Humpback whale corpse in fish farm raises questions

Mark Hume
March 28, 2013
Globe and Mail

Investigators from Fisheries and Oceans Canada are trying to determine how an adult humpback whale ended up dead inside a fish farm on the West Coast of Vancouver Island.

A Mainstream Canada representative says it looks like the whale died at sea, drifted in and then floated up inside the salmon pens. But Larry Paike, Director of Conservation and Protection for DFO thinks that unlikely.

“There is no visible trauma. It hasn’t been shot, thank goodness, it hasn’t been hit by a boat,” he said Thursday. “So there are a number of possible scenarios. One it dies of natural causes, drifts into a hole in the predator net and once it bloats comes up underneath. That is kind of like trying to shoot a hockey puck from centre ice into a golf cup holder.

“A more likely scenario is it was feeding, became disoriented, confused … and somehow became encumbered with the ropes from the predator net, or the predator net itself, and then subsequently drowned.”

Mr. Paike said a necropsy would be done Friday to determine cause of death.

Read the complete story in the Globe and Mail. 

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Posted March 28th, 2013

Money for aquaculture, but not wild salmon, critics note

Federal budget plans $57.5M for aquaculture regulations, nil for salmon report

Max Paris
March 28, 2013
CBC News

Money in this year's federal budget for aquaculture has critics wondering when Ottawa plans to speak up for wild salmon on the west coast.

The government gave the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) $57.5 million over five years "to enhance regulatory certainty" in the aquaculture industry, but it has yet to respond to the final report of the $26-million Cohen Commission, which was set up to look into the decline of sockeye salmon in the Fraser River.

"How do you respond to the recommendations of Mr. Justice [Bruce] Cohen, specifically that there be a moratorium on new aquaculture development near the Discovery Islands [B.C.]," asked Green Party Leader Elizabeth May outside the House of Commons after Tuesday's question period. She added that there is a great deal of concern in B.C. that farmed salmon are harming the survival of wild stocks.

The Cohen Commission was set up in 2009 to look into the dramatic and unexpected decline of that year's Fraser River sockeye salmon run. DFO expected 11 million fish to return in 2009, but fewer than 1.5 million did. Cohen's report was released in October of last year and made 75 recommendations to ensure the future well-being of sockeye salmon. Chief among them was a call for a moratorium on all new salmon farm operations in the Discovery Islands between Vancouver Island and B.C.'s mainland.

Cohen also pointed out a conflict of interest in the mandate of DFO. While the department is in charge of protecting wild fish stocks, it is also responsible for promoting the aquaculture industry. Cohen recommended that responsibility be taken away from DFO.

"It does appear that the federal government is going in the other direction from the main recommendations of the Cohen Commission," said John Reynolds, who holds the Tom Buell B.C. Leadership Chair in Salmon Conservation and Management at Simon Fraser University.

Read the complete story on CBC News. 

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Posted March 28th, 2013

Marine Harvest gains endorsement

March 28, 2013
North Island Gazette

Marine Harvest Canada was endorsed last week as a responsible producer of farm-raised Atlantic salmon by a seafood advisory program of the Aquarium of the Pacific.

After a thorough review of Marine Harvest Canada (MHC) operations, Seafood for the Future (SFF), a non-profit program of California-based Aquarium of the Pacific, has released its evaluation that recommends MHC salmon as a responsible aquaculture partner.

“We are very pleased that Aquarium of the Pacific has thoroughly reviewed our operations,” says Clare Backman, Director of Sustainable Programs at MHC. “It’s important for our customers to know that credible seafood sustainability programs are endorsing Marine Harvest farm-raised salmon.”

Staff from the aquarium visited MHC operations in British Columbia in 2010 to learn first-hand how Marine Harvest salmon are raised at land and ocean based farms. Since that initial meeting, MHC had continued to share information about its business with a focus on continuous improvement.

SFF has found that Marine Harvest is operating responsibly and continues to make measureable progress toward reducing its impacts.

Marine Harvest Canada has been certified by the Global Aquaculture Alliance’s Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP). BAP certification includes an oversight committee of several conservation-based organizations including the Aquarium of the Pacific, Monterey Bay Aquarium, and Marine Conservation Society and is recognized in the report as “performing above the industry standard for environmental sustainability.”

Marine Harvest Canada is Canada's leading supplier of Atlantic farm-raised salmon. Its processing plants, marine and land based operations are located on and around northern Vancouver Island, British Columbia.

Source: North Island Gazette

Posted March 28th, 2013

World's first land-based-farm sockeye salmon ready for harvest in B.C.

Langley operation expects to ramp up to production of 500 kilograms of fish every week

Randy Shore
March 27, 2013
Vancouver Sun

B.C. seafood firm Willowfield Enterprises will begin harvesting next week the world’s first commercial supply of sockeye salmon raised on a land-based farm.

The Langley fish farm expects to produce up to 500 kilograms of sockeye a week under the West Creek brand for wholesaler Albion Fisheries, according to company president Don Read. It will be sold at Choices Markets.

Initially, the harvest will be considerably smaller. Sockeye take about three years to achieve a harvest weight of two to three kilograms. Fish coming to market next week are between 1.1 and 1.5 kilograms.

“We have plans to double our capacity, but we want to take time to grow the market,” said Read, who is taking a conservative approach to growing his business. “We have been farming trout for 20 years, but we have only been profitable for three years.”

West Creek sockeye will carry the Vancouver Aquarium’s Ocean Wise sustainability certification.

“Getting Ocean Wise certification (for West Creek trout) brought a lot of awareness and really helped our business,” Read said. “It allowed us to raise our prices 20 per cent.”

Read and partner biologist Larry Albright experimented with sockeye for more than 15 years before developing a system to raise a commercially viable product.

Willowfield’s farm is based on a flow-through model, rather than recirculation common in land-based salmon farms. Water is drawn from a spring into above-ground sockeye tanks, then it flows into a series of in-ground trout ponds and finally into a holding pond before flowing into a local creek.

Read the complete story in the Vancouver Sun. 

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Posted March 27th, 2013

Fisheries critic says N.L. government destroying environment with open net farms [East Coast]

March 26, 2013
The Telegram

Opposition fisheries critic Jim Bennett, MHA for St. Barbe, says it's mind boggling that the Newfoundland government continues to approve open net aquaculture when the rest of the country is headed in the opposite direction.

Bennett responded, in a news release today, to Friday’s announcement from the British Columbia Liberal government that it would accept the intent of eight of the recent Cohen Commission’s recommendations and refuse to issue any more open net fish farm licenses until 2020.

Bennett said, last week Nova Scotia’s NDP government, for the very first time, rejected an open net fish farm license after the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans concluded that such fish farms posed a risk to wild salmon stocks.

While British Columbia’s Liberal government freezes future open net salmon farms and Nova Scotia’s NDP government rejects the latest open net fish farm licence in that province, Bennet said Newfoundland and Labrador’s Tories "continue to destroy the environment with more open net fish farms on our south coast."

Read the complete story in The Telegram. 

Posted March 26th, 2013

In Canada, Smoked Salmon Recalled for Listeria

Kathy Will
March 25, 2013
Food Poisoning Bulletin

The Canadian Food Inspection AGency and Central-Epicure Food Products are recalling smoked salmon because it may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes. There have been no illnesses reported with the consumption of this product.

The recalled fish is Central-Epicure Smoked Atlantic Salmon sold in 100 gram packages. The UPC number is 0 61279 21200 6 and the best before date is 13MR26, or March 26, 2013.

Listeria monocytogenes bacteria do not make food look, smell, or taste spoiled. The symptoms of listeriosis may not occur until 70 days after exposure. If you ate this product, write down the day you wrote it, and then monitor yourself for the next 70 days to make sure you don’t get sick. If you do experience the symptoms of listeriosis, including flu-like fever, muscle aches, stiff neck, headache, confusion, upset stomach, or diarrhea, see your doctor immediately.

Source: Food Poisoning Bulletin

Posted March 25th, 2013

Salmon farms near Campbell River capped for 7 years

Province agrees with intent of eight recommendations from the Cohen Commission

March 23, 2013
CBC

Six months after the release of the Cohen Commission's final report on the decline of Fraser River sockeye salmon, the B.C. government says it accepts the intent of a number of the report's recommendations, including putting a cap on future open-net fish farms along a critical migration route.

In October, Justice Bruce Cohen suggested a freeze on new open-net salmon farms in the Discovery Islands, near Campbell River, until September 2020. Cohen said dozens of salmon farms along the sockeye migration route have the potential to introduce exotic diseases and to aggravate diseases endemic to the wild fish.

Cohen's 1,000-page report said a string of cumulative factors likely played a role into why nearly 10 million salmon failed to return to spawn in 2009. He laid out 75 recommendations regarding the policies and practices for both the federal and provincial governments.

On Friday, the B.C. government said it would accept, or at least accept the intent, of eight recommendations — including a cap on the open-net farms — from the Cohen Commission that fell under provincial jurisdiction.

The government said it has "no intention of issuing any further or expanded tenures for net-pen salmon farms in the Discovery Islands until at least September 30, 2020." But it will continue to consider applications to amend existing boundaries of current open-net salmon farms for reasons other than increasing production, it said.

Read the complete story on CBC. 

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BC Government Press Release; March 22, 2013; "BC responds to Cohen Commission recommendations" 

Posted March 23rd, 2013

Federal salmon-farming committee ‘black hole,’ says environmentalist

Keven Drews
March 23. 2013
The Province

Critics of British Columbia's salmon-farming industry fear they could be "shouted down" and that their concerns will disappear into a "black hole" when a new committee meets to advise federal fisheries officials on aquaculture issues.

The advisory committee, which is being set up by Fisheries and Oceans Canada as part of its Integrated Management of Aquaculture Plan, is expected to hold its first meeting on Wednesday in Richmond, B.C.

The federal department began developing the plan after a February 2009 ruling by B.C. Supreme Court that Ottawa, as opposed to the province, is responsible for B.C.'s salmon farming industry. Only three of the committee's approximately 20 seats will go to environmental groups, and that concerns Craig Orr, executive director of the Watershed Watch Salmon Society.

He said seven seats will be held by the industry, seven by First Nations, one or two by industry associations and two by regional districts.

"We think that number should be certainly bumped up, or else we're just going to be shouted down at the table," Orr said.

The advocate said that even though the industry has other avenues for consulting with the federal government, like the Finfish Aquaculture Industry Advisory Panel, Norwegian-owned companies will be well represented on the advisory committee.

He said there's not enough representation for regional districts or environmental groups. He added he's also worried the committee will rely on science produced by the federal department and instead of what he considers "unbiased scientific advice."

Read the complete story in The Province. 

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Posted March 23rd, 2013

Fraser River sockeye salmon run may be lower than expected says federal official

March 21, 2013
Times Colonist

A federal official says this year's Fraser River sockeye salmon run may be lower than expected.

Les Jantz, a resources manager with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, says preliminary projections put returns somewhere between 1.6 and 15.6 million fish.

He says the working number the department is using is just under five million, and if that's the case there may be cuts in the commercial fishery.

Jantz says it's difficult to accurately predict the return because it's subject to environmental and other factors.

Fraser River sockeye runs have fluctuated wildly in recent years, with a collapse in the fishery in 2009 that promoted a federal inquiry, to a record number of fish in 2010.

Returns that year were about 34 million fish, a number that far exceeded forecasts made by federal officials.

Read the story in the Times Colonist. 

Posted March 21st, 2013

Federal budget cuts $100 million from fisheries and oceans over three years

Peter O'Neil and Gordon Hoekstra
March 21, 2013
Vancouver Sun

The Harper government took another axe to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans in Thursday’s budget.

The department will have to cut spending by $33 million a year starting in 2015-16 – the year the government vows to balance the budget.

But the federal Conservatives, who first cut Fisheries spending in the 2012 budget and watered down habitat protection legislation, tried to make amends with critics by increasing funding for habitat protection.

The money, more than $10 million over two years, will be aimed at local organizations who will presumably fill gaps left by the departure of Fisheries habitat officers since last year’s cuts.

Watershed Watch Salmon Society executive director Craig Orr said the $10 million boost could be helpful, but he added he would need to see more details.

And Orr is concerned about the additional budget cuts to DFO since they come before the federal government has responded to the Cohen Commission inquiry into loss of salmon stocks in B.C. The inquiry report cites “concern” over earlier staff cuts in DFO’s Pacific Region habitat management program.

“It seems to me with these big cuts, the federal government is ignoring the public interest in wild salmon,” said Orr. 

Read the complete article in the Vancouver Sun. 

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Posted March 21st, 2013

'Namgis First Nation opens land-based salmon farm

Judith Lavoie
March 19, 2013
Times Colonist

Thousands of squirming salmon smolts slid this week into closed pens at a land-based fish farm, and members of the ‘Namgis First Nation hope the fish are swimming into history.

The $8.5-million ‘Namgis Closed Containment Salmon Farm, on reserve land south of Port McNeill, is the first commercial-scale closed-containment farm in Canada — and one of the first in the world.

“We would like to see this day as the day we started to transition from open-net fish farms into land-based fish farms,” ‘Namgis Chief Bill Cranmer said in an interview.

The ‘Namgis, known as the People of the Salmon, have 4,000 years of tradition tying them to Pacific salmon and it is with the hope of saving wild salmon that they are getting into the business of farming Atlantic salmon.

The aim is to prove it is economically viable to raise commercial numbers of Atlantic salmon in tanks on land, instead of in open-net pens in the ocean, where the fish have contact with wild salmon.

“That is why we are doing it to start with,” Cranmer said. “And we also hope it will eventually be good business for ‘Namgis First Nation.”

Read the full article in the Times Colonist.

Related article:

For related media articles on this issue click here.

For more information on this project see the 'Namgis closed containment salmon farm.

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Posted March 20th, 2013

Local scientists featured in film on salmon

Darrell Bellaart
March 19, 2013
Nanaimo Daily News

Two scientists from Nanaimo figure prominently in a feature-length movie that examines whether European salmon viruses are linked to the decline in Pacific salmon stocks.

The 70-minute documentary Salmon Confidential was viewed more than 40,000 times in the first week it went online.

For years the film's producer, controversial environmentalist/ biologist Alexandra Morton has said the salmon farming industry has introduced viruses from farmed Atlantic salmon that are a factor in the decline of wild stocks.

The film provides "insight into the inner workings of government agencies, as well as rare footage of the bureaucrats tasked with managing our fish and the safety of our food supply," according to an online promotional teaser.

Among the sources quoted in the movie are two scientists who have been involved in salmon research at the Pacific Biological Station in Nanaimo.

During the Cohen Commission inquiry into declining Pacific salmon stocks, it came out scientists, including Kristi Miller, at the PBS, were prevented by government from speaking publicly on their work.

Read the full story in the Nanaimo Daily News.

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Posted March 19th, 2013

Advocates call for moratorium on B.C. herring fishery in wake of declining stocks

Judith Lavoie
Times Colonist
March 19, 2013

Sierra Club B.C. and some fisheries scientists are calling for a moratorium on B.C.’s herring fishery because of fears declining stocks could affect the entire marine ecosystem.

“Herring are a keystone species, if ever there was one,” said Colin Campbell, Sierra Club marine campaigner. “Their ecological importance and declining abundance demands an immediate precautionary response.”

Herring are eaten by coho and chinook salmon, humpback, minke and killer whales, other marine mammals and seabirds. Herring roe is eaten by bears and wolves, and the roe-on-kelp fishery — which does not kill the fish — is important to coastal First Nations.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada should stop herring fisheries until populations rebuild to the point that stocks are healthy enough to sustain the ecosystem, Campbell said.

DFO surveys five areas for herring fisheries and, this year, decided to open only the Strait of Georgia and Prince Rupert. Fishers are allowed to take 20 per cent of the estimated biomass.

The Central Coast, Haida Gwaii and West Coast of Vancouver Island have remained closed for several years because stocks could not sustain a fishery.

“Taking the large breeding females for their roe has had a massive impact on the fish and their predators,” Campbell said.

No one at DFO was able to comment Tuesday on the call for a herring fishery moratorium.

Ann Salomon, marine ecologist and assistant professor of applied ecology at Simon Fraser University, said there are ecosystem, economic and constitutional reasons to support a moratorium.

“Herring are amazing. They forage fish that transfer energy from the bottom of the food chain to the top,” she said. “Their job in the ecosystem is much larger than they are given credit for.”

Species such as halibut and salmon are important to B.C.’s economy and culture. Studies have shown that herring are worth more as food for larger fish than extracted from the ocean, Salomon said.

Read the full article in the Times Colonist.

Posted March 19th, 2013

Will Fisheries minister act in response to the Cohen Commission?

Elizabeth May
The Hill Times
March 19, 2013

It has been nearly five months since the mammoth report of Justice Bruce Cohen on “The Uncertain Future of Fraser River Sockeye” was tabled with the Governor General. The Cohen Commission was set in motion in the fall of 2009 to explore the causes for the collapse of returning sockeye populations to the Fraser River. Cohen undertook a substantial process, with commissioned scientific research, testimony from scientists, First Nations, and the public. The result is a three-volume report of more than 1,000 pages, taking a critical look at the multiple threats to the survival of British Columbia’s wild salmon. While Cohen identified dozens of stressors on wild salmon, from climate change, to pollution, ocean acidification, over-fishing, habitat loss, and infectious disease, he characterized the results as having no one “smoking gun.” But his recommendations clearly point to salmon aquaculture and escape of sea lice and farmed fish as a contributing factor.

Of course, the weakening of the Fisheries Act and the removal of habitat protection is another blow. Cohen was highly critical of these changes brought in through the spring 2012 omnibus bill C-38. He was specifically angered that the changes to the Fisheries Act did not await the recommendations of this major commission of inquiry.

Here we are, nearly five months later, and the minister of Fisheries has not yet formally responded to the recommendations. It is getting to the point where time-limited recommendations will be stale-dated due to the non-response from the minister. For example, Cohen recommended that a “wild salmon policy implementation plan,” be developed, with specific and dedicated funding and be published no later than March 31, 2013.

Of the 75 recommendations, a key principle was established in his second recommendation:

“In relation to wild fisheries, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans should act in accordance with its paramount regulatory objective to conserve wild fish.” (emphasis added). This is a critical interpretation of the federal responsibility for the fisheries found in the Constitution. It appears to be one Prime Minister Stephen Harper would like to abandon. Flowing from this principle, Cohen also called for an end to DFO’s conflict of interest around farmed salmon. He called for the DFO mandate to promote aquaculture to be scrapped in favour of living up to its core mandate—the conservation of wild fish.

Cohen recommended the establishment of a moratorium on any new salmon farms near the Discovery Islands. And he called for more research into the stressors impacting salmon survival, including the threats associated with fish farms.

Ideally, these recommendations would lead to policy changes to assist in wild salmon recovery on both the West Coast and East Coast. Tremendous effort has gone into trying to restore wild Atlantic salmon populations. A once healthy and prosperous fishery is now closed. The only Atlantic salmon on the market are farmed, and the presence of open-pen salmon farms on coasts along New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, imperils Atlantic salmon recovery. The decision just this week by the Nova Scotia government to turn down a salmon farm near Sheet Harbour after a 22-month review, is further evidence that the plight of wild salmon needs a national lens.

Read the full article in The Hill Times.

For more information on the Cohen Inquiry, related resources and media see the Cohen Report Card.

Posted March 19th, 2013

Fraser sockeye watchers see stock rebuilding

Jeff Nagel
Surrey Leader
March 18, 2013

Salmon watchers are hoping this is the year the troubled Fraser River sockeye run turns the corner on its disastrous collapse four years ago.

If returns come in as forecast, nearly 4.8 million sockeye will make their way up the Fraser this summer.

That's still well short of the longer term average of 8.6 million for this part of the four-year cycle.

But it would be a huge improvement from 2009, when more than 10 million salmon were expected and just 1.5 million arrived, prompting the federal government to appoint the Cohen Commission into the decline.

"Hopefully we'll get a run that's much improved relative to 2009," said Mike Lapointe, chief biologist for the Pacific Salmon Commission.

"If the run returns bigger and we're able to get some rebuilding, that will be very important for the sockeye moving forward. It will be definitely be more than what we had in the parent year that produced it."

Nobody is guaranteeing a commercial fishery yet.

The pre-season forecast shows a one-in-four chance of a Fraser sockeye run below 2.7 million, which would likely rule out commercial fishing, and a one-in-10 chance it will be as bad as 2009.

But after the Cohen inquiry failed to come up with a single cause or solution to the slide, observers like Lapointe would be happy to continue to see an improving trendline.

Read the full article in the Surrey Leader.

Posted March 18th, 2013

Miracle there are any wild salmon and sea trout left [Scotland]

Farming Life
March 18, 2013

Bad news for cormorants and other predators. A high level scientific study suggests that these voracious predators could ‘remove’ 48 per cent of migrating smolts from the Foyle catchment area.

And one must assume that the death toll is high in other areas where cormorants are allowed free rein to gobble up all the smolts they can catch. It is not just cormorants. When predation by seals, otters, whales, other denizens of the deep, mortality caused by sea lice, illegal fishing and avoidable disease are considered it is a miracle that any wild salmon or sea trout survive.

Following two reports, the toll from cormorants and sea lice infestations from salmon farms are estimated in some cases to cause the deaths of 75 per cent of the salmon which set out for the Atlantic feeding grounds. That is scandalous.

The author of the project on predation in the Foyle catchment area, Jenny McLeish of Glasgow University, does not claim that predation estimates are 100 per cent accurate as the model used was based on large number of assumptions.

The study says shooting individual cormorants is a waste of time as there will be no shortage of greedy recruits to take its place. The study claims it would be better to install scaring devices along river banks where smolts are migrating.

Read the full article in Farming Life.

Posted March 18th, 2013

Fishing committee boosts closed containment

North Island Gazette
March 14, 2013

With delivery of its first cohort of salmon smolt just days away, the 'Namgis First Nation's landbased
fish farm received a boost last week with the release of a report by the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans.

The Closed Containment Salmon Aquaculture Report, the first of its kind to specifically address closed containment aquaculture systems, forwarded a series of recommendations to the Federal Government that included funding for and further studies and research of projects like the K'udas Project, located on 'Namgis territory just south of Port McNeill.

"The government's standing committee has determined closed containment aquaculture is possible, and it's hard not to agree when you're standing in fromt of the first commercial operation in country," said Jackie Hildering, who was, indeed, standing in front of the 'Namgis facility while guiding a tour of students from the school district's Connections program.

Construction at the site is largely complete, and the first cohort of atlantic salmon smolt could be delivered as soon as next week.

Read full article from the North Island Gazette.

Posted March 18th, 2013

'Pacific salmon' named B.C.'s official fish

CBC
March 16, 2013

B.C. has decided that "Pacific salmon," an umbrella group of seven salmon and trout subspecies, will be its official provincial fish emblem.

The announcement, which came Saturday, adds a ninth entry to B.C.'s collection of representative symbols.

In a written statement, Environment Minister Terry Lake said making Pacific salmon B.C.'s fish emblem recognizes the importance that British Columbians place on the fish's ecological, cultural and economic significance.

"Not only are Pacific salmon integral to the culture, well-being and livelihood of B.C.'s First Nations, they are often seen as indicators of overall ecosystem and wildlife health, and important to environmental sustainability. Pacific salmon are also a significant economic driver in B.C. due to commercial and recreational fisheries," Lake said.

"With the epic migration of Pacific salmon from B.C.'s rivers and streams to the ocean and back, there is no symbol more iconic of British Columbia," Lake said.

The B.C. government specified that the designation of "Pacific salmon" refers to seven salmonid species of the genus Oncorhynchus, all of which are native to B.C. waters.

Subspecies included in the province's designation of Pacific salmon are sockeye, chinook, coho, pink and chum salmon, and steelhead and cutthroat trout.

Read the full article in CBC News.

Posted March 16th, 2013

Fish farm rejected by Nova Scotia government, risk to wild salmon cited

CTV News
March 13, 2013

The Nova Scotia government has rejected an application from Snow Island Salmon to allow a fish farm in Shoal Bay.

Fisheries and Aquaculture Minister Sterling Belliveau says during the 22-month review process, Fisheries and Oceans Canada expressed concern about the salmon farm's impact on wild salmon in the bay near Sheet Harbour.

The federal department said the site would represent a moderate risk to wild salmon.

The province says it is the first time Fisheries and Oceans has described a proposed fish farm as representing a moderate risk to wild salmon.

Belliveau says the province's decision is not a sign that the government is changing its support for fish farms, which was part of its aquaculture strategy released last year.

There has been opposition to fish farms around Nova Scotia, including proposals by Snow Island Salmon to develop farms in Spry Harbour, Shoal Bay and Beaver Harbour on the province's Eastern Shore.

Read the original article in the Globe and Mail.

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Posted March 14th, 2013

System helps consumers to track origin of seafood they're eating

Judith Lavoie
Times Colonist
March 11, 2013

It was not a good Monday for Oscar the Dungeness crab.

Despite acting as a prop for Agriculture Minister Norm Letnick, as he announced a financial boost to a program that helps diners and shoppers trace the origin of fish, there was no ministerial pardon for Oscar.

“I don’t have the power to give a ministerial pardon and set him free,” Letnick said, as Oscar lethargically waved his legs during the news conference on Fisherman’s Wharf.

Oscar, the Victoria poster-crab for Ecotrust Canada’s ThisFish program, will end up in the tank at Thrifty Foods, where the crab fisherman has a contract, said Chelsey Ellis, Ecotrust fisheries program Pacific co-ordinator.

The government, through its Buy Local program, is contributing $69,794 to promote ThisFish, Letnick said.

“People want to know where their food comes from,” he said. “Programs like ThisFish will encourage local retailers and restaurants to use B.C. seafood products and consumers to buy local.”

B.C.’s seafood industry has a wholesale value of $1.4 billion and provides thousands of jobs in the commercial fishing and seafood processing sectors, Letnick said.

Think about having a romantic dinner, with crab as the central dish, said Letnick, as Oscar, whose claws were immobilized, peed on his hand.

The crab comes with a coded tag that can be typed into a tablet or smartphone and it will quickly give you the story of that crustacean. Information includes the name of the fisherman who caught it, possibly a picture of his boat, and a map of where it was caught.

“You could even send a note to the fisher,” Letnick said.

In Oscar’s case, the fisherman was James Heggelund and he was caught in Juan de Fuca Strait.

ThisFish is already being used for species such as haddock, spring salmon, sablefish and lobster.

Read the full article in the Times Colonist.

Posted March 11th, 2013

Fish farm foes add sign to campaign

Bill Power
Chronicle Herald
March 11, 2013

An Eastern Shore group opposed to ocean salmon farming has added a prominent downtown Halifax billboard to its campaign.

“We had a terrific response to our advertising on Metro Transit buses and felt this was another effective way to share our concerns with Halifax-area residents,” Marike Finlay, president of the Association for the Preservation of the Eastern Shore, said Monday.

The full-size billboard on Barrington Street, on the water side of the street north of Halifax Shipyard, features Atlantic salmon flesh colours and a warning against eating fish afflicted with infectious salmon anemia, or ISA virus.

The association mounted similar signs on Metro Transit buses Monday.

It is a reference to an continuing dispute between opponents of ocean salmon farming and a Canadian Food Inspection Agency decision in January to allow Cooke Aquaculture to process fish quarantined due to the virus.

“The CFIA declared the fish safe for human consumption as an alternative to the cost of having to pay to have it eradicated,” Finlay said.

The association she heads has about 300 members opposed to ocean fish farming on the Eastern Shore. Finlay said the association sees the bus and billboard advertising as a means to raise awareness and support in Halifax about its opposition to ocean fish farms.

The inspection agency has never released any scientific evidence to support its contention the infected salmon is safe for human consumption, she said.

Read the full article in the Chronicle Herald.

Posted March 11th, 2013

Largest study of salmon health ever undertaken set to begin in B.C.

Mark Hume
Globe and Mail
March 10, 2013

For years Kristi Miller has been probing the complex and controversial world of fish diseases on the West Coast, where scientists are trying to unravel the mystery of why millions of apparently healthy salmon die annually.

Now Dr. Miller, the groundbreaking head of molecular genetics for Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and Brian Riddell, a former top scientist with DFO who directs the non-profit Pacific Salmon Foundation, are teaming up with Genome B.C. in the most comprehensive study of salmon health ever undertaken in the world.

“This is going to be the first really large-scale effort to look at the health of all salmon,” Dr. Riddell said. “It’s exciting. It’s incredibly exciting.”

Dr. Miller, whose cutting-edge genomic research has largely been kept under wraps by the government, testified at the Cohen Commission inquiry into the collapse of Fraser River sockeye stocks in 2011. But she was not allowed to talk to the media at the time.

In her first interview since then, she said the research project will rely on new technologies designed at the Pacific Biological Station in Nanaimo on Vancouver Island.

“There is … technology that I have been developing for the past year … that has the capacity to run about 45 microbes across 96 individual [fish samples] at a time, so one can quite rapidly generate a lot of information from a platform,” she said. “And that’s our goal at the moment – to assess 45 microbes that are known or suspected to cause disease in salmon worldwide.”

Dr. Miller made a startling find a few years ago when she detected a genomic signature in salmon that died in rivers before they had a chance to spawn. Her research caused a big splash in the U.S. journal Science, because it suggested a virus was causing those pre-spawn mortalities. But she was not cleared by DFO to talk about her work. Her silencing was one of the key events that led to complaints against the federal government for “muzzling” scientists.

But Dr. Miller got approval from Ottawa to talk this week about her new research, which she says will build on her earlier work.

Read the full article in the Globe and Mail.

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Posted March 9th, 2013

ISA Virus Spread by Red Blood Cells in the Blood Vessels

The Fish Site
March 8, 2013

New research sheds light on how the interaction between salmon and the Infectious Salmon Anaemia (ISA) virus develops and spreads in fish. The findings may also be of interest for influenza research in general.

ISA was first discovered in Norway in 1984 and is still a serious threat to aquaculture.

Disease outbreaks usually start in one cage and spread gradually over weeks and months to neighbouring cages. The disease can not be treated, causing large losses. The disease must also be reported to the OIE.

Maria Aamelfot has, as part of her doctorate, studied the disease. She has examined the cells in the fish that are susceptible to the virus and those which are actually infected with the virus.

Her findings also describe the virus's ability to infect or damage to specific cells, tissues or organs.

Ms Aamelfot's research on the interaction between salmon and viruses provides important new information about the development of ISA and represents an important step towards knowledge in disease prevention.

Read the full article on The Fish Site.

Posted March 8th, 2013

Time to move fish farms onto land? Federal report says it should be explored

Randy Shore
Vancouver Sun
March 8, 2013

Canada should support the development and expansion of closed containment salmon farming and explore transitioning the aquaculture industry away from ocean-based net pens, according to a committee report tabled in the House of Commons Thursday.

A high-tech, environmentally friendly land-based industry could be a significant economic driver in rural and first nations communities, according to the report of the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans.

But while the report promotes closed containment systems as a technology of the future, it leaves the door open to the continued growth of the existing ocean-based salmon farming industry, dismissing evidence of environmental damage caused by open net-pen fish farms as “inconclusive.”

Industry members testified that a forced or legislated transition from ocean-based farming to closed containment systems that are not yet proven to be profitable would be a disaster for the industry in Canada and the 15,000 direct and indirect jobs it already supports.

It is “physically impossible” to move 40,000 tonnes of production on to land, according to Ruth Salmon, executive director of the Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance. “The industry would look at operations elsewhere if that were mandated,” she told the committee.

The committee heard extensive testimony about the environmental impacts of ocean-based net-pen aquaculture, including sea lice infestation, viral disease, pesticide use and fish waste pollution and their impact on wild salmon stocks, but the report takes no position on the veracity of those claims.

The Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform — a consortium of seven environmental organizations including the David Suzuki Foundation, Living Oceans Society and the Georgia Strait Alliance — expressed concern that the report glosses over the potential harmful impacts of net-pen farming.

Last fall’s report from Justice Bruce Cohen on the collapse of B.C.’s Fraser River sockeye stated that net-pen farms could inflict “serious or irreversible” harm to wild salmon.

“We should take these risks very seriously,” said Karen Wristen of Living Oceans. “There seems to be an underlying presumption in the report that net-pens are not only going to continue, but increase their capacity and number.”

Read the full article in the Vancouver Sun.

Also see the full Report of the Standing Committee of Fisheries and Oceans Canada Closed Containment Salmon Aquaculture.

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Posted March 8th, 2013

Parliament needs to write national fish-farming rules, says federal committee

Kevin Drews
March 7, 2013
Winnipeg Free Press

A Parliamentary committee wants the federal government to fund projects that would help Canada's aquaculture industry farm more salmon, but in tanks that don't interfere with wild stocks.

The recommendation on closed-containment salmon aquaculture was one of several delivered Thursday by members of the House of Commons' standing committee on fisheries and oceans, which agreed to study the issue in October 2011. 

Debate about how farmed salmon are raised has long raged on both coasts, with environmentalists arguing open-net pens threaten the environment, and the industry countering that tanks are just too expensive.

"The debate is no longer centered on whether or not it is technically possible to raise Atlantic salmon in closed containment operations," states the report.

"It is, rather, whether or not this can be done at a cost that will allow closed containment Atlantic salmon producers to be competitive with open-net pen salmon producers."

The report notes the vast majority of salmon farmed in Canada are Atlantics and are raised in the ocean and in open-net pens — much like floating cages — after spending between 12 and 18 months in land-based hatcheries.

Read the full story in the Winnipeg Free Press read on Macleans.ca. 

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Read the Report: Closed Containment Salmon Aquaculture - Report of the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans (March 2013)

Posted March 7th, 2013

Farmed versus wild salmon debate can be overwhelming

Randy Shore
Vancouver Sun
March 7, 2013

Farmed salmon or wild? The rhetoric is so loud and persistent about which fish is better for you and the environment that no one could possibly sort it out. Add to that, the science is complex, the environmental picture cloudy at best and the pollutants in question are completely unpronounceable. Even scientists tend to use easy acronyms like PCBs and DDT.

The fervour on both sides borders on religious. So let's try to focus on one question: Which fish contain less pollutants, pesticides and poisons? Wild or farmed?

The Institute of Ocean Sciences in B.C. recently conducted tests on several species of wild and farmed salmon looking for organochlorine pesticides, a class of chemicals so dangerous and long-lasting that many of them have been banned for years. Some are still widely used in Asia, however, and that's why we're still testing for them.

Tests on the flesh of farmed salmon found concentrations of OCPs two to 11 times higher than wild salmon. But when scientists looked at the concentrations in fats - the part of the fish that contains the really healthy nutrients like Omega 3s - wild salmon showed the highest concentrations.

A Health Canada study of 129 wild and farmed seafoods collected from Canadian grocery stores found the highest concentrations of PCBs - another mostly banned carcinogen - in farmed salmon samples, but the highest concentrations of dioxins in wild crab.

Read the full article in the Vancouver Sun.

Posted March 7th, 2013

Scientists, MP want action on salmon

Coquitlam Now
March 6, 2013

It's believed to be a blueprint that will help resurrect the decimated Fraser River sockeye salmon stocks, but four months after the release of the Cohen Commission's final report, no tangible changes have been made.

Those are the feelings of people in both the scientific community and members of the official Opposition, who are calling on the federal Conservatives to take immediate action on the 75 recommendations coming out of the report issued last October.

Few, if any, of the recommendations have been implemented to date, and a series of deadlines tied to Justice Bruce Cohen's recommendations have already passed without action being taken.

"No one has heard [anything] from government on the report," said Craig Orr, a Coquitlam resident who serves as executive director of Watershed Watch Salmon Society.

"We've been trying to get government to move. We've had lots of concerns over what we believe to be biased government science on aquaculture impacts."

According to Orr, the deadlines for three key recommendations in the report have come and gone. Close to a half dozen other deadlines are approaching at the end of this month.

One of the deadlines already missed involves a recommendation to hire a senior Fisheries and Oceans Canada staffer to oversee the implementation of the Wild Salmon Policy, a wide-ranging salmon management and conservation document crafted in 2005.

"That's the first deadline that was missed that we're very concerned about," Orr said.

Orr was one of more than 100 witnesses to testify before the commission, which sat for 18 months and cost about $26 million.

 

Read the original article in The Coquitlam Now.

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Posted March 6th, 2013

Fish farm opponents vow to forge ahead with campaign [Ireland]

The Connacht Sentinel
March 5, 2013

A formal complaint has been lodged with the Ombudsman for Local Government in relation to the proposed €100 million fish farm for Galway Bay which was the subject of a protest demonstration involving 2,000 people in the city centre on Saturday.

Campaigning group Friends of the Irish Environment, who joined the protest march from Eyre Square to the Spanish Arch on Saturday, say that the proposal to locate the farm on a 456 hectare site near the Aran Islands undermines the current National Development Plan (NDP).

They have complained to the Ombudsman on the basis that the Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM) plan undermines the NDP 2007 - 2013, which placed a moratorium on the expansion of salmon farming until the sea lice issue has been addressed.
Concerns over the impact which 7.2 million farmed fish could

have on wild fish stock in Galway Bay were prominent when over 20 angling protest groups took part in Saturday’s demonstration.
Groups such as Inland Fisheries Ireland, An Taisce, and Save Galway Bay have issued a number of statements in opposition to the BIM plan, because sea life infestation remains a concern at ‘open caged’ fish farms.

During the demonstration, Icelandic entrepreneur Orri Vigfusson warned that the proposed BIM development could “destroy” wild salmon stocks in the West of Ireland.

A number of speakers at the Spanish Arch refuted claims by BIM that fish farms do not cause environmental pollution.

They expressed concerns that BIM would use “toxic” chemicals to kill parasites and questioned where the waste from 7.2 million caged salmon would go with the tides in Galway Bay.

“We thought the march was successful, as it attracted people from all over the country who were concerned about the environment,” said Brian Curran of the Federation of Irish Salmon and Sea Trout Anglers yesterday.

“This campaign is only really getting off the ground. BIM said on their website six months ago that they intended to build nine other fish farms of a similar size all along the coast.

“Our concern is that they will have no control over the weather, sea lice, or waste, with these open cages in Galway Bay. The waste from this farm would be laced with chemicals, pesticides which are toxic.”

Read the full article in the Connacht Sentinel.

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Posted March 5th, 2013

Weekly Overview: Are Effective Viral Vaccines for Aquaculture on their Way?

The Fish Site
March 5, 2013

In this weeks news, researchers in Norway have been developing knowledge on the infectious salmon anaemia (ISA) and infectious pancreatic necrosis (IPN) viruses, which have both proved costly to salmon aquaculture companies across the world, writes Lucy Towers, TheFishSite Editor.

In order to help create an effective future vaccine, research led by Siri Mjaaland has analysed how the viruses bypass the salmon’s innate immune system and which immune responses may protect the fish from the diseases.

“Using the knowledge we now have about the salmon immune system and ISA infection strategies, we can customise vaccines to produce the most effective immune mechanisms. We know the basics of how to design the ISA vaccine, but there are still many challenges remaining before an effective vaccine will be commercially available,” explained Siri Mjaaland.

Fish diseases, along with low market prices, clearly impacted many salmon farming companies last year.

Read the full article on The Fish Site.

Posted March 5th, 2013

Colourful and noisy fish-farm protesters march on DFO officers

Metro
March 1, 2013

A noisy and colourful crowd of protesters braved a downpour Friday to demand an end to open-water salmon feedlots, what they call a “menace” to B.C. coastal waters.

Marching from the edge of the Downtown Eastside to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans office on Burrard St., the chanting crowd was an all-ages mix of Idle No More protesters, First Nations groups, fisheries activists, and curious bystanders.

Leanne Hodges joined the protest because she worked as a contracted fisheries guardian until she says she noticed increases in disease, sea lice infestation and death among young salmon stocks.

Told to “stand down” when she brought her concerns to superiors at the DFO, Hodges said she left the farm to became an activist for wild salmon issues.

Little has been done by the DFO to address these issues, she said. “We’ve been ignored for years.”

While she has no problem with land-based fish farms, Hodges says the real worry lies in traditional open-water nets along wild salmon migration routes that allow water to flow freely, carrying in fresh water and ridding cages of waste.

Findings of the Cohen Commission back up her concern over open-water farms. The October 2012 report investigated the decline of Fraser River sockeye and offered warnings if the industrial open-water farm industry continues.

Read the full article in Metro.

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Posted March 1st, 2013

Salmon farm expands; N.S. sends vet to investigate fish deaths

Chronicle Herald
March 1, 2013

A controversial Eastern Shore salmon farm is expanding.

Snow Island Salmon Inc., a subsidiary of Loch Duart of Scotland, is farming 475,000 salmon in 24 pens off Owls Head, near Ship Harbour.

The company opened up an office in Sheet Harbour in February that will serve as its administrative and human resources headquarters for “both the existing farm that we’re operating now, and we hope that we’ll be able to stock a new farm this coming spring,” said Shane Borthwick, the company’s operations vice-president.

“We’re happy to be in the community. I think it’s certainly a sign that we’re committed to this venture on a long-term basis.”

The office’s first staff member is Megan Myers, a fish biologist from the Eastern Shore, and an administrative-HR co-ordinator position will be filled in the coming weeks.

In addition, a job fair will be held sometime this spring to find at least 20 people to fill various positions, adding to the 12 people currently on staff.

“Given the Maritime culture of the area, the talent is certainly here for local people looking to carve out a new career on the water,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Fisheries and Aquaculture Department sent Dr. Amanda Swim, a provincial fish veterinarian, to the Owls Head farm on Thursday, days after local residents reported a large number of dead fish being removed from the site.

Swim collected several samples to be tested; the results will not be known for at least a week.

Read the full article in the Chronicle Herald.

Posted March 1st, 2013

Fish farmer denies disease killing fish

Chronicle Herald
February 25, 2013

Activity at Snow Island’s salmon farm on the Eastern Shore is a reflection of a harsh winter, not disease, says the company’s operations vice-president.

“We don’t have any disease outbreak,” Shane Borthwick said in an interview Monday.

“The vast majority of the fish are doing fine.”

Snow Island, a subsidiary of Loch Duart of Scotland, is farming 475,000 salmon in 24 pens off Owls Head, near Ship Harbour.

The Association for the Preservation of the Eastern Shore, a community group opposed to open-pen salmon farming, is concerned activities at Owls Head may indicate there is a disease outbreak.

Borthwick said those concerns were “absolutely, 100 per cent unfounded.”

Bill Williams of Sheet Harbour, a member of the Eastern Shore group, said Monday he didn’t know whether fish at the Owls Head farm had an outbreak of infection.

But Williams said he has seen a large number of dead fish removed from the site in recent days and wants to know what is being done with them.

He claimed Snow Island was moving pens and said there was a slick of oil on the water near the farm that he suggested may be from decomposing fish.

“I don’t think that’s normal.”

Read the full article in the Chronicle Herald.

Posted February 25th, 2013

Canada's New Year's Resolution: Standing Against Salmon Feedlots

The International
February 25, 2013

With the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) recently affirming Infectious Salmon Anemia virus (ISAv) to be present in coastal waters beyond eradication, concerned Canadians are standing against the salmon feedlots that are threatening British Columbia’s wild salmon population.

In 2012, under the government’s investigation into the decline of local sockeye salmon, the Commission of Inquiry into the Decline of Sockeye Salmon in the Fraser River, also known as the Cohen Commission, reported “the potential harm posed to Fraser River sockeye salmon from salmon farms is serious or irreversible.”

Now, the young consumer-based movement, Salmon Feedlot Boycott, has created an online petition against the purchase of salmon grown in feedlots, as reported by Canada’s Watershed Sentinel (WS). Coordinating the viral petition, Anissa Reed admitted to WS that she once managed a salmon farm; for this reason, she understands “the nature of the beast.”

“I see this industry as a predator. They lobby the government for access into our communities with promises of good jobs, and pit neighbor against neighbor. They spend millions on advertising campaigns saying it is good for us, but I have seen, and believe, otherwise.”

“The faces of the people who know what is happening haunt me.”

Ever since the Canadian government invited foreign companies to expand the aquaculture industry in the northern Pacific, activists, scientists, First Nations, local business and politicians alike have fought to protect the commodity that provides for their livelihood: salmon.

Read the original article in The International.

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Posted February 25th, 2013

Young introduces legislation to prohibit aquaculture in federal waters [Alaska]

Dutch Harbor Fisherman
February 22, 2013

New legislation introduced by Alaska's Representative Don Young would prohibit the authorization of commercial aquaculture in federal waters. Specifically, the bill would prevent the Secretary of the Interior or the Secretary of Commerce from authorizing such ventures, requiring specific authorization from Congress.

"If not properly managed, farmed fish can be a significant threat to the health of Alaska's wild stocks and the health of our oceans," Rep. Young said.  "Alaska's seafood industry is one of the largest employers in the state, and today's legislation will  preserve Congress' prerogative to determine what type of aquaculture programs should and should not be conducted in our waters and those adjacent to our waters."   

Federal waters are labeled an Exclusive Economic Zone, an area for which Congress has never approved open ocean aquaculture. There has also never been a legislative framework meant for management of fish farms in this zone.

Finfish aquaculture has come to the forefront lately as the company AquaBounty Technologies, Inc., seeks approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its genetically engineered salmon.

Last week, after significant public and congressional demand, the FDA extended the comment period on the draft environmental assessment regarding AquaAdvantage salmon from Feb. 25 to April 26.

Read the full article in the Dutch Harbor Fisherman.

Posted February 22nd, 2013

No More Environmental Impact Assessments for Salmon Farms in Nova Scotia

Halifax Media Co-op
February 22, 2013

"I'm absolutely gobsmacked," says Marike Finlay. "I really cannot believe this is happening in Canada."  

Finlay is president of Association for the Preservation of the Eastern Shore (APES), a group that is actively opposing the licensing of two new salmon farming operations in Spry Harbour and Shoal Bay. But it's not the bid to set up open net pens off the Eastern Shore that is surprising to Finlay. In the past two years, 4 new ocean-based salmon feedlot sites have been proposed and approved in other coastal Nova Scotia communities. What's astounding to Finlay is that unlike the feedlot sites that have gone before them, neither Shoal Bay nor Spry Harbour will undergo an environmental assessment. 

Since the federal government passed omnibus bill C-38 this past summer, no aquaculture projects along Nova Scotia coastline, or anywhere else in Canada, will be assessed for environmental impacts by the federal government. And in Nova Scotia at least, they won't undergo a provincial environmental assessment either.

Shoal Bay and Spry Harbour didn't start out that way. Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) documents were prepared for both sites in the fall of 2011, and in spring of 2012, the recently formed Association for the Preservation of the Eastern Shore started filing their responses with Transport Canada, the responsible agency for an assessment triggered under the former Navigable Waters Protection Act.

APES formed just weeks after a public meeting hosted by the Nova Scotia Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture (DFA) to announce and explain Snow Island Salmon’s plans for the eastern shore.  APES has roughly 300 members including groups such as the Sheet Harbour Chamber of Commerce, the Eastern Shore Fishermen’s Protective Association, and the Atlantic Salmon Federation. Heading up the environmental assessment response team for APES was vice president Bill Williams, a retired firefighter and avid fisherman.  

Williams expressed concern that the currents near the proposed pens would not be strong enough to carry away fish feces and excess feed, and that nets and feed would be treated with chemicals and drugs to help keep pens clean and fish healthy under crowded conditions. Williams also laid out a list of concerns and issues related to the EIA docs submitted by Sweeney International, the project managers for the two Snow Island Salmon sites. Williams cited missing and outdated information on the local commercial, recreational and aboriginal fisheries, along with wind and wave data taken from the South Shore and Gulf of Maine, too far away to be relevant to the site locations. But after submitting his concerns in writing to Transport Canada and DFA, he has yet to hear back.

“The thing that really scares us,” says Williams, “is that the DFA and Minister Belliveau are going to base their decision on a lot of the things said in those [EIA documents] that are not right.”

"We spent huge amounts of time, energy, and expertise making our reply," says Finlay. "We had marine biologists, wildlife specialists, specialists in tides and currents, local fishermen's knowledge. And we replied to each environmental assessment for each of those sites."  

And then along came the federal government's omnibus budget implementation bill in July 2012. Among its many changes was a rewrite of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, eliminating federal responsibility for most of the thousands of assessments they had conducted each year, including those already underway for aquaculture sites like Shoal Bay and Spry Harbour.

Read the full article on the Halifax Media Co-op.

Posted February 22nd, 2013

Province not doing enough to protect B.C.'s biodiversity: auditor report

Times Colonist
February 21, 2013

The B.C. government is failing to protect biodiversity and often does not even know whether its actions are helping to safeguard species and ecosystems, says a report released Thursday by auditor general John Doyle.

The report says there are significant gaps in the government’s understanding of biodiversity, that the government does not know whether its actions are resulting in conservation of biodiversity, and that it is not adequately monitoring progress.

“This audit found that government is not doing enough to address [B.C.’s] loss of biodiversity,” Doyle said.

Biodiversity is crucial for life, but, B.C. ecosystems are declining and species are at risk of local extinction, the report says.

Laws have holes, barriers and inconsistencies that inhibit conservation, and, apart from parks and protected areas, legislation to conserve species and habitat “doesn’t apply equally to all industries,” the report says.

“Furthermore, despite the number of species considered endangered or vulnerable in B.C., few are actually protected under the province’s legislation.”

The conservation framework meant to set out priorities has not been updated since 2009 and the information it uses to create priorities is inadequate, Doyle writes.

“This brings into question whether the priorities that government have recommended are the right ones. Without an effective way to prioritize its conservation actions, government cannot demonstrate it is using its resources effectively or determine the success of its efforts.”

Some areas have never been surveyed for species distribution, and information from others is out of date. Doyle found that the government has not established wildlife habitat areas for 36 of the 85 species it identifies as being at risk from forest and range activities.

“Habitat preservation is critical to the conservation of biodiversity, and government’s lack of implementation and monitoring is troubling,” Doyle said Thursday.

Read the full article in the Times Colonist.

Posted February 21st, 2013

Study: Risk of Salmonella in fish fed chicken offal

All About Feed
February 20, 2013

Scientists in Malaysia found that fish that are fed chicken offal and spoiled eggs can be a potential source of Salmonella spp and have a high risk of spreading antibiotic resistant genes.

In the Asia–Pacific region farmed fish are fed both commercial and homemade feeds (fresh feed material or farm feed material). According to the FAO, homemade feeds are often used to reduce production costs and usually comprise of chicken viscera, kitchen refuse, chicken bone, and other food waste materials (New and Csavas, 1995). Such feeds can be a source of pathogenic bacteria such as Salmonella spp. (Burr and Helmboldt, 1962 and Lunestad et al., 2007) which can be transmitted to catfish and tilapia and ultimately to consumers.

The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence, antibiotic resistance and occurrence of plasmids in Salmonella serovars isolated from catfish and tilapia obtained from wet markets and ponds in Malaysia.

A total of 172 samples (32 catfish carcass rinse, 32 catfish intestines, 32 tilapia carcass rinse, 32 tilapia intestines, and 44 water samples) were obtained from nine wet markets and eight ponds that were fed chicken offal, spoiled eggs, and commercial fish feed from 2008 to 2009.

Seven Salmonella serovars were isolated from catfish, tilapia, and water samples. Salmonella isolates were resistant to chloramphenicol (C, 37.2%), clindamycin (Da, 100%), rifampicin (Rd, 90.7%), spectinomycin (Sh, 27.9%), and tetracycline (Te, 67.4%). The predominant antimicrobial resistance profiles of Salmonella serovars from catfish, tilapia and water were CDaRdTe, DaRdSh, and DaRdTe. The presence of plasmids represents a potential health hazard since plasmids can mediate the transfer of antibiotic resistance genes to other bacteria present in the fish, and aquaculture environment, which can also enter the food chain.

Conclusion
Feeds such as chicken offal and spoiled eggs can be potential source of Salmonella spp. and the high risks associated with the dissemination of antibiotic resistance genes among bacteria associated with catfish, tilapia and environment of aquaculture systems. This should be considered seriously by legal authorities to make appropriate laws and regulations.

Read the original article in All About Feed.

Posted February 20th, 2013

Sea-lice concerns grow over plans for salmon farm in Galway Bay [Ireland]

Irish Times
February 18, 2013

Concerns over sea lice emanating from salmon farms and the resulting potential for detrimental effects on wild salmon and sea trout continue to gain momentum, particularly in light of BIMs proposal for a super-sized salmon farm for Galway Bay.

Renowned sea-trout angling guide Judd Ruane from the Moy Estuary, in Ballina, Co Mayo, says it never fails to disappoint how varied our marine scientists have been over the years on the question of fish farms.

“With the introduction of salmon fish farms we have seen the decimation of the greatest sea trout fishery in the country, namely Connemara. Those who speak on behalf of the government are still in denial every step of the way.

“Now BIM is proposing a super-size fish farm and are at it again, contradicting not some, but all, concerns been raised.

“For most of my life I have fished sea trout on the Moy estuary, which is in the middle of a finfish farm exclusion zone along the North Mayo/Sligo coastline.

“We enjoy excellent runs of sea trout year after year and our returns to the NWFB are a matter of record. I have supplied scale/adipose samples over the years and never had a problem with sea lice. I wonder why?

“In July 2012 marine biologists from around the world signed a pledge to save the Coral Reef. Who, I wonder, will save our salmon and sea trout?” he asks.

Read the full article in the Irish Times.

Posted February 18th, 2013

Poor Moody's rating for Cooke Aqua

South Coast Today
February 17, 2013

New Brunswick multi-national Cooke Aquaculture Inc received some bad news Tuesday from New-York-based Moody’s Investment Services, who delivered a B3 – “high-yield” or “junk-bond” status – default rating for the Canadian Aquaculture giant. Standard & Poor’s issued a matching rating (B-) the same day.

The rating is the first-ever for Cooke and was provoked by a request from the firm for a credit rating prior to issing $250 million in unsecured notes, accoring to news sources. B3 connotes highly speculative and non-investment grade opportunities. In 2010, Cooke effected a demand debenture with National Bank of Canada for $350 million, using several Nova Scotia properties as security.

Perhaps even more distressing in the report was Moody's caution that, among other things, future disease incidents could hamper Cooke's capacity to meet future financial commitments. Cooke salmon farms in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Chile have seen several major infectious farmed salmon disease outbreaks in the past two decades, resulting in the government-ordered slaughter of millions of Atlantic salmon.

Read the original article in The South Coast Today.

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Posted February 17th, 2013

Consumer Clout in Determining the Future of Farming Atlantic Salmon

The Fish Site
February 15, 2013

The Atlantic Salmon Federation (ASF) is appealing to consumers to consider environmental sustainability when deciding whether to buy farmed Atlantic salmon. A recent decision by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) to allow grow-out, production and sale of open net pen farmed salmon infected by infectious salmon anemia (ISA) in Nova Scotia is causing controversy throughout Canada and into the United States.

It is also raising awareness among consumers of their importance in deciding which products end up on supermarket shelves. “Consumers who choose food grown in an environmentally-sustainable manner can make all the difference, and farmed Atlantic salmon is a good example,” said Sue Scott, VP of Communications, Atlantic Salmon Federation (ASF).

Last spring, when ISA was discovered at an aquaculture site near Liverpool, NS, two cages of smaller farmed salmon were ordered immediately destroyed by CFIA. However, CFIA allowed the international salmon-farming company Cooke Aquaculture to leave in the ocean 240,000 salmon that were closer to market size to continue growing. This allowed an increased risk of transmitting ISA to nearby wild fish, such as Atlantic salmon, Atlantic herring, Atlantic cod and brown trout.

These farmed salmon were recently transported to the company’s plant in Blacks Harbour, New Brunswick for processing for sale. This was the first known occasion since deadly ISA outbreaks began in the farming industry in 1996 that Canadian authorities have allowed salmon under ISA quarantine to be offered for sale to the public.

Previously, ISA-infected farmed salmon were quickly removed from the net pens and euthanized, and the company was often compensated for the fish. An estimated $100 million plus in compensation has been paid to growers since ISA outbreaks began about 17 years ago in eastern Canada and then Maine in 2001 and 2002.

Read the full article on the Fish Site.

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Read past related stories here.

Posted February 15th, 2013

Bioengineered Salmon Has Some Consumers Smelling Something Fishy

CBS
February 15, 2013

Whether raised on a farm or fished from the wild, salmon is a popular protein choice for consumers — especially those who want a health-conscious diet.

Some Californians are concerned about a genetically-engineered salmon that will soon be arriving on store shelves. The FDA says the taste is no different, but the fish, which is made in a lab, might not be labeled.

Registered dietician Katie Valdes serves salmon to her family weekly, but says she’s anxious about eating the genetically-modified fish that some are even calling “Frankenfish”.

“The thought of something being man-made in a laboratory scares me. I would not want to eat it nor would I serve it to my kids,” Valdes told CBS2′s Sibila Vargas.

Scientists create the hybrid by crossing Chinook salmon with a larger, eel-like ocean pout. AquaBounty Technologies, the company behind the engineered fish, says they grow twice as fast, too.

However, many consumers argue they should be able to choose between natural fish natural or something that’s been tampered with in a laboratory.

Consumers Union’s Dr. Michael Hansen is now asking for proper labeling.

“The fish probably won’t be labeled and so people would have no idea at the store if they were getting engineered fish or not,” he said.

Read the full article on CBS.

Posted February 15th, 2013

Independent power producers hire Pacific Salmon Foundation to study effects on fish

Vancouver Sun
February 13, 2013

B.C.’s run-of-river power industry has commissioned an independent foundation to study its effect on salmon and other fish.

The Clean Energy Association of B.C., representing the majority of independent power producers, has hired the Pacific Salmon Foundation to conduct the study and make recommendations for improvements as necessary.

The industry has long billed itself as green energy, but has come under harsh criticism in recent years, including from provincial and federal fisheries bureaucrats through internal emails and documents released through freedom-of-information legislation.

“It’s fair that the public be concerned about run of river, particularly in B.C. where the salmon is iconic,” said Clean Energy’s executive director Paul Kariya, who formerly headed the Pacific Salmon Foundation. “I’ve told our members we should listen and should respond and do something.

“If you’re a publicly traded company and you end up on the cover of The Vancouver Sun — a Larry Pynn story, saying you kill fish — that’s not going to go down well with your shareholders.”

In March 2012, The Vancouver Sun published a story based on more than 3,000 freedom-of-information documents highlighting fish kills and strandings at two run-of-river power plants in the Squamish area: Innergex, on Ashlu Creek, and Capital Power, since bought by Atlantic Power, on the lower Mamquam River.

Run-of-river issues relate to the need to maintain adequate flow rates to ensure sufficient water for fish downstream of power plants, and the need to ensure that ramping rates (typically associated with the shutdown of a power plant for maintenance or an unanticipated failure) allow water levels to fluctuate gradually so young fish won’t be stranded.

Read the full article in the Vancouver Sun.

Posted February 13th, 2013

Conditions Allow For More Sustainable-Labeled Seafood

NPR
February 12, 2013

Next time you walk up to the seafood counter, look for products labeled with a blue fish, a check mark, and the words "Certified Sustainable Seafood MSC." Then ask yourself, "What does this label mean?"

The MSC — Marine Stewardship Council — says that the "sustainable" label means that fishermen caught the seafood with methods that don't deplete its supply, and help protect the environment in the waters where it was caught.

But many environmentalists who have studied the MSC system say that label is misleading. "We're not getting what we think we're getting," says Susanna Fuller, co-director of marine programs at Canada's Ecology Action Centre. She says the consumer, when purchasing seafood with the blue MSC label, is "not buying something that's sustainable now."

If the label were accurate, Fuller says, it would include what she says is troubling fine print: The MSC system has certified most fisheries with "conditions." Those conditions spell out that the fishermen will have to change the way they operate or study how their methods are affecting the environment — or both. But they have years to comply with those conditions after the fisheries have already been certified sustainable.

Gerry Leape, an oceans specialist who sits on the MSC's advisory Stakeholder Council on behalf of the Pew Charitable Trusts, says the MSC's policy is baffling. "It's misleading," he says, "to put a label of sustainability on a product where you still don't have the basic requirements."

Representatives from major foundations and environmental groups have repeatedly asked the MSC's board of directors to change its label. As long ago as February 2004, more than two dozen representatives drafted a list of urgent reforms that they said the MSC needed to carry out to establish "credibility." One of those reforms says the "MSC should remove the word sustainable from its claim." Environmentalists have continued to pressure the MSC to label seafood with positive but vaguer terms — proclaiming, for example, that the products come from fisheries that are "well managed" or use "best practices."

But MSC executives have refused to change their label. Rupert Howes, the MSC's chief executive, says even though most fisheries have conditions, the sustainable label "means people can go on catching" that seafood knowing that "they can be confident they can continue doing that into the future, as will their children."

Read the full article in NPR.

Posted February 12th, 2013

Sport angling a runaway leader in B.C.’s fishing and aquaculture sector

Scott Simpson
February 11, 2013
Vancouver Sun

British Columbia’s recreational fishery is worth as much to the provincial economy as commercial fishing, aquaculture and fish processing combined, according to a new report from BC Stats.

The report, the first major economic review of the sector since 2007, estimates overall B.C. fisheries and aquaculture sector revenue at $2.2 billion for 2011 including $936 million contribution from recreational angling.

That boils down to a $325 million contribution to gross domestic product from the recreational sub-sector — not including spending on angling gear, boats and other vehicles — compared to $340 million in combined GDP from the commercial, aquaculture and fish processing sub-sectors including commercial boats and gear.

Within the recreational fishery, saltwater activity accounts for just over half of GDP with the remainder going to angling in lakes and streams.

Employment across the entire sector reached 13,900, 8,400 of whom worked in recreational fishing.

The B.C. Wildlife Federation, which speaks for a provincewide aggregation of sport fishing organizations, trumpeted the data as evidence that both the provincial and federal governments need to give more weight to the interests of recreational anglers and species such as salmon, halibut and trout when they’re making decisions about fisheries resource management.

For example in 2007, memos from a Fisheries and Oceans Canada manager based in Prince Rupert revealed that federal politicians “caved under pressure” from commercial fishermen and kept the Skeena River open to sockeye gillnetters during peak migration of steelhead — a sport-only salmon species prized by anglers around the world.

More recently, a conflict has emerged among recreational and commercial fishermen about harvesting halibut, with commercial halibut fishermen taking the Harper government to court over a decision to shift a small portion of their catch over to sport anglers.

Read the full article in the Vancouver Sun.

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Posted February 11th, 2013

Norwegian Michelin restaurant slams Salma, farmed salmon

February 8, 2013
Undercurrent News

The co-owner and chef of a Michelin-starred Norwegian restaurant has slammed farmed salmon and said his restaurant will never buy it.

“For us it’s simply completely out of the question that we should ever take in Norwegian farmed fish,” Esben Holmboe Bang said in an interview with the Norwegian daily Dagbladet.

Esben Holmboe Bang is co-owner of Maaemo — an award-winning restaurant and the only one in the Nordics to have two Michelin stars.

The chef criticized aquaculture salmon for being farmed in cages, “an unnatural habitat”, and fed with “things it shouldn’t eat, such as soya, corn and medications”.

“Norwegians travel around the world as if we are in a new Viking age, and fish other countries’ small fish to feed huge quantities of farmed fish,” he told the newspaper.

“It harms the nature, it creates a bad environment, the fish suffers and producers are being scammed.”

The industry meanwhile, “is steeply uncultured”, Bang said. “It’s hard to argue against them, because they are so indoctrinated in what they say, and the consumers swallow it.”

Read the full article on Undercurrent News. 

Posted February 9th, 2013

Magnetism guides salmon migration, research suggests

Globe and Mail
February 8, 2013

One of the world’s great migration mysteries – how salmon find their way home from the distant ocean – may have been solved.

Researchers studying the movement of sockeye salmon from British Columbia’s Fraser River say the fish are imprinted with a magnetic map when they are juveniles. And they later use that map as adults to read the Earth’s geomagnetic field, which guides them back from the North Pacific to the river mouth.

“Our paper clearly shows … very small changes in magnetic strength and intensity correspond to changes we see in the migration routes of the fish,” said Nathan Putman, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Oregon.

“To find their way back home across thousands of kilometres of ocean, salmon imprint on the magnetic field that exists where they first enter the sea as juveniles. Upon reaching maturity, they seek the coastal location with the same magnetic field,” he said.

Dr. Putman’s team focused on Fraser River sockeye because of an unusual trait. With Vancouver Island blocking a direct route back to the Fraser River from the Gulf of Alaska, migrating fish must choose whether to return through Queen Charlotte Strait in the north, or through the Strait of Juan de Fuca in the south.

Read the full article in the Globe and Mail.

Posted February 8th, 2013

Three out of four salmon escapes caused by equipment failure [Norway]

FIS
February 8, 2013

Researchers working on the SECURE project (Securing fish – farming technology and operations to reduce escapes) have analysed all escape incidents between 2006-9 in Norwegian fish farms. They discovered that 68 per cent of salmon escapes are caused by equipment failure and 8 per cent by human operational error, and that two out of three escapes are caused by holes in sea cage nets; 11 per cent of escapes occurred from land-based facilities and another 11 per cent due to external factors.

"Common structural failures include problems with mooring lines, collapsed floating collars and holes torn in the netting of a sea cage. Bad weather is another factor contributing to structural failure and escape. We have also documented incidents of automatic feeding devices loosen and causing damage," said Østen Jensen, Research Manager with SINTEF Fisheries and Aquaculture and project manager of the SECURE project.

Still, equipment suppliers and fish farmers have got better at preventing some of the equipment problems, such as mooring or floating collar failure. The greatest challenge at this time for salmon and trout farmers, Jensen told, is how to prevent wear and tear to the netting; holes led to more than 50 per cent of total escapees between 2008-10.

Then, operational error during delousing, maintenance and so on, combined with fish transfer, made up almost 20 per cent of escapes.

Read the full article on FIS.

Posted February 8th, 2013

Lice debate continues [Ireland]

Fish News EU
February 7, 2013

ANOTHER participant has added its weight to the ongoing battle between those who feel sea lice emanating from aquaculture are one of the key factors involved in the decline of wild salmon stocks and those who refute this idea.

Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) has issued a statement noting that the recent Marine Institute (MI) publication which identifies that sea lice emanating from aquaculture facilities can cause mortality to wild Atlantic salmon.  In this regard, the recent publication (Jackson et al, 2012) concurs with previously published international research (Krkosek et al, 2012 & Gargan et al, 2012). IFI welcomes the fact that there is now a clear acceptance of the negative impact of sea lice on juvenile salmon and the debate can now progress to identify the best methodologies to reduce or eliminate this impact. IFI would also like to see similar progress in relation to the issue of escaped farmed salmon.

In recent years approximately 5% of all juvenile salmon going to sea return back to their native rivers as adults to spawn.  Precisely because natural mortality rates of salmon are high, even a proportionally small additional mortality from sea lice can amount to a large loss in salmon returning.  To put this average 1% reduction in return rates, as reported by the MI, in context, if 3,000 salmon return to a river, and this represents a 5% return rate, a reduction in the return rate to 4% translates into a reduction of 1/5 (20%) of the adult salmon or 600 fewer fish returning. The Board of IFI is concerned that this level of additional mortality has the potential to curtail commercial or recreational salmon fisheries and impact on individual river salmon conservation limits and may be the tipping point between having an open or closed fishery.

The paper identified that just under 40% of released juvenile salmon showed a significant difference in return rate between sea lice ‘treated’ and ‘non-treated’ groups, indicating that mortality from sea lice is significant in 40% of the releases in the study. Unfortunately, say IFI, there was a significant effect from sea lice in six different bays along the west coast over the study period.

Read the full article in Fish News EU.

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Posted February 7th, 2013

Report On Viability Of Land-Farmed Salmon Expected

CBC Radio
February 4, 2013

The Conservation Fund's Freshwater Institute in West Virginia has been experimenting with large-scale, on land salmon farming. The private non-profit is ready to release a report on its findings soon. Steven Summerfelt is the Institute's director of Aquaculture Systems Research.

Listen to the full interview on CBC Radio.

Posted February 4th, 2013

Bill would allow counties to ban fish farming [Washington State]

Peninsula Daily News
February 4, 2013

A bill sponsored by a Sequim Democrat in the state House would allow counties to ban net pen aquaculture.

The one-page bill, filed Thursday by state Rep. Kevin Van De Wege, a Sequim Democrat, says: “Master programs may include provisions for siting or prohibiting the siting of marine aquaculture net pen facilities.”

Steve Gray, Clallam County deputy director of the Department of Community Development, said that he was not familiar with the specifics of the bill, but said that some people in the county favor instituting a net pen ban.

Gray is in charge of Clallam County’s update of its shoreline master program, an endeavor still in early stages.

“We have a ways to go on this,” he said.

“The next step would be to develop a working draft and submit it to the planning commission, followed by a series of public hearings.”

The one net pen operation in Clallam County is under the jurisdiction of the city of Port Angeles, Gray said.

The bill, although welcomed by Jefferson County commissioners, may not affect that county even if it becomes law, said Commissioner David Sullivan.

“I’ve heard about this bill, but I’m not sure it will change our situation,” Sullivan said.

“The bill would go into effect in July and we may have a conditional use structure by then.”

The county’s shoreline management plan has been on hold for two years during negotiations between the county and the state Department of Ecology, which supervises net pen aquaculture — the raising of species such as Atlantic salmon in pens.

County officials want to ban the practice while Ecology has ruled that counties do not have the right to do so.

Read the full article in the Peninsula Daily News.

Posted February 4th, 2013

Study Finds Sea Lice do not Play a Significant Role in Salmon Mortality [Ireland]

The Fish Site
February 1, 2013

Sea lice infestation is unlikely to be a significant factor influencing the conservation status of salmon stocks according to a research paper published in the latest edition of the prestigious Journal of Fish Diseases.

This definitive research, involving more than 350,000 fish, released into eight different rivers in 28 separate experiments was carried out over a nine year period by the Marine Institute and NUIG Galway to investigate the impact of sea lice on the marine mortality of Irish salmon smolts and assesses the extent of sea lice-induced mortality in Irish Atlantic salmon stocks.

In this long-term study, one group of salmon smolts were treated with a commercial agent which protects them against sea lice infestation for eight weeks after going to sea. The return rates of control or unprotected mirror groups of fish were compared with the ‘protected’ fish to see if they suffered any additional sea lice induced mortality following release into the sea. The research also took account of the results of a similar but much smaller study carried out by Inland Fisheries Ireland.

Because the Marine Institute study involved the repeated release of hundreds of thousands of fish over the course of a decade across eight locations in Ireland, its results are highly accurate and very reliable. It found the level of marine mortality attributable to sea lice infestation to be very small – approximately one per cent in absolute terms.

Read the full article on The Fish Site.

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Posted February 1st, 2013

Farming of Sterile Salmon Will Help Preserve Wild Salmon [Norway]

The Fish Site
February 1, 2013

The Fisheries Directorate has granted six new research permits for breeding sterile salmon for commercial production. The goal is to preserve wild salmon stocks.

AquaGen and IMR will lead the research project to be carried out in collaboration with commercial salmon farmers. Farmers who have been granted experiments are North Salmon Farming AS, Mainstream Norway AS, Nova Sea AS, Eide Fjordbruk AS and Mid-Norwegian Aquaculture AS.

Reducing genetic influences

"It is an important measure to reduce the genetic influence of escaped fish. By giving promise of wide research efforts to adapt sterile salmon in commercial production, adding Fisheries conducive to reducing the risk of genetic effects on wild salmon stocks," says Vidar Baarøy, who is chief of the investigation section of the Directorate of Fisheries, coastal and aquaculture department.

He explains that the sterile triploid salmon have an extra set of genes, which means that it can not replicate itself if it were to escape. Use of such fish farming could therefore be an effective measure to prevent genetic impact of farmed fish on wild populations vulnerable.

Read the full article on The Fish Site.

Posted February 1st, 2013

Norway protest for salmon group [Norway]

Fish News EU
January 24, 2013

MEMBERS of campaign group Wild Salmon First! are heading to Norway this March to protest against the salmon farming industry.

A spokesman for Wild Salmon First! said: “After travelling around British Columbia (where 92 per cent of salmon farms are Norwegian owned, Scotland and Ireland (where about 70 per cent of salmon farms are Norwegian owned) with the goal of uniting people to protect wild salmon, it has become clear that people are deeply concerned about the impact open-net salmon farms are having. It’s time for Norway to pay attention to those concerns.

“On March 1, a message will be delivered to the Canadian Embassy in Norway, the King of Norway, the Norwegian parliament and Cermaq during a March for Wild Salmon, bringing along a flag which holds the Declaration for Wild Salmon that began its journey in British Columbia in July 2012. People from Canada, Scotland, Ireland and elsewhere have signed the flag in support of protecting wild salmon from the destructive impacts of salmon farming.”

Elena Edwards, founder of Wild Salmon First!, said: “Travelling thousands of miles through the oceans and seas, wild salmon know no borders. Unfortunately, neither does the salmon farming industry and the diseases that come with it. The spread of this predominantly Norwegian owned industry is going to require a united multi-national effort to ensure that salmon farming does not bring the final death blow to wild salmon of the world.”

Read the original article on Fish News EU.

Posted January 28th, 2013

BIM has revolutionary plans for organic salmon farming [Ireland]

FIS
January 28, 2013

The Irish Sea Fisheries Board, Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM), is set on expanding salmon farming in territorial waters to help meet burgeoning demand for the product worldwide. Planned protests against a proposed deep sea fish farm notwithstanding, CEO Jason Whooley is convinced that the industry has nowhere to go but up.

Consumption of farmed salmon across the globe is growing by 7 per cent per year, and even newer markets such as Russia are showing sharp increases of up to 27 per cent annually, according to Pareto Securities. Moreover, market analysts expect that a 50 per cent-higher output of farmed salmon will be required to meet demand by 2020.

BIM is taking advantage of the trend by applying for a licence to farm organic Atlantic salmon off the west coast of Ireland off Inis Oírr. The EUR 60 million-deep-sea farm could generate annual expenditure on wages and salaries locally of some EUR 14.5 million and create 500 jobs.

Meanwhile, concerns exist, particularly regarding the potential transfer of sea lice from the farmed fish to wild fish in the vicinity. But these fears are unfounded, according to the Environmental Impact Study carried out for the project and by Marine Institute data, Galway Advertiser reports.

Read the full article on FIS.

Posted January 28th, 2013

WWF Joins Call for Seafood Traceability to Fight Illegal Fishing

The Fish Site
January 25, 2013

In a groundbreaking statement issued at this week’s World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, WWF has joined private and public sector leaders in calling for a new global seafood traceability system to give consumers, businesses, and governments full access to information about marine fishing practices.

The statement is the first multi-stakeholder call for such a system, and could herald an important role for the World Economic Forum in support of sustainable fisheries.

The statement, issued by the Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Oceans, recognizes the urgent need for tracing fish products from "bait to plate" as a means for linking markets to sustainable fishing practices, and for ending the illegal fishing that continues to be a major driver of fisheries depletion.

The world is facing an unprecedented crisis of overfishing, with nearly 87 per cent of the world’s commercial fisheries now fished to or over maximum levels, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

Meanwhile, experts estimate that 20 per cent of worldwide fish catches come from illegal fishing practices. Solutions depend heavily on giving market actors and regulators reliable information to know which fish products are legal and sustainable and which are not. But currently, access to this information and the mechanisms needed to trace wild caught fish to their origins are the exception rather than the rule.

“Making commercial fishing sustainable is a critical global challenge,” said Jim Leape, Director General, WWF. “The joint statement released in Davos points the way to one important part of the solution.”

Read the full article on the Fish Site.

Posted January 25th, 2013

Feed prices turn salmon vegetarian

Financial Times
January 25, 2013

The surge in fishmeal prices has forced commercial salmon farmers to re-think dietary ingredients, and they are now, more and more, turning to the vegetarian option.
Feed prices turn salmon vegetarian

The portortion of fishmeal in commercial salmon diets has fallen to as low as 7% from 60% 15 years ago. According to Magareth Øverland, director of the Aquaculture Protein Centre at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, this could go to zero.

The industry is testing the use of protein from biological yeast and Norwegian spruce trees, she added, in order to avoid competing with other livestock sectors which rely on grains and oilseeds.

Torben Svejgard, chief executive of BioMar, an international feed company based in Denmark, said there has “been a lot of research done” over the last decade to increase the number of raw materials used in fishfeed. According to Svejard, BioMar has spent over 10% of its annual profits on various research and development initiatives. And trials have shown that few consumers can taste the difference between fishmeal fed salmon and vegetarian salmon, he added.

And salmon is not the only industry looking for options. French researchers have succeeded in breeding vegetarian rainbow trout while in the US, some aquaculture farms had been able to grow the carnivorous fish cobia without fishmeal.

Read the full article on All About Feed.

Posted January 25th, 2013

First North America caviar certified organic

Seafood Source
January 24, 2013

British Columbia-based Target Marine Hatcheries’ Northern Divine caviar has become the first certified organic caviar produced in North America.

Target Marine, producer of Northern Divine and white sturgeon, is certified by Global Trust as organic under the Canadian Organic Aquaculture Standards.

“After years of commitment to organic farming practices we are proud to have become certified organic, giving a new ecological choice to the astute caviar consumer,” said Justin Henry, Target Marine general manager.

Principles of organic farming are to protect the environment, maintain long term biological stability, recycle materials and resources, provide attentive care to the animals, and maintain organic integrity of the products.

Read the original article on Seafood Source.

Posted January 24th, 2013

Concern Over the Environmental Impact of Sea Lice Agents [Norway]

The Fish Site
January 22, 2013

Concern is rising over the use of diflu and teflubenzuron as sea lice agents and the environmental consequences it may be having.

These substances prevent the formation of chitin and so when used on lice, it leads to the death of the parasite upon first moulting after treatment.

Tests that have been made by various research institutions show that these substances may be present in sea floor sediment for prolonged time. The active substances can be detected in high concentrations more than seven months after a single treatment of farmed fish.

The Fisheries Directorate will consider measures to limit the use, focusing on how repeated or heavy use can be avoided.

The Directorate will also strengthen the monitoring of such environmental effects and will therefore propose to the Ministry of Fisheries and Coastal Affairs that it require collection of samples from localities that have treated fish, particularly where there is a risk of accumulation of drugs and chemicals.

Read the original article on the Fish Site.

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Posted January 23rd, 2013

Grieg takes $15m hit on UK, Canada disease problems

Undercurrent News
January 17, 2013

Grieg Seafood revealed NOK 88 million ($15.79m) in write-downs, relating to problems with amoebic gill disease in the UK and a furunculosis outbreak at a hatchery in Canada.

The Norwegian company, which farms salmon in Scotland and on the west coast of Canada, revealed a write down of NOK 45m in relation to its Grieg Seafood Hjaltland operation in the UK.

Grieg Seafood Hjaltland has experienced extraordinary mortalities in connection with required lice treatments in one production area, where the fish stock suffered from amoebic gill disease (AGD), the company said.

As a consequence of this, the harvest volume in 2012 is also reduced by 2.400 metric tons, compared to the previous guiding.

At progressive levels of AGD, the fish is compromised and less robust to tolerate the stress of a lice treatment.

“Extensive measures are implemented to handle the AGD situation in Scotland in general, as well as in Grieg Seafood Hjaltland. Grieg Seafood Hjaltland has suffered from sea lice challenges in 2012,” the company said.

Measures are implemented to establish a new strategy to combat the sea lice challenge in Grieg Seafood Hjaltland, which also involves resources from other parts of the Grieg Seafood Group, it said.

The write down in Grieg Seafood BC, its Canadian operation, amounts to NOK 43m.

The write down is caused by a furunculosis outbreak at the hatchery, which has led to a cull of most of the standing biomass at the hatchery in a measure to combat the disease outbreak.

As a consequence of the furunculosis outbreak, the harvest volume in 2014 will very likely be somewhat lower than in 2013. Cost adaptations will be implemented in BC to reflect the lower production volumes.

Read the full article in the Undercurrent News.

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Posted January 21st, 2013

Trial date closer for Cooke execs [East Coast]

South Coast Today
January 21, 2013

The trial by judge and jury of Cooke Aquaculture CEO Glenn Cooke and two other executives is inching closer, according to Paul Adams, Crown counsel with the Public Prosecution Service in Halifax.

Kelly Cove Salmon, Cooke, VP Michael Szemerda and Randy Griffin were charged by Environment Canada in 2011 with at least 19 charges relating to Fisheries Act violations regarding the discharge into the marine environment of "deleterious substances".  After several reports in 2009 of sudden massive lobster kills near Cooke salmon farms in New Brunswick, Environment Canada raided Cooke offices and seized documents and records relating to the use of illegal pesticides, including cypermethrin. 

At a December hearing in Fredricton, provincial court justice Julian AG Dixon set dates for the judge and jury trial to proceed, which will include a Feb 15 hearing in St. Stephen to set an agenda for the trial.

A Month-long preliminary inquiry was to have begun on Jan 14.

When asked if the delays in this case are unusual, Adams told SCT they were not. "These are indictable offenses," he said, "and there are certain procedural things which must be attended to."

Adams said that he expected several procedural and scheduling matters to be attended to on Feb 15.

An Environment Canada press briefing paper described the charges: "Environment Canada is alleging that Kelly Cove Salmon, a division of Cooke Aquaculture, and three of its senior company officials allegedly released a cypermethrin-based pesticide into the waters of Maces Bay, Passamoquoddy Bay as well as the waters surrounding Deer Island and Grand Manan Island between November 2009 and November 2010. Cypermethrin is not authorized for use in marine environments, and is harmful to crustaceans including, but not limited to, lobster and shrimp." 

Milloins of dollars in fines and decades in prison are possible consequences if the trio is found guilty.

Read the full article in the South Coast Today.

Posted January 21st, 2013

B.C. salmon farming company says it has avoided charges for massive sea-lion deaths

Larry Pynn
Vancouver Sun
January 21, 2013

A B.C. salmon farming company said Monday that the federal fisheries department has agreed to drop charges in connection with the 2010 drownings of 65 sea lions and four harbour seals in the company’s anti-predator nets near Gold River on Vancouver Island.

Stewart Hawthorn, managing director of Grieg Seafood, said in a statement that under a joint agreement, the company agrees to pay:

• $5,000 to a sea lion and seal management workshop and agrees to the publication of a best-practices report.

• $5,000 to the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup, with a request to target west coast Vancouver Island beaches.

• $90,000 to the Nootka Sound Watershed Society for community education and salmon-enhancement projects in the Tahsis, Sucwoa, Leiner, Canton and Tsowwin areas.

The written statement said that the company had responded to an unusual number of California sea lions in 2010 and is “very saddened” at the marine mammals subsequently drownings.

Grief Seafood said it went through a restorative justice program in which members of the community, including first nations, tourism representatives, and marine mammal experts participated.

Read the original article in the Vancouver Sun.

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Posted January 21st, 2013

Council screens 'Salmon Wars' [Nova Scotia]

South Shore Now
January 16, 2013

Salmon farming, jobs and democracy will be the major themes under discussion on January 25 as the South Shore Chapter of the Council of Canadians presents its first public event of 2013, the third in the series Democracy in Action.

The evening begins with a screening of “Salmon Wars — Wild Fish, Aquaculture and the Future of Communities.”

Silver Donald Cameron’s powerful documentary explores net cage salmon aquaculture and its social, economic and environmental impact on the communities where it operates, particularly our own South Shore.

“Salmon Wars” probes not only our stewardship of the oceans, but also the alliances between industry and government, the ability of local communities to influence their own futures, and the health of democracy in Atlantic Canada.

These issues continue to be of particular relevance to our community given the Nova Scotia government’s recent approval of two new net-cage salmon farming sites in Jordan Bay, Shelburne County.

There is widespread acceptance of the need for aquaculture now and for the future. The question is, does our province have a responsible strategy for the development and regulation of the industry?

After the screening, the public will be invited to explore this question in an open discussion (in the form of a “talking circle”) with invited guests representing a range of perspectives on these issues.

“Salmon Wars” will be screened on January 25 at 7 p.m. at the Mahone Bay Centre, 45 School Street. Admission is free. Donations will be accepted.

Read the original article in the South Shore Now.

Posted January 16th, 2013

Freedom Foods 'failing to crack down' on poor salmon farming standards [Scotland]

Salmon and Trout Association said farms under the RSPCA's scheme had records of sea lice infestation and pollution

The Guardian
January 16, 2013

The RSPCA's Freedom Food labelling schemehas been accused by anglers of failing to crack down on poor environmental standards at Scottish salmon farms.

The Salmon and Trout Association, an influential charity which promotes angling and wild fisheries, said a number of farms accredited under the animal welfare scheme had proven records of high levels of seabed pollution and sea lice infestation, a parasite which has affected scores of Scottish fish farms, yet no action had been taken against them.

Those included sites owned by the Scottish Salmon Company, which had been found to have unacceptable seabed pollution levels or failed testing by official agencies, or had sea lice infestation levels which breached best practice guidelines.

Freedom Foods also refused to disclose which fish farms are its members because that information was commercially confident, or how much money it earned from them, which made it very hard for consumers to judge its track record, it said.

The association estimated that Freedom Foods makes up to £1m a year from an annual £463 a year membership fees and from licensing its famous blue logo to producers, imposing a fee for every kilo of fish produced.

Freedom Foods denied this however, telling the Guardian its total income from salmon farms was "significantly lower" than the S&TA's lower estimate of £800,000 a year, and was designed to cover its inspection and marketing costs, not to make a profit.

"Freedom Food seems to be blind to the dismal environmental record of some of the farms certified," said Guy Linley-Adams, a solicitor who wrote the S&TA report.

Read the full article in The Guardian.

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Posted January 16th, 2013

Bantry group calls for continuing salmon farm moratorium [Ireland]

The Southern Star
January 15, 2013

SAVE Bantry Bay (SBB) has written to Minister for the Marine Simon Coveney demanding that he ‘hold true to his word’ and have the sea lice system tested. Until it is proven sea lice are not damaging wild salmon stocks, the organisation said, the current moratorium on the expansion of salmon farming must be continued.

SBB, formed to fight Marine Harvest’s plans to build a salmon fish farm at Shot Head in Bantry Bay, said that the pro-salmon farming lobby and government ‘continue to argue sea lice have little impact on wild salmon populations’ but scientific surveys say otherwise.

‘The three most comprehensive and relevant scientific papers recently published show that sea lice emanating from salmon farms cause anything from a 39%, 44% or even 50% reduction in wild salmon populations’, it said.

The current National Development Plan states: ‘The targets for increased productive capacity for salmon will now have to be deferred until after 2013 at the earliest as a result of the amendments made to this programme… during the SEA (strategic environmental assessment) process’.

The concerns related to the negative impact of sea lice emanating from salmon farms on wild salmon, said SBB, and were submitted by the former central and regional fisheries boards and supported by the Department of Communication, Energy and Natural Resources (DCENR).

‘As the sea lice issue has not been resolved, Save Bantry Bay maintains that the moratorium must be continued until there is evidence to the contrary.

Read the full article on The Southern Star.

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Posted January 15th, 2013

Biggest onshore salmon farm ever to be built in Tayinloan [Scotland]

FIS
January 15, 2013

Dunkeld-based FishFrom is about to submit a planning application for the world’s biggest onshore salmon farm.

The GBP 15 million (EUR 18.1 million) farm will operate within a 3.5-ac site at Tayinloan and produce 3,000 tonnes of salmon a year, as opposed to the average sea-based farm’s 1,500 tonnes. The company intends to sell 800,000 salmon a year. 

Moreover, FishFrom is cooking up plans for another onshore farm in Scotland and hopes to spread the model out worldwide to help meet the world’s burgeoning demand for fish.

Salmon will be acquired as smolts and raised to 5kg-adults in nine months pumped with 32 million litres of fresh and sea water every hour. The extremely high density of fish in the tanks will make the venture economically viable, as well as the use of green energy, Scotsman reports.

“We have carried out extensive feasibility studies and completed our business plan. This will be the largest onshore salmon farm in the world,” said FishFrom Director Andrew Robertson.

“We plan to start operations next year. The GBP 15 million will take it through to its first year of harvesting. But the farm will produce GBP 12 million (EUR 14.5 million) of sales annually,” he told.

The fish will be fed with pellets made from ragworms, algae and amino acids instead of fish meal, and the waste will be turned into fertiliser instead of “clogging up the ocean,” Robertson added.

Read the full article in FIS.

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Posted January 15th, 2013

Fish farm developers brand loch protesters 'a nest of vipers' [Scotland]

The Herald Scotland
January 13, 2013

Scotland's £1 billion salmon farming industry is facing growing difficulties winning public support for massive expansion plans after a concerned local community was labelled a "vipers' nest" in a leaked company email.

Emails from within the foreign-owned Scottish Salmon Company, which produces one-fifth of Scotland's farmed salmon, also reveal its public relations tactics for avoiding the "angst, time, delay [and] hoo-haa" caused by objections.

The company planned to locate small salmon cages on a loch and "let the locals get used to it" before applying to introduce larger ones in two or three years' time. The aim was to avoid "lengthy, tiring, negative PR battles".

The revelations have sparked fury amongst fish farm opponents, who accuse the company of betraying "cynical contempt" for local people by hiding their plans for future expansion. However, the company alleges that campaigners have distorted the facts in an attempt to discredit the fish farming industry.

Farmed salmon is Scotland's largest single food export, and one of the country's most important rural industries. Production has risen nearly fivefold over the last decade, and now involves 30 companies at about 250 sites along the west coast and on the islands. But its expansion has come at a cost, with local communities and environmentalists increasingly alarmed about pollution, the damage to coastal scenery and threats to wild fish.

Now the industry, backed by the Scottish Government, wants to further boost production of all farmed fish 50% by 2020. This is resulting in escalating conflicts, as proposals for new and bigger salmon farms emerge.

Read the full article in the Herald Scotland.

Posted January 13th, 2013

Job cuts expected at Scottish Salmon Company [Scotland]

BBC News
January 8, 2013

A salmon farming company has warned that it expects to make job cuts at its operations in Lewis.

The Scottish Salmon Company (SSC) said it would try to redeploy staff where possible, or offer them help to find alternative work.

The firm employs 169 people in the Western Isles.

SSC said its review of the workforce followed delays in securing permissions for new farms, low market prices and disease affecting some fish stocks.

Farms at Arnish and Marybank which supply a processing plant in Stornoway have not been operating at full capacity.

It is not known how many jobs could be lost. SSC said the cuts could be made in the spring, but the situation at the farms could improve next year.

Chief executive Stewart McLelland said: "We deeply regret this situation, but hope that we can reassure local communities that once more sites start to produce fish, we will once again have the volumes that make full production at Marybank and Arnish viable again.

"Despite our best efforts to correct the imbalance of production cycles across the company's operation, we have not been able to establish and develop new sites as originally expected within the necessary timescales.

"This process of expansion continues but, for the moment, there is now a time lag before sufficient numbers of next generation of fish can be harvested and processed through Marybank."

SSC runs more than 50 sites along the west coast of Scotland and in total employs more than 380 staff.

Read the full article in the BCC News.

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Posted January 9th, 2013

Sneaky sea lice vaccine in the works [Norway]

FIS
January 7, 2013

Scientists are attempting to turn the tables on sea lice by providing salmon’s immune system with a defence to the parasites. The plan of scientists from the Norwegian Veterinary Institute is to develop a vaccine that will allow the salmon's immune system to itself kill the parasites.

Celia Agusti-Ridaura from the University of Valencia in Spain, currently at the Norwegian Veterinary Institute, explained that actually salmon already possesses a good resistance to microbes, thanks to various active immune molecules, including a network of factors called the complement system.

When infested by sea lice, the parasites feed on the fish’s blood, and the complement system in fish are supposed to cause corrosion on the intestinal wall of the parasite. However, the defense systems of sea lice restrain this immune effect, protecting them.

Scientists want to eliminate lice’s advantage.

"If a vaccine can neutralize these defense molecules in the parasite, salmon blood will become a 'problem food' for lice," said Agusti-Ridaura.

The hope is to find and isolate these defense molecules in the sea lice and incorporate them into a vaccine for salmon, that will expose fish to a component of the parasite's defense system and thus allow salmon to produce antibodies against the defenses of sea lice. Then, when sea lice feed on the blood of salmon, they will swallow antibodies against their own defense system, sabotaging their defence against the fish’s complement system.

Read the full article on FIS.

Posted January 7th, 2013

Roof-top Photovoltaic Plant Protects Fish from Predators [France]

FIS
January 7, 2013

One of the biggest problems facing a fish farm is how to prevent predatory birds from feeding on the fish. Loud noises and flashing lights are two methods of prevention. A more innovative one is a roof-top photovoltaic plant that protects the fish and earns the farm revenues.

For a fish farm, predatory birds are a pest. They kill and damage the farm’s fish stocks. Perhaps the most effective and profitable way to protect the fish is to camouflage the water with a structure – like a photovoltaic power plant.

This is precisely what ABB has done at the Viviers de France fish farm in Mézos in southwestern France. Viviers de France is one of the country’s leading seafood and land-based fish farming companies.

The PV plant is owned by Soleil des Landes, a special purpose company, which sells the power to the grid operator, while providing the fish with the protection they need from predatory birds. It also provides the farm with revenues from renting the space above the water to Soleil des Landes.

ABB provided a complete balance of system solution for the PV power plant, including design, engineering, project management, installation and commissioning.

Read the full article on FIS.

Posted January 7th, 2013

New aquaculture operation will create about 30 jobs [Nova Scotia]

Daily Business Buzz
January 4, 2013

A new aquaculture operation in southwestern Nova Scotia is expected to create about 30 jobs.

Kelly Cove Salmon Limited, a subsidiary of Cooke Aquaculture, is planning to set up and stock new pens in Jordan Bay later this spring.

Spokeswoman Nell Halse says the Nova Scotia government has already approved the venture.

She says the operation will be subject to strict conditions to ensure the protection of the environment and the local fishing industry.

Read the complete story on the Daily Business Buzz.

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Posted January 4th, 2013

Salmon Escapes at Record Low in 2012 [Norway]

The Fish Site
January 3, 2013

The number of escaped farmed salmon stood at 38,500 in 2012. This is the lowest number registered in the millennium.

The official figures from the Fisheries Directorate show very little escapes for 2012.

The statistics show that the number of escaped rainbow trout was 133,000 and cod 55,000.

Overall it was reported that there was about 226,500 escapees from aquaculture in Norway in 2012. This is 145,600 fewer than in 2011 and about one million fish less than the record year of 2006 when it was around 1.2 million fish.

Read the original article on the Fish Site.

Posted January 3rd, 2013