re going to be exploring the boundaries of what we can do with this kind of technology.”

Marine Harvest has tried closed-containment salmon farms before. In 2001, the company spent $1.3 million to raise farmed salmon in floating closed bags near Saltspring Island.

“Unfortunately, the results were disappointing; there were no environmental or biological advantages, but operational expense was greater,” according to the company’s website.

Data from the 2001 trial convinced the company it wasn’t practical or affordable to convert its operations to floating closed bag systems.

However, the company has continued to watch developments in closed containment technology and is going ahead with plans for a new land-based closed-containment farm.

Read the full story in the Campbell River Mirror

April 26, 2010
Turtle Island News

After 20 years of expressing concern to provincial and federal
governments about the industrial salmon farms on the B.C. coast,
protesters planned to spend the next few weeks raising awareness of
the issue.

The protest, called Get Out Migration for Wild Salmon, was set to
begin Thursday night in Sointula, a fishing village on Malcolm
Island off the northeast coast of Vancouver Island, biologist
Alexandra Morton said in an interview earlier this week from
Broughton Archipelago at Echo Bay north of Vancouver Island.

She has been at the centre of the controversy to have Norwegian
salmon farms removed from the migration routes of the wild salmon.
She and her followers are asking that the farms be moved onto land
away from the routes to "allow wild salmon to be restored.''

Read the full story on the Turtle Island News Service

Read related stories:

• A Channel News; April 26, 2010, "Fish Farm Union Upset"Courier-Islander; April 23; 2010; "Morton's 'Get Out Migration' starts today"
• Global News; April 23, 2010; "Fighting Fish Farms: Environmentalist "walks the walk" to draw attention to the risks BC fish farms create for wild salmon stocks"
• CTV / A Channel News; April 23, 2010; "Salmon Are Sacred"
• Prince Rupert Daily News; April 23, 2010; "Morton takes fish farm fight on the road" 
• The Canadian Press; April 22, 2010; "Protesters of salmon farms on B.C. coast want them to relocate on land"
• North Shore News; April 21, 2010; "Swimming against the tide" 
• Related stories prior to April 21st, 2010

Canadian Press
April 23, 2010
CTV News

A new report by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans says Canada's aquaculture industry generates $2.1 billion each year and contributes thousands of jobs in coastal and rural communities.

The fish farming report, released Friday by DFO, provides estimates on the industry's economic prowess and says aquaculture production more than quadrupled between 1990 and 2006.

Of the $2.1 billion that was generated for the Canadian economy in 2007, more than $960 million came from B.C. while New Brunswick contributed about $415 million.

Ruth Salmon with the Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance says the study proves fish farming is providing sustainable long term-employment in areas of the country that would otherwise be economically challenged.

Fish farms have been a hot-button issue in B.C. in recent years, and earlier this week federal justice officials laid charges against aquaculture giant Marine Harvest for unlawful possession of wild fish.

Chief Bob Chamberlin with the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs says he keeps hearing how the aquaculture industry is the new lifeblood of employment in remote communities, when he believes fish farming is to blame for the collapse of commercial fisheries in those communities.

Source CTV News

Read related article: Prince Rupert Daily News; May 10, 2010; "Report emphasizes economic importance of B.C. fish farms" 

Mark Hume
April 22nd, 2010
The Globe and Mail

A federal judicial inquiry into sockeye salmon stocks in the Fraser River has appointed a team of six leading fisheries scientists to serve as advisors.

Brian Wallace, Senior Commission Counsel for the inquiry headed by British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Bruce Cohen, said the panel will be led Dr. David Levy, a salmon biologist with over 30 years experience in the Fraser watershed.

“The members of our scientific advisory panel are widely respected experts in their fields with impeccable credentials whose expertise will be valuable in our examination of the decline of Fraser River sockeye,” said Mr. Wallace.

Read the full story in The Globe and Mail

Read background news stories 

Mark Hume
April 21, 2010
The Globe and Mail

The federal government has taken over a private prosecution that was being pursued against a salmon farm by researcher and environmental activist Alexandra Morton.

“It’s a good day,” said Ms. Morton on Tuesday, after the Public Prosecution Service of Canada stepped in to stay Ms. Morton’s charges and file its own indictment in the Provincial Court of British Columbia.

“They assumed my case and stayed it, then laid their own set of charges,” she said. “It’s what we wanted. There couldn’t have been a better outcome.”

Ms. Morton laid charges against Marine Harvest Canada Inc. last year after gathering evidence that allegedly showed the farm had scooped up wild, juvenile pink salmon while capturing domestic stock for transfer from its ocean pens near Port McNeill, on northern Vancouver Island.

Read the full story in The Globe and Mail

Read related stories:

• The Courier Islander; April 28, 2010; "Fish farm company facing federal charges"
• Comox Valley Echo; April 27, 2010; "Charges laid against fish farm"
• The Vancouver Observer; April 21, 2010; "Private citizen leads federal government to protect BC's wild salmon from multi-national Marine Harvest"
• Vancouver Sun; April 21, 2010; "Ottawa lays charges against giant B.C. fish-farming company - Justice Department takes over private prosecution launched by biologist"
• Times Colonist; April 21, 2010; "Ottawa takes over prosecution of fish-farm firm = Marine Harvest accused of unlawful possession of wild salmon, herring"
• Winnipeg Free Press; April 20, 2010; "Justice officials lay charges against fish farm operating in B.C."

Mark Hume
April 16, 2010
The Globe and Mail

A federal inquiry into the decline of sockeye salmon in the Fraser River has received more applications for standing from interested parties than did commissions that investigated the bombing of Air India Flight 182 or the sponsorship scandal.

British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Bruce Cohen, who last November was appointed to head the salmon commission, said 50 applicants sought standing before him as formal participants.

“This number is significantly greater than for other federal commissions of inquiry,” Mr. Cohen said in a ruling that grants standing to less than half the applicants.

To illustrate the overwhelming interest in the salmon commission, he noted that the Commission of Inquiry into the Investigation of the Bombing of Air India Flight 182 received 21 applications for standing, the Gomery Inquiry into the sponsorship scandal had 15 applications and the inquiry into the Maher Arar case had 24 applications.

Mr. Cohen said he was granting standing to only 20 groups and individuals because “I am concerned that too many participants could make the process unwieldy and expensive and impede the completion of the commission’s work.”

Read the full story in The Globe and Mail

Read related stories:

• Whistler Pique;  April 27, 2010; "Salmon Inquiry lacks Sea to Sky presence - role of fish farms expected to be central"
• The Globe and Mail; April 22, 2010; "Six leading scientists to advise Cohen Comission" 
• Agassiz Harrison Observer; April 20; 2010; "Missing salmon inquiry gears up"
• Vancouver Sun; April 15, 2010; "Cohen Commission names 20 groups to Fraser sockeye salmon inquiry"

Mark Hume
April 19, 2010
The Globe and Mail

Alexandra Morton has been to court, winning an action last year in the Supreme Court of British Columbia that forced the provincial government to turn over the regulation of fish farms to the federal government.

She has been to Ottawa repeatedly, most recently a week ago to testify before the standing committee on fisheries and oceans about the impact salmon farms are having on wild stocks.

She has been to Norway, to lobby the fish farming industry there, which owns most of the fish farming companies here, in an unsuccessful attempt to get them to change their practices on the West Coast.

She has been on the water in the Broughton Archipelago, off the northeast shoulder of Vancouver Island, for nearly 30 years, and for the last decade has been doing field research on sea lice that has resulted in the publication of papers in 17 journals.

She has been vilified by her critics, who dismiss her as an environmental zealot who has a thing about bashing fish farms. But last month, Simon Fraser University awarded her an honorary doctorate of science, stating that her “work linking sea lice infestation in wild salmon to fish farming in the Broughton Archipelago has drawn international attention and challenged both the salmon farm industry and the government officials who regulate it.”

Read the full story in The Globe and Mail

Read related stories:

• North Island Gazette; April 20, 2010; "Morton migration protests fish farms"
• The Straight.com; April 15, 2010; "Fish farm opponents to paddle down Fraser River for wild salmon"
• The Valley Voice; April 15, 2010; "Fraser flotilla heads to Sidney in bid to shut down salmon farming industry"
• Alberni Valley Times; Apirl 14, 2010; "Get on board saving our salmon stocks"
• The Comox Valley Echo; April 13, 2010; "Fish farm foe leading 'migration' to Victoria"

Jennifer Moreau
April 17, 2010
Burnaby Now

While a judicial inquiry on declining Fraser sockeye stocks is underway, more needs to be done save the salmon, according to BCIT's Mark Angelo.

"The last thing we want to do is do nothing over the next year-and-a-half while the inquiry is underway," Angelo said. "To delay and do nothing over the next year and a half would not be in the best interest of British Columbians or B.C. salmon stocks."

Angelo's comments came after two days of panel discussions in March, where scientists, conservationists and academics reviewed the life cycle of sockeye salmon, from the gravel to the grave.

Read the full story in Burnaby Now

Read background stories on the collapse of the Fraser River sockeye

Mark Hume
April 16, 2010
The Globe and Mail

The provincial government has asked the Supreme Court of British Columbia to deny a collection of aboriginal groups the right to launch a class action suit over the way fish farms are managed on the West Coast.

James Sullivan, a lawyer representing the B.C. government, urged the court to reject the certification application filed by Chief Robert Chamberlin on behalf of members of the Kwicksutaineuk/Ah-Kwa-Mish First Nations, saying a class action suit is the wrong tool to address the complaint.

Mr. Chamberlin alleges that the provincial and federal governments have so badly mismanaged fish farming in the Broughton Archipelago, off northeast Vancouver Island, that they have damaged the fishing and ceremonial practices of the native people there. The bands allege that sea lice epidemics have been caused by the salmon farms, leading to the decline of wild salmon stocks.

Mr. Chamberlin has said if certification under the Class Proceedings Act is granted, individual members of the first nation will be allowed to opt in or out before the proposed suit against the government proceeds.

Mr. Sullivan told Mr. Justice Harry Slade, however, that the question of fish-farm management and its impact on aboriginal rights is not a matter that should be dealt with by class action.

“I think everyone agrees it is a serious issue, but it’s not one where this is the only realistic forum to resolve it,” he said.

Read the full story in The Globe and Mail

Read related stories

Dan MacLennan
April 16, 2010
The Courier Islander

BC's fish farming industry is being badly outplayed and losing a public relations battle where huge U.S. foundations are paying environmentalists and scientists to hurt aquaculture in support of the Alaskan wild salmon fishery.

That was the basis of a presentation to Campbell River city council Tuesday night from Vivian Krause, a former aquaculture industry worker with a Masters degree in nutrition.

"(The aquaculture industry is) being outplayed," Krause told the Courier-Islander after her presentation. "Their team's losing. They need to get better performance out of their players, or they need to get better players or they need a better coach.

"The aquaculture industry has got to accept that it's losing this game. If it wants to win it's going to have to play differently."

Krause's allegations brought denials from Alexandra Morton, the David Suzuki Foundation and Dr. Martin Krkosek this week, but first a look at Krause and her presentation.

Read the full story in The Courier Islander

Read related story:

• The Campbell River Mirror; April 16, 2010; "Researcher asks council to defend salmon farming industry" 

  
  

Mark Hume
April 13, 2010
The Globe and Mail

When the wild salmon started to vanish from the waters of the Broughton Archipelago, the elders of a group of small native bands on northern Vancouver Island urged Chief Bob Chamberlin to do something about it.

On Tuesday, Mr. Chamberlin stood on the steps of the Supreme Court of British Columbia, with a collection of hereditary chiefs in regalia drumming behind him, and said that, after years of pleading with the government for action, “the last straw” of court action had finally been reached.

“We don’t want to do this, but we are going to do everything we can to fight for our salmon,” he said of an application by four tribes to win certification that would allow them to launch a class-action suit against the federal and provincial governments.

If granted, it would be the first time in Canada that native bands have used the Class Proceeding Act to advance an aboriginal-rights claim.

Mr. Chamberlin said the Kwicksutaineuk/Ah-Kwa-Mish First Nations hope to convince the courts that government has so badly mismanaged the fish-farming industry that native rights have been violated.

 Read the full story in The Globe and Mail

Read related stories:

• The Globe and Mail; April 16, 2010; "B.C. asks court to deny class action certification in fish farm dispute"
• The Globe and Mail; April 14, 2010; "Natives cite science, culture in quest to sue over fish farms"
• The Province; April 14, 2010; "First Nations seeks class-action suit against B.C. fish farms"
• CKNW; April 13, 2010; "Fish farm debate back in court" 
• Metro News; April 13, 2010; "B.C. First Nations take their battle against fish farms to the courts"
• CBC News; April 13, 2010; "Fish farms lawsuit sought by B.C. natives"
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Courier Islander
April 14, 2010

Raw data released by the provincial Ministry of Agriculture and Lands confirms what their annual fish health reports have already reported: that B.C.'s farmed salmon are healthy, the BC Salmon Farmers Association (BCSFA) said Tuesday.

The results of a Freedom of Information request show absolutely no findings of ISA (an influenza-like fish disease) or any exotic diseases. The low number of mortalities that are recorded is caused by natural, locally-occurring illnesses picked up only after salmon are introduced to sea pens. 

Read the full story in The Courier Islander

Ross Marowits
April 13, 2010
The Canadian Press

Canadian consumers are being increasingly encouraged to purchase sustainably-sourced seafood after retailing giant Walmart joined Loblaw and Sobey's in moving to sell only "green" varieties of frozen, wild and farmed fish.

All fish sold in Walmart's 86 Canadian super centre stores will be certified to minimum standards of the Marine Stewardship Council to ensure suppliers adhere to the best aquaculture practices, the retail giant said Tuesday. Canned tuna will only be sourced from International Seafood Sustainability Foundation members.

"We're taking a first step to help sustain the future of fish," said Sam Silvestro, divisional merchandise manager at Walmart Canada.

"We believe that by offering sustainably harvested fish at affordable prices we can help improve the industry overall."

Read the full story on Yahoo Finance News

CBC Marketplace
April 2, 2010

When you go to the supermarket and buy fish, you rely on the label to tell you what kind of fish you're getting.

Unfortunately, when it comes to seafood, you may not be getting what you pay for. 

Using cutting-edge technology, we test more than 150 pieces of fish -- everything from halibut to pickerel, sea bass to shark -- bought at supermarkets in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. 

The results? We discover that one out of every five fish is mislabelled, which means many Canadians are being overcharged, left unable to make wise ecological choices, and are vulnerable to food safety concerns. 

See the CBC Marketplace episode

Christopher Pollon
April 2, 2010
BC Business

Critics liken many B.C. marine salmon farms to modern factory farms and feedlots on land: maximizing the number of animals in a pen enhances profitability but also creates unnatural conditions where disease and parasites can thrive.

By far the biggest problem associated with B.C. salmon farms has been sea lice, which are small, naturally occurring ocean parasites that latch on to the skin of fish and feed on their fluids. While they do not usually harm adult salmon, the number of sea lice can be magnified by the density of the farmed fish, and such concentrations have been implicated in the demise of wild juvenile salmon migrating in proximity to fish farms.

Open-net cages have been blamed for the escape of at least 1.5 million farmed Atlantic salmon into the wild since B.C. salmon farming began in the 1980s. University of Victoria ecologist John Volpe has documented the presence of Atlantic salmon in at least 80 B.C. rivers to date and has confirmed that they have successfully reproduced in three rivers on the northeast coast of Vancouver Island.

“We’re now putting millions of non-native Atlantic salmon, year-round, in near-shore marine waters, and there is just no way to avoid interactions with wild fish,” says Craig Orr, an ecologist and executive director of Coquitlam-based environmental group Watershed Watch Salmon Society. “We do not believe that a system that allows the passage of parasites, disease, feces and uneaten food, back and forth into the marine environment from the salmon farms, is a sustainable way to farm.”

Orr says B.C. salmon farms must make a transition to “closed containment,” which entails separating the fish from the marine environment, whether in ocean tanks or taking them out of the water altogether, as in the case of tilapia farming.

Marine Harvest Canada, a division of the Norway-based Marine Harvest ASA, the world’s largest salmon aquaculture company and B.C.’s biggest, is appealing to the federal and provincial governments for money to do just that. In co-operation with a coalition of environmental groups known as the Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform – including Orr’s Watershed Watch and the David Suzuki Foundation – Marine Harvest is working on designing and securing funding for a closed-containment pilot project this year.

Read the full story in BC Business

Serena Black
April 1, 2010
Captial News Online

 Lice are pests that can spread quickly within close quarters, but usually don't cause serious damage. This could be quickly changing though, at least for wild Pacific salmon along British Columbia’s coast.

Some research indicates that fish farming in B.C. is disturbing the life cycle of wild salmon and causing outbreaks of disease like sea lice.

Alexandra Morton, a biologist and director of the Salmon Coast Field Station in Simoom Sound, B.C., partnered with scientists across North America to study the impacts of fish farms on wild fish populations.

Read the full story on Capital News Online