World Fish & Aquaculture
June 27, 2013

The Salmon & Trout Association (Scotland) has accused Marine Scotland Science of ‘ignoring its own evidence' with regards to a planning application by salmon farming company Wester Ross Fisheries Limited.

The company made the planning application to install 46 steel pen fish cages in Loch Kanaird in Wester Ross at its existing fish farm at Ardmair. According to S&TA(S), Marine Scotland Science, which provides scientific and technical advice on behalf of Scottish Government, has concluded that “strategies for dealing with sea lice are satisfactory as far as can reasonably be foreseen.”  

However, S&TA(S) claims that it has compiled evidence from Marine Scotland Science’s own records covering the period 2009 to 2013 which shows that the Ardmair farm has been characterised by lice levels in excess of Code of Good Practice thresholds, along with serious concerns over the use and efficacy of available treatments.

Read the full article in World Fishing & Aquaculture.

World Fishing & Aquaculture
June 26, 2013

Scottish aquaculture genetics company Landcatch has succeeded in making farmed salmon more resistant to sea lice.

The company’s genetics experts have pinpointed a major gene that controls how susceptible individual fish are to sea lice infestation.

The genetic markers have already been used to screen broodstock selected in 2012 and have been introduced to the company’s egg production this year, ensuring the next generation of farmed salmon is more resistant to the parasites.

Neil Manchester, Managing Director of Landcatch, said: “We have located a major gene - or Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL) - controlling resistance to sea lice. This is mapped using variations in DNA sequences, or Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs), which act as biological markers and help scientists identify individual salmon that are more robust for breeding and egg production in Europe and Chile.

Read the full article in World Fishing & Aquaculture.

Financial Times
June 23, 2013

The sea is alive with flashes of silver as thousands of young salmon dart across the surface of Inver Bay on Ireland’s northwest coast. Almost a million Atlantic salmon are maturing at this organic farm, which Dublin wants to replicate – and on a much larger scale – just along the coast.

“Fish farming is the future,” says Donal Maguire of Ireland’s sea fisheries board. “There is surging global demand for fish, prices are rising, and we simply can’t provide enough Irish organic salmon to meet demand.”

The board wants to build the EU’s biggest salmon farm in Galway Bay, 200km further south on Ireland’s west coast, capable of producing 15,000 tonnes of salmon each year on a 456 hectare site. The farm would double Ireland’s farmed salmon production and create 500 jobs in a rural area struggling with chronic unemployment.

The proposal is part of Dublin’s plan to diversify its economy following its property and banking crash and to boost the value of its seafood sector by a quarter to €1bn by 2020.

It comes as the UN confirmed this week that global fish prices had hit a record high. Supply constraints, fuelled by China’s growing appetite for seafood, will push prices higher in coming months, says the UN. With wild fish stocks dwindling due to overfishing, many see farming as the best way to feed the world’s population.

“We can’t go on fishing forever,” says Catherine McManus, technical manager at Marine Harvest, the Norwegian company that owns the Inver bay farm and has captured almost a third of the global salmon and trout farming market. “Farming offers the most sustainable way to feed a growing population while protecting wild stocks.”

But salmon farming is also deeply unpopular in Ireland. Anglers and environmental campaigners accuse the industry of spreading disease and decimating stocks of wild fish to use as food for farmed salmon.

“This is a crazy scheme. Galway Bay is one of the most beautiful and important locations for tourism in Ireland,” says Enda Conneally, who runs a restaurant on Inisheer, a small island just 2km from the proposed farm site.

“Plonking an industrial-style fish farm a mile off Inisheer island risks costing far more money than it could generate. Most people on the island are opposed to this project,” he says.

Damien O’Brien, a campaigner for the group No Salmon Farms at Sea, claims that fish farms wiped out the Irish Sea trout fishery in the early 1990s. “It is a dirty, filthy industry that causes pollution and a major sea lice problem for wild salmon. This parasite can devastate wild stocks and damage the valuable angling industry, which attracts a lot of tourists.”

Juneau Empire
June 20, 2013

A U.S. Senate committee on Thursday narrowly agreed to add to a spending bill language that would require that genetically modified salmon be labeled.

The amendment was offered during a Senate Appropriations meeting by Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska. It passed on a 15-14 vote. Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, was a co-sponsor and also voted in support.

Members of Alaska’s congressional delegation, as well as the state Legislature, have opposed any effort by the Food and Drug Administration that would clear the way for the approval of a genetically engineered salmon for human consumption. FDA released a draft assessment last year, finding that approval of the salmon, also known as “Frankenfish,” would not jeopardize the continued existence of U.S. populations of Atlantic salmon or adversely affect their critical habitat.

An FDA spokeswoman said Thursday that there is no timeline for when a final decision might be released.

Read the full article in the Juneau Empire.

The Coaster
June 20, 2013

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has ordered that approximately 800,000 fish at a Gray Aquaculture site in Goblin Bay be destroyed.

A statement released in the week of June 2 to June 8, by the CFIA read in part: ‘Given the similarity of the strain between the site and the other site where an Infectious Salmon Anemia (ISA) was detected in December 2012, the CFIA has issued an Order to Destroy and is working with the industry in order to start the depopulation process.’

The CFIA has also placed control measures on the movement of people, vessels, equipment and fish onto or off the premises in order to prevent any potential disease spread.

According to CFIA policies, the Agency may order animals destroyed once receiving laboratory confirmation of ISA or once linking epidemiologically a new site to a previously confirmed site, which is the case in this situation.

In all cases where federally reportable aquatic diseases are suspected or confirmed, the goal is to prevent the spread of the disease to other aquaculture sites and to susceptible wild fish in the vicinity.

The CFIA said that the source of these events had not been confirmed. However, there are several possible ways that the fish may have contracted the ISA, including transfer from wild fish or from previously infected sites.

Read the full article on The Coaster.

Read related article:

• Undercurrent News; June 7, 2013; "Fish at ISA-affected farm in Canada to be culled"
• CBC; June 6, 2013; "Farmed salmon test positive for infection"
• The Telegram; June 6, 2013; "Cull ordered at south coast salmon farm"
• The Fish Site; June 4, 2013; "Suspected ISA Outbreak on Newfoundland Salmon Farm"
• CBC; June 3, 2013; "N.L. salmon farm quarantined"
• Southern Gazette; June 3, 2013; "Anglers asked to collect data on escaped farm salmon"
• Cape Breton Post; June 3, 2013; "Special licences issued to track escaped farmed salmon in Newfoundland river"
• VOCM; June 3, 2013; "Testing Results of Escaped Farmed Salmon"
• VOCM; May 31, 2013; "Salmon Disease Resurfaces"

Chronicle Herald
June 14, 2013

A land-based fish farm in West Advocate is hoping to double its output with a $5.5-million expansion.

Canaqua Seafoods grows halibut, Arctic char and salmon smolt in seawater that comes from wells near the ocean. Founded in 2006, the Cumberland County company now produces about 95 tonnes annually of mostly halibut and some char.

“We entrain the water from the Bay of Fundy through, probably, 700 or 800 feet of gravel and sand,” Paul Merlin, who owns the company, said Friday.

“It comes into our wells and then we pump it into our tanks from there. That way we get a geothermal effect, so we never have super chill. And we also have a bio-secure water supply with no parasites or disease.”

He’s hoping the investment starts paying for itself within 21/2 years.

Canaqua employs 10 people now and Merlin said he’d like to increase that to 23 over the next decade.

“My market is down in the northeastern United States and Upper Canada, mainly,” he said.

“I do some local business, but not a lot. I haven’t really pushed it because it means a lot of door-to-door stuff. Whereas if I ship to a fairly large distributor, they take care of it.”

Merlin is a minority owner of Scotian Halibut, in Clark’s Harbour, which provides Canaqua with juvenile halibut.

“I get them around 10 grams and grow them up to eight to 10 pounds,” he said.

Canaqua’s parent, Merlin Fish Farms Ltd., has put $2.9 million into the expansion.

The province is lending Canaqua $1 million to help with the project. The 10-year loan comes with a 6.5 per cent interest rate, Merlin said. The company also got a $1.2-million grant from the federal government to build the new 32,000-square-foot building that contains eight tanks for growing fish.

The construction was completed last year and the first fish went in two months ago.

Read the full article in the Chronicle Herald.

Fish Update
June 14, 2013

A former airbase at Machrihanish on the west coast of Scotland could be the site for a massive onshore salmon fish farm - creating up to 120 jobs.

The development is being proposed by the firm behind a similar farm planned at Runahaorine Point, near Tayinloan, in Argyll, which has met strong opposition.

Andrew Robertson, director of Dunkeld-based FishFrom, said salmon production at Tayinloan could be under way within two years.

A planning application was lodged with Argyll and Bute Council in February for a 225-metre long, eight metre wide and 12-metre high building at Tayinloan, at the 16-acre site of a former fish farm.

That £18 million project would create up to 20 jobs and be the largest of its kind in the world.

However, it would be dwarfed by the Machrihanish proposal.

Mr Robertson said the 'close containment, recirculation aquaculture system' involved meant there would be no waste streams or effluent.

Fish would be reared from smolts in large tanks, through which water would be pumped and recycled, with no threat of sea-lice, seals, escapes and pollution. Accumulated waste would be used as fertiliser.

Read the full article in Fish Update.

Fishnews.eu
June 13, 2013

Information obtained from SEPA by the Salmon & Trout Association Scotland (S&TAS) shows that nearly one in five fish farms using Slice as a sea lice treatment show chemical residues in excess of Environmental Quality Standards.  

Data from 146 farms which used Slice (emamectin benzoate) between January 2011 and September 2012 were obtained by the S&TAS.

At 28 of those farms (19.1%), Environmental Quality Standards were breached . The results are broadly in line with an earlier study by the S&TAS, which was based on data obtained under freedom of information data covering 2005-2010.

At the time, the Minister responsible, Stewart Stevenson MSP, stated that "should an EQS for sea louse chemicals be breached following the use and discharge of the substances to treat sea lice at fish farms, SEPA would take various steps to rectify the situation - for example, through a variation of licence conditions limiting the further release of these substances until residue levels reduced to below those identified safe levels."

Matters do not, however, appear to be improving and, to date, the S&TAS is unaware of SEPA varying the conditions of any fish farm licence to reduce chemical residues in line with Stevenson's assurance.

Mark Hume
June 12, 2013
Globe and Mail 

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has tested more than 4,000 samples from wild salmon on the West Coast without getting any positive results for three fish diseases that have raised alarms in British Columbia.

In a statement Tuesday, the CFIA said all the samples collected in B.C., as part of a major new disease-surveillance project, have tested negative for infectious salmon anemia (ISA).

The 4,175 wild salmon samples were also negative for infectious hematopoietic necrosis (IHN) and infectious pancreatic necrosis (IPN).

ISA has been on the radar in B.C. since independent researcher Alexandra Morton and Simon Fraser University reported in 2011 that they had found evidence of the virus in wild Pacific salmon for the first time.

Read the full story in the Globe and Mail. 

Read related stories: 

• The Fish Site; June 13, 2013; "Wild Salmon in British Columbia Test Negative for ISA"
• Vancouver Sun; June 12, 2013: "B.C. wild salmon test negative for three fish diseases"
• Courier-Islander; June 12, 2013; "BC salmon samples test clean"
• Wall Street Journal; June 11, 2013; "Surveillance samples of wild salmon in British Columbia test negative" 

FIS
June 12, 2013

Following a debate regarding the health dangers of eating farmed salmon due to its high level of toxins, it has been revealed that Norwegian authorities have lobbied in the European Union (EU) to allow farmed salmon to contain higher toxin levels. This comes as Norwegian doctors and international experts are recommending that women, children and adolescents should avoid eating farmed salmon because of their high toxin content.

According to a report of the newspaper Aftenposten, Norway has been trying for years to get the EU to allow the content of a toxin, endosulfan, to be 10 times higher in farmed salmon than previously allowed. Norway has finally received this approval in the EU.

The consultation document from the FSA states that Norway will benefit economically from having a higher limit of endosulfan allowed in its farmed salmon.

"The limit value for the concentration of endosulfan in feed for salmonids is of great economic importance for the aquaculture industry in the short and longer term," the letter reads, The Nordic Page reports.

Although endosulfan used to be banned for use in feed for all farmed salmonids, research has shown that the fish can withstand the poison better if administered through feed than by being exposed to it in the water.

Read the full article in FIS.

Undercurrent News
June 12, 2013

Norway has reported four outbreaks of infectious salmon anemia (ISA) so far this year, which is double the number reported for the whole of 2012, reported iLaks.no.

All the outbreaks this year have been in northern Norway, including three in Nordland and one in Troms, said iLaks.

A total of two cases of ISA were reported in Norway in 2012, and only one in 2011, according to figures from Norway’s Veterinary Institute.

ISA was the main virus affecting salmon in Norway for years, with the number of outbreaks in the two-digit range around the change of the century. After 2008, however, ISA in Norway experienced a clear retreat.

Instead, the most deadly and costly virus now plaguing salmon farms is pancreas disease. A total of 137 outbreaks of PD were recorded in 2012, and 20 so far this year.

Read the full article in Undercurrent News.

Phys.org
June 7, 2013

Warmer ocean temperatures resulting from climate change may lead to earlier sexual maturation in salmon – which could spell problems for the aquaculture industry. Now, the Institute of Marine Research is applying knowledge about the salmon genome in experiments to influence the onset of puberty in farmed salmon through selective breeding.

The project, called Salmat, receives funding from the Research Council of Norway as part the research effort targeted towards understanding climate change and the adaptations it requires.

"The project's objective is to identify genes or regions of genetic material that regulate the onset age of sexual maturation in salmon," explains project manager Anna Wargelius, who is a senior scientist at the Institute of Marine Research. "Since puberty is also modulated by environmental factors such as light, temperature and food supply, the project will study whether and how environmental factors affect the genes that control sexual maturation."

Read the full article on Phys.org.

CBC News
June 6, 2013

There could be potential risks, if genetically modified salmon escape into the wild, indicates a new study from Memorial University in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Researcher Krista Oke bred GM salmon, supplied by AquaBounty, with wild brown trout.

Almost half the resulting hybrids carried the genetic modification.

Oke then put these GM hybrids in a tank with a semi-natural environment, along with salmon.

Results show the hybrids outcompeted the other fish for food and reduced the growth of GM salmon by 82 per cent and non-GM salmon by 54 per cent.

Read the full article on CBC News.

Read related articles:

• FIS; June 4, 2013; "'ABT salmon do not pose any risk to wild fish,' AquaBounty maintains"
• Yahoo News; May 30, 2013; "Young Frankenfish: Meet the Terrifying Offspring of GMO Salmon and Wild Trout"
• BBC News; May 29, 2013; "GM salmon can breed with wild fish and pass on genes"

NPR
June 6, 2013

Last month, we told you about companies that are growing salmon on dry land. That's an effective — but expensive — way to reduce water pollution caused by fish farms. After all, marine aquaculture provides about half of the seafood we eat.

So a Canadian researcher named Thierry Chopin is pushing to develop a less expensive technology that could be used to clean up the many fish farms that are already operating in coastal waters. His approach involves creating a whole ecosystem around a fish farm, so the waste generated by the salmon gets taken up by other valuable seafood commodities, like shellfish and kelp.

We caught up with Chopin, a marine biologist at the University of New Brunswick, in St. George, New Brunswick, a town on Canada's Bay of Fundy. The bay is famous for its huge tides — which are 30 feet here at St. George — and for its salmon farms. Chopin has been working with a company called Cooke Aquaculture to reduce the fish waste that washes into the bay.

We take a skiff out to the fish farm. The salmon have already been harvested, but there are rafts made of black PVC piping, sticking out of the water like catwalks. They are home to cultivated seaweeds and mussels — species that thrive on fish waste.

"What we are doing is nothing more than recycling the nutrients," Chopin explains. "Instead of looking at them as waste, we look at them as nutrients for the next species."

Read the full article on NPR.

The Fish Site
June 5, 2013

The Atlantic Salmon Federation (ASF) hosted a dinner event in support of its environmentally-sustainable salmon aquaculture programme on Wednesday, 15 May at the Yale Club, New York, NY.

Sixty guests had the opportunity to sample land-based, closed containment salmon, which was prepared by renowned chef and culinary consultant Tom Valenti.

The salmon was grown in a land-based closed containment aquaculture facility in West Virginia, using cutting edge technology. The advantage, says Bill Taylor, President of ASF, is that closed containment aquaculture eliminates the interaction of farmed salmon and the environment.

“With the added sustainability factors for land-based operations, including virtually 100 per cent water recycling, no dumping of waste on the ocean floor, no escapes to interact with wild populations in our rivers, reduced pesticide and antibiotic use, and no interaction of these chemicals with wild fish or the marine environment, the market appeal for closed containment salmon is significant.”

While the environmental advantages of land-based aquaculture are indisputable, critics have argued that closed containment salmon will be less palatable to consumers, compared to sea-farmed salmon. Having now prepared and served closed containment salmon at the Yale Club, Chef Tom Valenti says otherwise.

Globe and Mail
May 30, 2013

A new study in Washington State that tested more than 900 salmon has found no sign of infectious salmon anemia – a disease that is the focus of debate and controversy in British Columbia.

Although independent researcher Alexandra Morton and Simon Fraser University have been claiming since 2011 that ISA is present in B.C., no federal or provincial government agency has confirmed those findings.

Now the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, working in conjunction with several other groups, says wide ranging tests for the disease have all come back negative.

“In Washington State, no signs of the disease or the virus have been documented in farmed, hatchery or wild salmon,” the Department of Fish and Wildlife said in a statement Thursday.

The statement says Pacific Chinook, coho, sockeye, chum and steelhead, as well as some farm-raised Atlantic salmon were all tested in the first year of a two-year monitoring program.

Testing began after concerns were raised about ISA in B.C.

Read the full article in the Globe and Mail.

Read related articles:

• FIS; June 3, 2013; "ISA not present in Pacific Northwest: study"
• Issaquah Press; June 3, 2013; "Tests show no signs of ISA virus in Washington’s salmon"
• KBKW; May 31, 2013; "Tests show no signs of ISA virus in Washington’s salmon"

Barents Observer
May 31, 2013

As climate change and increasing aquaculture production fuel the sea lice problem, some researchers hope knowledge from the soon-to-be sequenced salmon genome will give fish farmers an edge in an intensifying battle against the tiny parasites.

"Sea lice is maybe the number one problem for salmon aquaculture," says Sigbjørn Lien, professor at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences in Aas. He is the lead investigator on a new research project that's trying to identify salmon genes associated with lice resistance.

Nina Santi, research director of Norway's Aqua Gen breeding company, says the government has become more concerned about sea lice infestations in wild salmon over the last couple years and this has led to stricter rules for granting and extending farming licenses. In order to compete for new licenses, those in the industry are now required to show that their practices have low impacts on wild salmon.

"The authorities are more or less putting the growth of the industry on hold and they're signalling very strongly that the industry needs to control sea lice levels," she says.

Sea lice, which can grow to be up to a centimetre in length, attach themselves to the skin of salmon and drink the animals' blood. Though a few lice won't cause much harm to a large fish, the parasites are deadly when present in large numbers.

Frank Nilsen, head of the Sea Lice Research Centre at University of Bergen and member of the research team, says sea lice pose a greater threat to fish than ever before. This is because aquaculture production around the world is growing and as the number of fish increases, so too does the number of sea lice. This is especially true when large numbers of farmed fish are kept in close quarters because when sea lice reproduce, their larvae are almost guaranteed to find new hosts.

Peak Online
May 28, 2013

City of Powell River officials are continuing to explore the possibility of establishing an aquatic industries park in conjunction with Tla’amin (Sliammon) First Nation.

The proposal centres on about 40 hectares (100 acres) of undeveloped waterfront land owned by PRSC Partnership Ltd. next to Catalyst Paper Corporation’s Powell River division. The site has a number of infrastructure advantages for aquaculture, according to a brochure produced by PRREDS (Powell River Regional Economic Development Society), including both salt and fresh water supplies, electricity and thermal energy.

The city organized an exploratory meeting with potential industry proponents in January.

MP John Weston, who represents West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country, recently met with Mayor Dave Formosa, councillors Chris McNaughton and Debbie Dee, Tla’amin Chief Clint Williams and chief administrative officer Rod Allan, Mac Fraser, the city’s chief administrative officer, Scott Randolph, PRREDS manager, and Bill Vernon, a Powell River resident who has been consulting on the project.

“We focused on an amazing convergence of events, circumstances and relationships,” Weston said about the meeting. “That’s the possibility of creating a world-class closed containment aquaculture facility here in Powell River.”

Read the full article on the Peak Online.

BBC News
May 28, 2013

A Shetland salmon farmer has been convicted of using nets which could kill grey and common seals.

Graham McNally, 52, was the first person in the UK to be convicted of using nets for the purposes of trapping and killings seals.

He was charged under the Conservation (Natural Habitats) Regulations 1994 and fined £800 at Lerwick Sheriff Court.

McNally pleaded guilty to using two illegal nets around salmon cages in 2011.

The Crown Office said salmon farmers were encouraged to deter seals seen around their fish "by using non-lethal measures".

Information had been received by the Scottish SPCA that nets had been placed around a number of salmon cages at two salmon farming sites in an effort to kill seals which had been attacking fish.

An examination of the two nets concluded that the design of the nets was such that they were likely to catch and kill seals.

Craig Harris, procurator fiscal, wildlife and environment, said: "Seals are protected by law and may only be killed or taken in accordance with a licence.

Read the full article in BBC News.

Read related articles:

• Herald Scotland; May 28, 2013; "Salmon farmer fined over illegal nets to kill seals"
• Blairgowrie Advertiser; May 28, 2013; "Farmer fined in seal nets case"
• Shetland Times; May 28, 2013; "Salmon farm worker fined £800 for setting nets which could have killed seals"
• Shetland News; May 28, 2013; "Ex salmon manager fined over seal nets"
• UPI.com; May 29, 2013; "Fish farm manager fined for nets that could trap seals"

My Northwest
May 28, 2013

Biologist Alexandra Morton says she's found evidence of Infectious Salmon Anemia in salmon in British Columbia, which she fears could impact populations of farmed salmon as well as harm native Pacific salmon species.

"It's going to impact the salmon farming industry terribly and it's a wildcard as to what it's going to do to the wild salmon," she says.

Morton tells KIRO Radio's On the Water that she contacted two labs well versed in the virus, one in Canada and one in Norway to test samples of B.C. fish. She sent them wild samples and also samples taken from supermarkets as she did not have access to take samples from salmon farms.

"It's very hard to get a farmed salmon off of a farm unless you are with the government, so I began to access them from the supermarkets," says Morton. "Since then, some of the samples have tested positive for the ISA virus."

But many officials disagree with Morton's results and say there has been no evidence that ISA is in salmon in B.C.

"All laboratories that have been testing with this agree there have been no cases of the ISA in British Columbia," says Dr. Gary Marty, a fish pathologist with the B.C. Animal Health Centre. "We test several hundred fish a year that die on the farms for that virus and those test results have consistently come back negative, no virus."

Read the full article on My Northwest

The Fish Site
May 27, 2013

The sea lice count numbers for April show levels in the Okisollo/Hoskyn Channel area continue to be below the threshold for treatment as required by regulation.

Okisollo Channel is located just north of Campbell River and is home to five farms: two of Marine Harvest Canada’s, two of Mainstream Canada’s and one operated by Grieg Seafood.

Hoskyn Channel, on the east side of Quadra Island has four Marine Harvest Canada sites. All three companies have agreed to an area management plan for the channels.

These farms are well managed and highly regulated to ensure that wild stocks migrating past these sites are protected, no matter how many of the farms are operating. Sea lice numbers are monitored regularly and show levels below the threshold levels for treatment as required by regulation (see table below).

Cyrus Rocks was the only farm in the area in operation during the month of April.

Read the full article on The Fish Site.

The Coaster
May 29, 2013

The Garnish River has some new salmon this year thanks to escaped farmed fish from an aquaculture site in the Fortune Bay area.

Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) officials confirmed this recently, but said that they are no indicators to cause concern about spreading infection or disease to the wild population of fish in the river.

Don Hutchens, the president of the Salmonid Council of Newfoundland said that the council is concerned about farmed salmon showing up in the Garnish River for several reasons.

Hutchens said, "We're concerned that the farmed salmon will interbreed with fish which would result in a new weakened generic type of fish. The escaped fish may have come from an area that had some serious farmed fish health issues recently and this may spread disease to wild populations.

“The fish are also turning up in the river at a time when smolt were going out. So, if these are fish feeding on smolt going out to sea from the Garnish River it will have an effect on future populations in the river."

Hutchens said that as far as the Salmonid Council is concerned DFO officials are downplaying the issue, as they had not received any reports of escaped fish from aquaculture sites in recent months.

Read the full article in The Coaster.

Read related articles:

• VOCM; May 24, 2013; "How many Farmed Fish are Really Escaping?"
• Southern Gazette; May 21, 2013; "DFO confirms farmed salmon found in Garnish River"
• CBC; May 16, 2013; "Escaped farmed salmon could cause problems, council warns"
• CBC Radio; May 16, 2013; "Escaped farmed salmon"

Vancouver Sun
May 23, 2013

The Haida Salmon Restoration Corp., the group responsible for releasing 100 tonnes of iron sulphate in the international waters off Haida Gwaii, says it has also dumped its lead scientist Russ George.

In a statement Thursday, the company’s board of directors announced George was removed as a director on the board and an officer of the corporation.

John Disney, economic development officer for the village of Old Massett, which financed the $2.5-million project, will remain CEO as the corporation conducts a review of its direction.

The group caused an international firestorm and came under intense scrutiny last October following the dump of 100 tonnes of iron sulphate and 20 tonnes of iron oxide some 350 kilometres off the Haida Gwaii archipelago in what would become known as the world’s largest — and unsanctioned — iron fertilization project.

Critics alleged the resulting 35,000-square-kilometre plankton bloom was created only as part of a scheme to sell carbon credits, and argued the dump was illegal under the London Protocol, a United Nations convention prohibiting the disposal of toxins at sea.

Proponents said Pacific salmon feeding on the plankton would grow in number and size due to the increase in food supply, boosting salmon stocks and causing a massive salmon run in 2014.

Read the full article in the Vancouver Sun.

The Guardian
May 21, 2013

One of the world's largest fish farm companies, Marine Harvest, has voluntarily agreed to much tougher limits on its pesticides use and seal killing by joining a strict new environment scheme.

Marine Harvest will join the Aquaculture Stewardship council, a new accreditation scheme championed by WWF, after coming under repeated attack for heavy use of toxic chemicals, seal-killing and major outbreaks of sea lice and salmon diseases.

The Norwegian-owned company, which grows 25% of all Scotland's farmed salmon, has promised to put all its UK fish farms through ASC accreditation by the end of this decade in what supporters of the scheme believes could transform the environmental sustainability of salmon farming.

It will force the firm to put a strict cap on escapes of farmed salmon – a problem with critics believe threatens the survival of wild salmon stocks – and cut chemical treatments. Under the scheme, the killing of seals as a precautionary measure to protect salmon will be drastically reduced but not entirely stopped. It would also require the company to only use fishfeed derived from Marine Stewardship Council-accredited wild fish stocks or other, non-wild sources of protein.

The move follows increasing criticism by environment and conservation campaigners about the Freedom Foods scheme operated by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which only applies the minimum legal standards on environmental protection and has been widely criticised for failing to penalise fish farms that breach standards.

Read the full article in The Guardian.

BBC News
May 21, 2013

Scotland's biggest producer of farmed salmon is facing renewed calls to move its farms away from wild salmon rivers to prevent parasite transmission.

This is despite Marine Harvest signing up to a scheme to reduce the impact of fish farming on the environment.

WWF Scotland said the move was an important step which could now be followed by the rest of the industry.

But the Salmon and Trout Association said the farms were often too close to wild salmon rivers.

'Good news'

It said this threatened conservation and wants those farms to be moved or closed.

Marine Harvest, which has farms in the north west of Scotland and on the Western Isles, said it would be seeking certification for its Scottish fish farms from the Aquaculture Stewardship Council.

Fish farms will only receive ASC certification if they exceed current legal requirements governing chemical use and the problem of parasite transmission between farmed and wild salmon.

Lang Banks, director of WWF Scotland, said: "The salmon farming industry's activities have quite rightly come under close scrutiny recently, so this announcement is really good news for Scotland's environment.

"However, it is only when all salmon farm operators embrace the standards that we will know if, as an industry, they are really serious about operating sustainably and reducing their impacts on the environment."

But Alan Sutherland, managing director of Marine Harvest in Scotland, conceded it would be the end of the decade before all of the company's farms met the required standards.

Read the full article in BBC News.

Read related article:

• The Scotsman; May 21, 2013; "Marine Harvest urged to move salmon cages"

Fish News EU
May 17, 2013

Research by Nofima that aims to reduce problems associated with escaped farmed salmon indicates that removal of their adipose fin can be the easiest and cheapest method to differentiate escapees from wild fish.

A project managed by the food research institute Nofima tested different methods for external marking of farmed salmon, which is necessary for secure identification of escaped farmed salmon.

The project assessed the following methods: complete and partial removal of the adipose fin, freeze branding and visible implant elastomer (VIE). The marking is performed on anaesthetised fish at a weight of 20 - 50 g. There is nothing to indicate that the fish have a negative reaction to the adipose fin removal.

"There is reason to believe that this is no different to the tagging of animals, which has been common for a long time," says Senior Scientist Atle Mortensen.

None of the marking methods that were tested had any impact on growth or survival in comparison with the unmarked control fish, and all the marks were clearly visible four months after the date of marking.

However, after a period of 10 months the freeze branding had completely disappeared and the VIE marking was difficult to read. It is common that damaged or removed tissue is regenerated or, in other words, grows again.

Health Castle
May 16, 2013

Recently, HealthCastle Editor-in-Chief and Vancouver Chapter Director Gloria Tsang wrote a piece about a relatively new type of farmed salmon available in British Columbia, Canada. Since this closed containment farmed salmon is also available in some parts of the United States, we wanted to take a look at what the biggest player in seafood sustainability in Amercia has to say about it – and where you can buy it if it's something that interests you.

The Background

As you probably know, most farmed salmon is Atlantic salmon farmed in open net pens in the ocean. This type of fish farm has raised concerns from environmentalists and seafood sustainability experts because of concerns about sea lice, disease transfer to wild fish, and non-native species escape. Here's what the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch Program has to say about open net pen farmed Atlantic salmon:

"Most salmon are farmed in open pens and cages in coastal waters. Waste from these farms is released directly into the ocean. Parasites and diseases from farmed salmon can spread to wild fish swimming near the farms and escaping farmed salmon can harm wild populations. As a result, all salmon farmed in ocean net pens get an 'Avoid' ranking."

The Innovation

The new system - closed containment fish farms - avoid the problems associated with open net pen fish farming. Because the fish are raised in closed pens on land, there is no possibility of escape or other impact on wild fish. There are still some concerns about the amount of energy these types of farms use, and about how much wild fish is required to feed the captive salmon. But both of those concerns are being worked on. Here's what Seafood Watch has to say about closed containment farmed salmon:

"Some salmon farmers are making changes to improve their practices. So far, one change has proven successful—raising U.S. freshwater coho using inland tank-based, closed systems. Closed systems reduce environmental risks by containing pollution, disease, parasites and reducing fish escapes and result in a 'Best Choice' ranking."

This type of farmed salmon is on the Seafood Watch "Super Green" list, which means that in addition to being a "Best Choice," it also has low levels of mercury and PCBs and has the recommended daily minimum of omega-3s.

Read the full article on Health Castle.

Delta Sky Magazine
May 2013

In a brown single-story warehouse just northeast of St. Paul, Minnesota, thousands of fish swim around in tanks the size of VW buses. Most of the fish are tilapia, but they’re hard to see, as their “fishbowls” are opaque and covered. “If you want to see the trout, we can make them jump,” says Dave Roeser, climbing a small half-staircase next to the pond, a rectangular tank that would be at home on the back of a 16-wheeler. He scatters a handful of fish food into the water, and its black surface roils with foot-long rainbow trout jumping over each other to get a snack.

Roeser’s company is Garden Fresh Farms, and the fish tank for the rainbow trout is supplied with the cold water that comes out of a Minnesota water system in the winter. Trout need cold water, which holds more oxygen; when the water warms, it gets piped over to the tilapia, tropical fish that need warmer water. Waste in the water is then converted by beneficial bacteria into nutrient-rich water, which is then streamed through hundreds of specially directed PVC pipes to feed tens of thousands of heads of lettuce and herbs. The plants clean the water and it is returned to the fish to renew the process again. The produce is all destined for local Minnesota cafeterias, restaurants and food-service establishments. Roeser has a customer for each head of lettuce in this nondescript warehouse, which he bought 10 years ago for his previous business: a candy-making company.

Every now and then, Roeser and his son, a biologist who makes all the organisms work in harmony, put on their less-than-best clothes and gut a pile of fish for their customers. “We’re looking into other labor options,” Roeser says, wryly. He is currently taking out a lease on other sites for their urban farm concept, with one in St. Paul and another adjacent to downtown Minneapolis. There are similar operations currently raising thousands of fish in or near the downtowns of Chicago, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Sacramento and other cities not known for their fish and seafood.

It might seem strange, but there’s a lot of strange in the world of fish and seafood right now. We’ve either reached or are coming close to reaching the hinge-point in human relations to fish: For millennia, people caught fish in oceans, rivers and streams—in nets and with hooks. By some accounts, we now get more fish from fish farms than from the wild. And the reason no one knows whether this history-making hinge happened last year or this year or whether it will happen next year is because China keeps revising its numbers, and it’s now the top fish-farming country in the world. But whatever the precise date, the trend is unmistakable: Fish used to be a wild food, and now it’s a farmed one.

Fish farms take on many shapes, but most of them are net pens of various sizes in coastal bodies of water. In Canada, for instance, vast salmon net pens now dominate the Bay of Fundy; in 2009, the latest year for which information is available, Canada sold about $800 million in farm-raised fish. It’s about 26th in the world. The Fisheries and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations estimates that world aquaculture production in 2008 was 52.5 million tons, with a worldwide market value just shy of $100 billion. If you grew up with a vision of fish as coming from guys in yellow rainslickers standing on windy boat decks, it’s time to revise that. And just as aquaculture is exploding as a market and an international economic force, it’s also imploding, plagued by potentially catastrophic problems of pollution and disease.

Read the full article in Delta Sky Magazine.

The Fish Site
May 14, 2013

The Ministry of Fisheries and Coastal Affairs proposes to change the rules of ownership control of the aquaculture industry. It is proposed to allow companies to own up to 40 per cent of production capacity in the salmon farming industry. At the same time, there will be more stringent requirements for activities in coastal districts.

The Ministry of Fisheries and Coastal Affairs has circulated a draft for new regulations on the allocation and delimitation of production capacity in the salmon farming industry. The deadline for consultative statements is 20 June 2013.

"The government is concerned with maintaining diversity in ownership of the aquaculture industry. We need both small and large companies. The aim of the change is more added value from the aquaculture industry in coastal Norway. The greater the share of common resources a company takes advantage of, the more it should return to the coastal districts," said the Minister of Fisheries and Coastal Affairs, Lisbeth Berg-Hansen.

The Ministry proposes a step by step scheme, where one can apply for acquisitions resulting in control from 15 per cent of production capacity up to 40 per cent. Companies owning less than 15 per cent of production capacity are not required to apply.

The greater the share of production capacity a company owns above this limit, the more stringent requirements will apply to the company's R&D activities, degree of processing and the number of trainees and apprenticeships offered.

There are requirements toward diversification of the company's activities. The company must have at least one centre of activity, for example an administrative unit, processing facility, centre for research and development, regional headquarters or similar in each region in which the company has aquaculture operations.

Read the full article on The Fish Site.

Read related article:

• FIS; May 14, 2013; "Up to 40pc ownership control of salmon farming proposed"

The Independent
May 13, 2013

The 250 permanent residents of Inis Oirr are used to a slow pace of life. When recent stormy weather stopped the daily ferry service to the Irish mainland, most shrugged and got on with an existence that has long thrived on remoteness.

With its ancient castle ruins, shipwrecked beaches and stunning views of the distant Cliffs of Mohar and brooding landscape of The Burren, the island in the mouth of Galway Bay draws tourists from across the world. They come to appreciate a traditional Irish experience, not yet marred by the modern tourist trappings of hotels, gift shops and traffic.

However, future tourists could be in for a shock when they arrive to admire its relative wilderness, with the biggest salmon farm in the British Isles planned just one mile off the shoreline.

Locals fear it could take away much of the island’s appeal, made famous by the opening sequence of the television comedy Father Ted filmed over Inis Oirr, the smallest of the three Aran Islands. “The image we have is one of an unspoilt landscape,” says Enda Conneely, who was born on Inis Oirr and has spent the last 20 years running a popular cafe, the Fisherman’s Cottage, “that will change with this salmon farm and I doubt we’ll be able to survive that change.”

If approved, two open cage sites would be used to rear up to six million organically certified salmon, doubling Ireland’s current production and providing a boost in supply of the UK’s most popular fish to health-conscious shoppers.

The 450 hectare farm would be equivalent in size to the island itself and one of three industrial-scale farms being considered by the Irish government as it attempts to fast track an expanded farmed salmon sector to compete with Norway and Scotland, the world’s leading producers along with Chile.

Read the full article in The Independent.

Mark Hume
Globe and Mail
May 12, 2013

Whatever happens in the election this week, it is clear the newly elected premier, whether it is Adrian Dix or Christy Clark, will have to put the environment high on the agenda for early action.

Pipelines and liquefied natural gas development emerged as key, perhaps even defining, issues during the campaign, but there are more problems out there.

Here are 10 things the premier has to act on if he, or she, wants credibility on the green file.

No. 1: Withdraw from the Environmental Assessment Equivalency Agreement that the province signed with the federal government. There is an exit clause in the deal, which essentially gives the National Energy Board the power to do environmental assessments for B.C. By opting out, the province will have a lot more say over pipeline proposals, natural gas processing plants and off-shore oil or gas facilities. The NDP has said it will get out within 30 days. A Liberal government should do the same.

No. 2: Scrap Site C. The province shouldn’t drown valuable farm land that can produce food for thousands of years to provide power to LNG plants that will be relatively short-lived.

No. 3: Bring the rapidly expanding number of independent power projects under tighter environmental scrutiny. Under the Liberals, 55 private hydro projects have been built and another 35 are proposed. But the government has done a poor job of monitoring them, allowing fish kills and other damaging impacts.

No. 4: Bring in legislation to make it illegal to cut any more giant, old-growth trees. The Ancient Forest Alliance alerted the public to plans to log the Avatar Grove, near Port Renfrew, saving it just in time. But the group is now warning the last of B.C.’s ancient trees will soon be lost unless something is done.

Vicky Husband, one of B.C.’s leading conservationists, says the group’s new maps “clearly show the ecological crisis in B.C.’s forests due to a century of overcutting.”

No. 5: Modernize the 150-year-old Mineral Tenure Act, which was drafted during the gold-rush and has given mining companies “free entry” for far too long. The law allows miners to stake claims virtually anywhere they want to in B.C., without consulting the government or First Nations. Should mining companies really be allowed to stake claims over places such as the Gulf Islands? They are now, under an antiquated law that should have been revised when miners stopped using mules.

No. 6: Don’t allow coal mining to expand in the Elk Valley until the companies working there have demonstrated they can stop polluting streams with selenium. The water in some areas is already so toxic it can deform fish eggs and kill aquatic insects. Do we really need to see a two-headed trout before bringing this issue under control?

No. 7: Strike an all-party committee to come up with a plan to take over the duties of the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans. DFO has been so badly managed that our salmon stocks are in peril. It’s time to stop managing B.C.’s fish from Ottawa.

No. 8: Take meaningful steps to protect endangered species. B.C.’s spotted owl population has fallen from 1,000 breeding pairs to less than a dozen birds. Marbled murrelets are in decline and so are mountain caribou. Extinction should not be acceptable to any government, anywhere.

No. 9: Form an elders council to provide the government with advice on how to best manage the environment. This approach has worked for First Nations for about 10,000 years.

N0. 10: Listen to the Greens. Whether or not the party gets any seats, it has a lot of smart things to say about the environment.

Read the original article in the Globe and Mail.

Vancouver Sun
May 11, 2013

Salmon farming opponents in British Columbia were disappointed with the response they received from NDP Leader Adrian Dix when they tried to make their concerns an election issue.

They presented him with a 68,600-name petition today at a campaign event in Coquitlam calling for the end to what they call the feedlot expansion of fish farming on the province’s coast.

Chilliwack First Nations elder Eddie Gardner told Dix the petition calls for a halt to coastal salmon farming licenses because many people believe salmon farming threatens wild salmon stocks by spreading deadly fish viruses and diseases.

Dix accepted the petition, but he did not make any statements about ending salmon farming.

Outside of the campaign hall where Dix was speaking and others were enjoying a pancake breakfast, Gardner says he expected Dix to say he supported their cause, but that didn’t happen.

Gardner says the anti-salmon farming lobby wants Dix to take a stronger stand on getting rid of salmon farming.

Dix later told reporters at a news conference that the federal government is largely responsible for salmon farming issues, but if British Columbians want a government that respects and protects the province’s coast they should vote NDP.

Read the full article in the Vancouver Sun.

Read related articles:

• Global News; May 11, 2013; "Salmon farm foes want answers from NDP’s Dix"
• iPolitics; May 11, 2013; "Salmon-farming foes want answers from NDP’s Dix after handing him petition"

The Guardian
May 10, 2013

Marine Harvest, one of the world's largest fish-farming companies, is under investigation after its salmon farms polluted a Scottish loch with toxic pesticide residues hundreds of times above environmental limits.

Sampling tests around salmon cages on Loch Shell in the Outer Hebrides by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) found that levels of Teflubenzuron, used to kill sea lice parasites which affect hundreds of thousands of caged fish each year, were up to 450 times higher than recommended levels.

The agency could now cut back Marine Harvest's operations on Loch Shell where the firm has three fish farms, including one which was already under Sepa investigation, after it launched a review of its operations there.

Sepa's tests, carried out in 2012, found that Teflubenzuron levels were well above the recommended limits at 20 of the 21 sediment sampling sites on the loch, suggesting long-term problems with its treatment regime there.

There were Teflubenzuron samples showing readings 150, 200 and 250 times above the 2 microgram per kilogramme limit, at least 100m from the edge of the salmon cages. Residue levels for two other anti-sea lice chemicals, Emamectin and Deltamethrin, were also breaching limits on Loch Shell, which on the east coast of Lewis south of Stornoway.

Sepa said its tests in several areas heavily used for fish farming, including Shetland, Orkney, Loch Fyne and Firth of Lorne in Argyll, and sites in Wester Ross, found chemical levels breaching its recommended limits at 72 sampling sites, nearly a tenth of the 792 sites it tested.

These results have again raised anxieties among environment and anti-fish farm campaigners that the farms can have a major impact on sea life and marine habitats as operators take aggressive steps to cope with sea lice infestation and infectious diseases.

Read the full article in The Guardian.

Courier-Islander
May 10, 2013

Nick Facey BC Liberals

Salmon aquaculture is a very important sector in British Columbia and particularly in the North Island area. It employs thousands of people, creates opportunities for First Nations communities, and creates an environment for a strong network of secondary supply businesses that keep our economy strong, growing and stable.

That said, aquaculture can only be supported knowing that it is being done responsibly. I believe that the extensive work done by the industry and the stringent regulations developed by the federal and provincial governments meet that standard.

The BC Liberal government has already voiced its support of the Cohen Commission recommendations that would see a review of siting regulations, additional research in the Discovery Islands and a moratorium on new sites in that area; and I stand by that commitment.

With good management and strong oversight, I believe aquaculture will continue to be an important part of the North Island's future.

Last week I was able to visit the Marine Harvest Canada processing plant in Port Hardy and it is clear how important a facility of that size is for the community. I've also been able to tour salmon farms and hatcheries myself and meet the people who proudly take care of their fish. It represents many jobs - good jobs - so ensuring that this sector is sustainable is important to our riding.

Bob Bray BC Conservatives

I am in favour of farming Atlantic salmon in net pens now and in the future. I regret that there are not enough wild salmon to provide as many jobs as formerly. There are not even enough wild salmon to satisfy worldwide food demand for fish.

The risk of Atlantic salmon breeding in our waters has been demonstrated to be nonexistent. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada years ago in a weird experiment released 1.7 million Atlantic salmon fry over several seasons, and adult Atlantic salmon were nowhere to be seen swimming freely then or now.

The fish farm industry is much improved in recent years with Norwegian technology being utilized. The number of jobs provided by this industry has had a noticeably good impact on communities in our North Island electoral district.

The aquaculture industry in our area is prepared to live with the moratorium from the Cohen Commission. I agree with the industry in their decision.

Claire Trevena BC NDP

The BC NDP supports full implementation of the recommendations of the Cohen Commission and is committed to working to achieve this goal. Justice Cohen's report, while focused on the decline in sockeye in the Fraser River, has far-reaching implications for the North Island.

The aquaculture industry, which has created direct and indirect jobs and businesses in our North Island communities, also favours implementing Justice Cohen's recommendations as do many environmental organizations.

After reviewing the Commission Report released last October, the BCNDP made the commitment that if we form government we will work with DFO, applying pressure where possible, to get the Department to act on the recommendations.

These recommendations include: using the precautionary principle to re-evaluate risk and mitigation measures for salmon farms in the Discovery Islands including closing farms that pose a serious risk to migrating salmon; limiting salmon farm production and licenses; and, maintaining the existing moratorium on new fish farm licenses on the North Coast.

However, a legal challenge brought in 2009 resulted in the BC Supreme Court ruling that the federal government has exclusive jurisdiction for open-net aquaculture. This severely limits the province's right to regulate. It is a shame DFO is taking so long to act on the Cohen report.

An area where the province does have jurisdiction is renewing leases for the siting of fish farms. Unfortunately, the BC Liberals have not developed the capacity or clear policy directives to handle this responsibility. The BC NDP will develop them if we form government.

Looking into the future, we are watching with interest the development by the 'Namgis First Nation of a land-based, closed containment fish farm near Port McNeill, a project that I support.

And we are encouraged by the news that the Pacific Salmon Foundation, Genome BC and DFO are undertaking a comprehensive study of salmon health including what microbes they carry, where these microbes may have originated and how they impact salmon health.

Having the Foundation and the internationally respected Genome BC involved provides a high level of confidence in the outcome.

Read the original article in the Courier-Islander.

Read related article:

• Campbell River Mirror; April 30, 2013; "Atlantic salmon net pens; For or against?"

Times Colonist
May 8, 2013

An environmental group is accusing a B.C. fish farm of breaking federal laws by transferring diseased farmed salmon into waters shared with wild fish.

Ecojustice says it's seeking a Federal Court order to declare it was illegal for the company Marine Harvest to move the salmon to an open-pen fish farm in Shelter Bay last month.

The group's lawyer Margot Venton says the federal Fisheries Department is standing by while a private company puts disease-carrying fish into the ocean.

Ecojustice is taking the legal action on behalf of marine researcher Alexandra Morton, who alleges the Atlantic salmon were infected with a virus called PRV, which may cause a disease that affects the muscles and heart of salmon.

Ecojustice says the disease is thought to have spread to virtually all fish farms in Norway.

Morton says fisheries officials should have responded to the discovery of the virus in B.C. with measures to protect wild salmon, but instead they have given Marine Harvest permission to expose B.C.'s wild salmon to this disease.

Read the original article in the Times Colonist.

For more information, see the original media release: Morton, Ecojustice launch lawsuit over transfer of diseased salmon

Read related stories:

• Globe and Mail; May 8, 2013; "Infected fish at centre of lawsuit against Ottawa" 
• Vancouver Sun; May 8, 2013; "Environmental group says the transfer of farmed salmon to open pens illegal"
• Times Colonist; May 8, 2013; "Vancouver Island salmon farm accused of putting diseased fish in ocean pens"
• CKNW; May 8, 2013; "Environmentalists seek court order against B.C. fish farm"
• Province; May 8, 2013; "Salmon farm accused of putting diseased fish into area with wild fish" 
• Postmedia News; May 9, 2013; "Group seeks court order in fight over fish farming"
• The Fish Site; May 10, 2013; "Marine Harvest Rejects Allegations of Transferring Diseased Salmon"

Axiom News
May 8, 2013

March 18 was an emotional day for members of the 'Namgis First Nation and their project partners who successfully launched Canada’s first land-based, closed containment Atlantic salmon farm.

The 'Namgis First Nation has relied on wild salmon for thousands of years. Worried about the state of wild salmon stocks and aware of the potential danger of open-net ocean fish farms — a practice some say can spread disease to wild fish stocks — the 'Namgis are hoping to provide an alternative.

Working with the SOS Marine Conservation Foundation and Tides Canada, the 'Namgis First Nation has launched a pilot project to prove the economic viability of growing Atlantic salmon sustainably, on land, separated from the marine environment.

Several other projects have demonstrated that Atlantic salmon can be successfully harvested in closed containment freshwater farms, according to the project’s community liaison Jackie Hildering. But it’s making the economics work that needs a pioneer.

The pilot project costs more than $8 million to set up the modular facility and tanks. But with economies of scale, prices come down. Being the first project, there is also anticipation of finding new ways to reduce costs when designing additional models.

Farming Atlantic salmon in closed containment offers advantages too. It is anticipated that the fish will grow to full size in about half the time it takes in open net-pens; using 30 per cent less feed — all without the use of pesticides and antibiotics.

The 'Namgis First Nation also estimates the remote northern Vancouver Island community could be contributing $1 million per year to the local economy through operating costs ranging from labour and technology services to supplies.

There are even plans to create value-added products like aquaponics, a system of agriculture and aquaculture that uses the symbiotic relationship between fish and plants to create a closed loop method of farming, and concentrated compost. 

Jackie adds having a First Nation pioneer the technology is significant.

“The beauty of this project is it’s on Northern Vancouver Island, which is known as a resource community. It’s having an impact on identity, as we’re part of a sustainable technology.”

If the closed containment Atlantic fish farm proves successful, it offers a model that could be adopted by other First Nations in B.C. and across Canada.

Read the full article on Axiom News.

Read related articles here.

Chronicle Herald
May 7, 2013

The Atlantic Salmon Federation stands by its allegation that taxpayers have paid the regional salmon farming industry more than $100 million in compensation for having to destroy diseased fish.

“We think it’s an underestimate,” association vice-president Sue Scott said Tuesday in an interview from Saint Andrews, N.B.

The federation has launched a media campaign, including full-page newspaper ads, which allege the federal government and the provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador have paid open-pen salmon farmers at least $100 million in compensation between 1996 and 2012 for having to destroy more than 10 million fish infected with infectious salmon anemia.

Scott said the federation, which sees open-pen salmon farms as a threat to the revival of regional wild salmon stocks and to the marine environment in general, had a difficult time compiling its compensation figures.

“It was very hard to get,” she said, while suggesting that the compensation numbers aren’t something governments want the public to know.

“We spent time going through (federal) government and provincial records,” she said.

The federation said in 1996-1997 the aquaculture industry received $40.5 million in federal and New Brunswick government compensation following the first government-ordered kill of disease-infected salmon.

It said Ottawa and New Brunswick paid another $25 million to the salmon farming industry in 1999 under disaster financial assistance arrangements.

In 2006, the federation said the federal fisheries department, after two years of negotiations, contributed another $10 million to cover losses from the disease.

It estimated that governments paid $7 million in compensation to the salmon farming industry in 2007 and $26 million in 2012, when New Brunswick’s Cooke Aquaculture was recompensed for infectious salmon anemia-related kills at its Nova Scotia operations.

Scott said government compensation for destroying diseased fish doesn’t encourage good animal husbandry.

Read the full article in the Chronicle Herald.

The Coaster
May 7, 2013

Officials with the Atlantic Salmon Federation (ASF) are saying that government officials and aquaculture industry leaders should keep an open mind about the possibility of raising salmon on land when they study a report entitled" Land-Based Closed Containment Salmon Aquaculture Project" that was released in January 2013.

Bill Taylor, the president of the ASF, said that the report is based on a joint project between the ASF and the Conservation Fund which shows that the successful adoption of land based freshwater, closed-containment systems for Atlantic Salmon growout could ultimately enable the salmon farming industry to shift production to inland areas. This type of aquaculture project would contain any possible diseases and prevent interventions with wild species.

The growout trial employed a pre-existing salmonid growout closed containment facility and technical expertise at The Conservation Fund's Freshwater Institute in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. The trial demonstrated that Atlantic Salmon can be raised from post-smolt to harvest size within approximately 12 months in a land based, freshwater, closed-containment system.

Taylor said, "We realize that open pen net companies have a lot invested in their current technologies and there's going to be push back to our message, but these companies need to take a serious look at the best science and technologies available today.

"During the last several years the aquaculture industry has said that it was not cost competitive to raise salmon on land. However, this study, in no uncertain terms, makes it very clear that you can raise salmon on land and you can do it for virtually the same price as raising salmon in open net pens, that is between $3.90 and $4.00 a kg."

Taylor said that the ASF is not against salmon aquaculture but companies need to move into the 21st century and move toward new technologies in raising fish.

Read the full article in The Coaster.

Digital Journal
May 7, 2013

The US-Food and Drug Administration has completed the phase of public consultation prior to making a decision on allowing commercial production of AquaBounty’s genetically modified salmon and the fish going to market for human consumption.

In 2010, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said that AquaBounty’s genetically modified salmon (GM salmon; AquAdvantage Salmon) is safe to eat. In 2012, the FDA released a “Draft Environmental Assessment” (EA) and a “Preliminary Finding of No Significant Impact” (FONSI) in connection with the potential environmental impact of GM salmon. Both documents contain a “no effect” determination. The FDA says in its assessment:

“…The AquAdvantage Salmon will not jeopardize the continued existence of United States populations of threatened or endangered Atlantic salmon, or result in the destruction or adverse modification of their critical habitat, when produced and reared under the conditions described…”

“FDA has carefully considered the potential environmental impacts of the proposed action and at this time has made a preliminary determination that this action would not have a significant effect on the quality of the human environment in the United States.”

Read the full article in the Digital Journal.

Read related articles:

• Huffington Post; May 6, 2013; "Catch of the Day: Transgenic Salmon? Not So Fast"
• Nature; May 1, 2013; "Transgenic salmon nears approval"
• CBC; April 26, 2013; "Alaska's GM salmon protest comes to P.E.I."
• CBC; April 25, 2013; "GM salmon company losses mounting"
• Reuters; April 23, 2013; "Genetically engineered salmon company expects U.S. regulatory OK in 2013"
• The Guardian; April 24, 2013; "GM salmon's global HQ – 1,500m high in the Panamanian rainforest"
• KMXT; April 24, 2013; "Anchorage Rep. Tarr Seeks Canadian Support on GE Salmon"
• KDLG; April 24, 2013; "More Legislation Filed to Stop "Frankenfish""

Huffington Post
May 7, 2013

The email landed without warning in Brad Anholt’s inbox last April. It left him speechless.

“I couldn’t even talk about it. Not for hours,” said Anholt, one of Canada’s leading experts in marine biology and the director of the world-renowned Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre, a not-for-profit teaching and research facility on the west coast of Vancouver Island.

With a staff of 30, Bamfield is used by visiting researchers to study fish, marine animals and ecosystems. The centre also runs education programs for students at all levels. The facilities are funded through a consortium of five western universities and, until recently, Canada’s Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC).

But a single email from a director at NSERC changed everything. Anholt learned that he was losing a third of his research budget, worth about $500,000 a year. The money runs out April 1, 2014.

Anholt said there had been no consultation, no previous inquiries or communication from NSERC, the federal body that doles out $1.08 billion annually in research money to universities, organizations and businesses.

The cuts to Bamfield – which has received funds from NSERC each year since 1970 – were especially surprising because the federal agency had increased its allocation by 40 per cent just a year before, the last time the centre was awarded a grant. (NSERC grants can last up to three years and have rolling deadlines). The increase was due largely to Bamfield’s success with new projects and attracting world class researchers, Anholt said.

“The experts who had looked at us and had looked at all the applications that were out, they were saying we were doing an amazing job and we deserved more money,” he said. “And a year afterwards, it’s just yanked. With nothing.”

Bamfield is just one of many research facilities and projects to have their budgets sliced as the Conservative government under Stephen Harper reins in spending to eliminate an estimated $26 billion deficit by 2015. The government, which has been cutting programs in all areas, insists that any science-related cuts are part of the broader belt-tightening needed to get Canada’s books in the black.

But an analysis of more than 140,000 NSERC grants going back to before the Tories took office in 2006 reveals in stark terms how remaining federal research dollars have been increasingly funneled into business-focused research and away from environmental sciences. Critics see a politically motivated attempt to change the science agenda in Canada; the government has consistently defended its changes, saying it wants to fund projects that offer a more immediate return on investment.

Read the full article in the Huffington Post.

Read related articles here.

News 1130
May 4, 2013

It was a $26-million report, released six months ago, looking into the state of BC’s sockeye salmon.

The federal government continues to review the report, while environmental groups wonder whether it will end up collecting dust.

In a statement, Ottawa says the Cohen Commission report is extensive and is being carefully reviewed. But six months after its release, Dr. Craig Orr of Watershed Watch Salmon Society is fearful.

“It’s left a lot of us scratching our heads, why would we have an inquiry and then just completely chuck it into the garbage? I’m hoping that’s not the case.”

For its part, the provincial government in March announced it had accepted the intent of the recommendations that directly referenced the province.

Orr is worried the longer it drags on. “Certainly hoping, and I think a lot of British Columbians are hoping that the twenty-six-million dollars and the two years of time invested in the Cohen Inquiry, in the courtroom part only, is going to have some fruition.”

Read the original article on News 1130.

Times Colonist
May 4, 2013

In the ongoing skirmishes between salmon farmers and environmental groups, fish farmers appear to have a powerful ally in the provincial government, says Wilderness Committee campaigner Torrance Coste.

A Wilderness Committee freedom-of-information request to the provincial Agriculture Ministry, asking for information on disease outbreaks on salmon farms between 2010 and 2012, produced 300 pages of emails and memos, many documenting communications strategies after diseases are discovered on farms.

Emails from Gary Marty, ministry fish pathologist at the Animal Health Centre, ask company veterinarians for the go-ahead to release specific information about the outbreaks to media.

“May I have permission to disclose information from the medical records about the two Mainstream outbreaks,” says an email from Marty to Mainstream Canada veterinarian Peter McKenzie.

“If you want to provide partial permission, let me know and I can work around that. Otherwise, I will stick to information provided in the press releases.”

“I believe the release serves as good evidence of a very concerning relationship between the Ministry of Agriculture, who are supposed to be a neutral monitoring and oversight body, and the fish farming industry,” Coste said of the information found in the FOI.

Read the full article in the Times Colonist.

NPR
May 2, 2013

Is salmon farming ever sustainable?

For years, the answer to that question has been clear for marine biologists, many of whom agree that the floating, open-ocean net pens that produce billions of pounds of artificially colored salmon per year also generate inevitable pollution, disease and parasites. In some places in western Canada, the open-ocean salmon farming industry has even been named as the culprit in the collapse of wild salmon populations.

But now, a few salmon farms have moved inland, producing fish in land-locked cement basins separated from river and sea. One land-based fish farm in West Virginia has been commended as a sustainable alternative to conventionally produced salmon. On Vancouver Island, there is at least one such facility. And just last month, Willowfield Enterprises, based in Langley, British Columbia, harvested its first inland-farmed sockeye salmon, to be marketed under the brand name West Creek. Sockeye is a Pacific species that has rarely been cultivated before.

"In terms of environmental sustainability, I think [these closed-system farms are] a huge step forward," says Martin Krkosek, an assistant professor at the University of Toronto who has been among the leading critics of ocean net pen salmon production. "Waste material, disease, pollution, parasites — all these things aren't a concern with most closed-system aquaculture."

Some forms of aquaculture may have the potential to help ecosystems by taking fishing pressure off of wild fish stocks. But this hasn't been the case with the salmon farming industry, according to notable experts like Daniel Pauly, a professor of fisheries at the University of British Columbia. One reason why, Pauly tells The Salt, is that the food that salmon farmers feed to their fish is usually fish meal made from wild — sometimes overfished — species. He points out that humans could be eating these species instead of farmed salmon.

Read the full article in NPR.

Read related article:

• The Oregonian; May 8, 2013; "Northwest Cook: Land-locked salmon farms offer potential for environmental sustainability"

Globe and Mail
May 2, 2013

Marine Harvest is leading a feeding frenzy in the seafood industry. The world’s biggest fish farmer recently swallowed Morpol, a smoked-salmon specialist. Now it is angling for another Oslo-listed rival, Cermaq. But Marine Harvest’s $1.7-billion (U.S.) hostile bid might need a little improving.

Norway is the global hub for fish farming. Its bourse houses most of the industry’s listed companies, even if farms are based in Scottish, Canadian or Chilean waters. Marine Harvest is emphatically the biggest fish in this pond: the $4-billion company, backed by shipping tycoon John Fredriksen, is the country’s only blue-chip fishing stock.

The firm could get still bigger. Fish will become an increasingly important source of protein as the world’s population swells, because it can be produced far more efficiently than meat, Marine Harvest reckons. Until now, the group had been constrained at home by rules capping domestic market share at 25 per cent. This is being raised to 40 per cent: so Marine Harvest can pursue Cermaq, whose salmon farms in northern Norway complement its own in the south.

At 105 kroner ($18.24) a share, Marine Harvest’s cash-and-share bid values Cermaq at about $1.7-billion, or, including debt, an enterprise value of about $2.2-billion. The suitor trumpets a 22-per-cent premium. But in fact, this offer does not look too generous. The price implies a lower enterprise value to EBITDA ratio than Marine Harvest’s own for 2014. It also reflects a lower per-share value than analysts’ average price target of 111 kroner, according to Starmine.

Read the full article in the Globe and Mail.

Read related articles:

• April 30, 2013; Under Current News; "Marine Harvest makes takeover offer for service" 

NB Media Co-op
May 1, 2013

It’s open season on open-pen salmon farming these days, with groups previously reluctant to criticize the industry going public with their concerns in a big way.

Signs of opposition have popped up since December, the most conspicuous of which, are large billboards with the entreaty, “Clean up Salmon Farming,” in the Halifax area. The billboards draw attention to harm caused by ocean-based salmon farming, namely the spread of disease and parasites from tame fish raised in pens to wild salmon stocks, coupled with the vast amounts of byproducts scientists say cause pollution and deaden parts of the sea floor.

Sue Scott of the St. Andrews based Atlantic Salmon Federation (ASF) says her organization is “working with industry towards more sustainable practices,” including research and development of land-based fish rearing systems. “We have taken a more vocal route with ads and billboards lately because government continues to promote open net pens and deny the science on impacts,” says Scott.

Until recently, many groups were reluctant to speak out against open-pen aquaculture. But the results of numerous scientific studies have caused a major re-thinking of this approach and the launch of the bold “Clean up Salmon Farming” campaign.

“In New Brunswick, industry has more or less had its way,” Scott says. “New Brunswickers haven’t spoken out about the industry; whereas in Nova Scotia, they’re not taking it sitting down. People are speaking out.”

Read the full story in the NB Media Co-op.

CBC
May 1, 2013

Nova Scotia's NDP government is putting new marine-based aquaculture site applications on hold until a newly struck panel reports on ways to improve the rules surrounding aquaculture development.

The panel — headed by two environmental law experts from Dalhousie University, Bill Lahey and Meinhard Doelle — will not report back until after the next provincial election.

Fisheries Minister Sterling Belliveau said public consultations will begin this summer.

"The department will rely on these recommendations to draft new, world-class aquaculture regulations. These new regulations will be put in place as soon as possible, hopefully by the end of 2014," Belliveau said Wednesday.

The panel has been given 12 to 18 months to research, consult and report back and has an initial budget of $300,000. Lahey and Doelle will receive a total of $130,000 for their efforts.

The decision to put the brakes on new projects during the review is largely symbolic. Snow Island's Spry Harbour applicationn is the only project before the Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture.

It will proceed under current rules.

The Darrel Dexter government has poured tens of millions of dollars into the aquaculture industry, including direct financial assistance to the region's largest company Cooke Aquaculture of New Brunswick.

Nova Scotia recently approved proposed Cooke salmon farms in Jordan Bay, Shelburne County. The farms will hold over one million fish. As with other fish farms the approval process was controversial and divisive.

The upcoming review will involve players on all sides of the issue.

Read the full article on CBC.

Read related article:

• Chronicle Herald; May 1, 2013; "Nova Scotia to work on setting fish farm rules"

World Fishing & Aquaculture
April 30, 2013

Pacific Seafood Group’s steelhead trout farm on the Columbia River has become the first US steelhead trout or salmon farm to achieve Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) certification.

Operated by Pacific Seafood’s Pacific Aquaculture division, the farm is located in Nespelem, Wash., on the Colville Nation, in North-Eastern Washington state. Pacific Seafood purchased the farm in 2008 but partners with the Colville Nation to operate it.

The farm produces more than 8 million pounds (3.63 million kilograms) of steelhead annually and the fish are raised in pens. The fish are marketed throughout North America, mostly fresh, to both retail and foodservice customers.

“Our team is extremely proud to receive BAP certification,” said John Bielka, general manager of Pacific Aquaculture. “It demonstrates that we are living out our company vision of providing the healthiest protein on the planet while promoting sustainable practices.”

Based in Clackamas, Ore., family-owned Pacific Seafood is one of the United States’ largest seafood suppliers and distributors. The company processes seafood from Alaska to Mexico and has facilities in seven US Western states.

Read the full article in World Fishing & Aquaculture.

The Fish Site
April 29, 2013

Kelly Cove Salmon has been fined C$500,000 for violations of the Fisheries Act. The violations related to the illegal use of a pesticide resulting in lobster kills in the nearby waters of southwestern New Brunswick.

St. Stephen Provincial Court ordered Kelly Cove Salmon, a subsidiary of Cooke Aquaculture,  to pay a total of C$500,000 one of the largest and most significant penalties ever levied in Canada under the Fisheries Act. C50,000 of the penalty will be directed to the Environmental Damages Fund, another C$250,000 will be directed towards scholarships, another C$100,000 will be directed in support of environmental studies and research projects, and the remaining C$100,000 is the court fine.

Kelly Cove Salmon pleaded guilty to releasing cypermethrin into fish-bearing waters in southwestern New Brunswick. Cypermethrin is an agricultural pesticide that is not permitted for use in marine environments because of its proven toxicity to crustaceans, including lobsters and shrimp.

Cooke Aquaculture used the pesticide to address a major sea lice infestation in their open pen salmon farm, knowing that it was illegal to do so.

On November 19, 2009, Environment Canada was informed that lobster fishers in southwestern New Brunswick were finding dead and dying lobsters in their traps. Environmental Enforcement officers subsequently collected samples of the affected lobsters from Grand Manan and Deer Island, as well as fish, mussels and kelp in the areas where the lobsters were found. These samples were sent to Environment Canada’s lab in Moncton for forensic analysis. Results proved the dead lobsters collected in Grand Manan and Deer Island were exposed to cypermethrin.

Read the full article on The Fish Site.

Read related article:

• Chronicle Herald; April 30, 2013; "Sea lice top target for Cooke"
• Maine Sun Journal; April 27, 2013; "Cooke Aquaculture to pay $490,000 after illegal pesticides kill lobsters in Canada"
• CBC; April 26, 2013; "Aquaculture company ordered to pay $500K for pesticide use"

Undercurrent News
April 29, 2013

Salmon at a farm in Lofoten, northern Norway, are suspected to have contracted infectious salmon anemia (ISA), said the Norwegian Food Safety Authority.

The site, Kolvikodden in Vestvagoy, belongs to Lofoten Sjoprodukter.

NFSA is in the process of setting up a control area consisting of a control zone and a surveillance zone. All involved actors in the areas have been warned, it said.

The diagnosis is based on clinical findings, heightened mortality, typical tissue changes at autopsy and immunological analysis. The ISA virus was detected in samples from 10 fish, said NFSA.

Speaking to Kyst.no, Lofoten Sjoprodukter said ISA was suspected, but added that heart and skeletal muscle inflammation (HSMI) had not been excluded as a possibility.

Read the original article in Undercurrent News.

Herald Scotland
April 28, 2013

The Sunday Herald can reveal that she has ordered the Government to name the individual fish farms by May 7. The argument that identifying the farms would put those shooting the seals at increased risk of attacks by animal-rights campaigners was not "compelling", she concluded.

Agnew's decision has been welcomed by environmental and animal-welfare groups, but attacked by the fish-farming industry. The Scottish Government said it was "disappointed" with the decision but would have to comply.

According to official figures, fish farmers shot 449 seals in 2011 and 2012 to prevent them from eating salmon. A further 443 seals were killed around the coast by salmon netting firms and river fisheries.

The Scottish Government last year refused to name the specific fish farms responsible for the shootings, claiming that shooters could be put at risk of direct action by protesters. In December, its arguments were dismissed as "tenuous" by Agnew, the Scottish Information Commissioner.

But in an unprecedented move in January, she reopened her investigation due to new evidence from salmon-netting companies. They claimed to have received threats from animal-welfare groups, including a death threat.

Now, however, Agnew has concluded that the evidence was not enough to deter her from enforcing her original decision.

She said: "The evidence does not provide a compelling argument that the threats are any more likely to occur or be acted upon because of the information being disclosed."

She added: "Retrospective information is unlikely to provide sufficient detail for threats to be the result of targeted action."

And she pointed out those who had made threats in the past were aware who shot seals and where.

Read the full article in the Herald Scotland.

World Fishing & Aquaculture
April 25, 2013

The latest Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) Update meeting was held during the European Seafood Exposition 2013.

During the meeting, Chris Ninnes, the ASC’s CEO, announced that the trout, bivalves (clams, mussels, oysters, scallops) and abalone farm certification programmes for responsible aquaculture will be launched this year, and that the salmon standard has been approved by the ASC governance and audits can start immediately.

Currently 14 trained certifiers are qualified to start salmon farm audits globally. A second training is planned for late 2013 and the first ASC certified products for responsibly farmed salmon are expected in the market by the end of the year. Villa Organic, a Norwegian producer, will announce its first ASC Salmon audit shortly.

He also announced an initiative to consolidate feed requirements across all of the existing ASC standards into a single Feed Standard to help the aquaculture feed industry to operate in a more environmentally and socially responsible way. This will be a joint initiative between GAA, GLOBAL G.A.P, the MSC and SFP. It will be managed by the ASC and is expected to be concluded by the end of 2015.

Read the full article in World Fishing & Aquaculture.

Read related article:

• Fish Update; April 24, 2013; "ASC says first salmon will soon be certificated"
• Fish Farmer Magazine; April 24, 2013; "ASC says first salmon will soon be certificated"
• Undercurrent News; April 23, 2013; "GAA signs MOU with ASC, Global G.A.P."

Fish News EU
April 24, 2013

Chile has presented a new fisheries law, which aims to ensure the sustainability of fishery resources, whilst taking into account the welfare of those depending on this economic activity. 

Pablo Galilea, Vice-Minister of Fishing, announced at ESE that everybody wins with the new law – the environment, the fishermen, fisheries resources, small and medium enterprises, and the Chilean people.

"Chile is one of the top ten world powers in fisheries and aquaculture. From the South of the American continent we export seafood to over 100 destinations. We are leaders in trout farming and the second largest producer of salmon in the world. Chile is also the most important provider of mussels from Latin America to the European market. But our work does not end with supply. Since 2010 we have completely overhauled our salmon production model and in 2013, a new Fisheries Law was enacted that will provide stability and sustainability to this sector. We aim to provide a range of high quality seafood products to European and emerging markets, with sustainable fisheries and aquaculture production at its core," he said.

The new law covers sustainability, research, industrial fishing, inspection and small-scale fisheries. It incorporates criteria agreed by major environmental organizations including Greenpeace, Oceana and WWF. These include:

• Introduction of international standards of sustainable management, such as the definition of biological reference points (BRP) and maximum sustainable yield (MSY).
• Setting up of eleven Technical Scientific Committees (8 on fisheries and 3 on aquaculture), which will decide on the availability of fishery resources, BRP and catch quotas.
• Obligation to submit an Annual Public Account stating the exploitation status of fishery resources.
• Scientific advice imposed over political or commercial considerations in decision-making procedures, such as the establishment of catch quotas and area closures.
• Measures taken to conserve vulnerable marine ecosystems (VME). Bottom fishing prohibited until proven that it does not cause damage.
• Reporting of catches and landings. Fishermen should report both catches and landings.
• Prioritization of fisheries and aquaculture research programs.

Read the full article in Fish News EU.

CBC
April 19, 2013

The recovery of overexploited fish populations such as cod has been slower than expected and many depleted stocks may never be able to bounce back, a new study says.

The study, to be published Friday in the journal Science, was compiled by researchers who examined 153 fish and invertebrate stocks from around the world.

Most fish species are resilient enough to recover within a decade if swift action is taken to reduce pressure on depleted stocks, the researchers say.

"But when you don't take action rapidly ... not only does it result in a much longer potential recovery time, but the uncertainty as to whether recovery will happen at all increases exponentially," said Jeff Hutchings, a professor of biology at Dalhousie University and one of the authors of the study.

Hutchings said that may explain why cod hasn't bounced back more than 20 years after Ottawa declared a moratorium on the commercial cod fishery, a once thriving Atlantic Canadian industry.

'Recovery is quite unlikely now for cod because of our failure to act when we could have.'

—Jeff Hutchings

"Here we are two decades after enormous depletion of cod stocks... and people are still wondering about the prospects of recovery," said Hutchings.

"Our study really suggests that recovery is quite unlikely now for cod because of our failure to act when we could have."

Hutchings said the federal government needs to set a population threshold that would determine when action must be taken to reduce pressure on a fishery.

He said legislation is needed to allow for depleted stocks to recover, as they have in the United States.

Read the full article in CBC.

The Fish Site
April 17, 2013

Regular sea lice counts being proactively shared by British Colombia’s salmon farmers will help speak to recommendations made by the Cohen Commission of Inquiry into the Decline of the Fraser River Sockeye.

For the fourth year, the BC Salmon Farmers Association will update the public about operations and sea lice counts on a site-by-site basis in the Okisollo/Hoskyn channel area –found in the Discovery Islands region discussed in recommendations made by Justice Cohen in his final report last autumn.

“The amount and quality of information that our members produce was identified as helpful and important to the commission. With our ongoing goal of transparency, we are eager to continue sharing with the public,” said Mary Ellen Walling, Executive Director of the BCSFA.

This will be the fourth year that the BC Salmon Farmers Association updated the public about sea lice numbers on farm sites in the area throughout the wild salmon outmigration period. These reports will continue through July.

Okisollo Channel is located just north of Campbell River and is home to five farms: two of Marine Harvest Canada’s, two of Mainstream Canada’s and one operated by Grieg Seafood. Hoskyn Channel, on the east side of Quadra Island has four Marine Harvest Canada sites. All three companies have agreed to an area management plan for the channel.

Currently there is only one farm in the area under operation: Cyrus Rocks. A sea lice count was also reported for March on Marine Harvest Canada’s Okisollo farm site, though the farm is now fallow following a regular harvest.

Read the full article on The Fish Site.

Read related article:

• Fish News EU; April 17, 2013; "See-through sea lice policy"

Daily News
April 15, 2013

The world's biggest scheme to certify that seafish come from sustainable sources has come under fire in a scientific journal, where researchers say the label is too generous and may "mislead" consumers.

Writing in the journal Biological Conservation, a team of scientists say that objections made to the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) about its well-known labeling scheme fail to get properly vetted.

Out of 19 objections filed to the MSC, only one has been upheld that has led to a refusal to certify a fishery, the study said. It also said there had been cases of mislabeling.

Objections include lack of knowledge about the long-term impact of fishing; accidental catch of endangered sharks and turtles; and the impact of dredging or seafloor trawling on bottom-living species.

"The MSC's principles for sustainable fishing are too lenient and discretionary, and allow for overly generous interpretation by third-party certifiers and adjudicators, which means that the MSC label may be misleading both consumers and conservation funders," the paper, published on Friday, said.

The MSC was founded in 1997 as a joint project between the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Unilever, the food and household project giant, which wanted to buy all its fish from sustainable sources by 2005.

Its goal is to reassure consumers that the fish come from well-managed fisheries that encourage stocks to regenerate.

The MSC label, whose criteria were designed by environmental NGOs, academics and commercial interests, often carries a price premium at the shop counter.

Fisheries seeking certification pay a fee, ranging between $15,000 and $120,000, and must also stump up for an audit, which likewise is carried out by external assessors.

An individual or organization that wants to raise an objection also has to pay a fee, capped at $7,500, but this can be waived in the event of financial hardship.

Read the full article in the Daily News.

Globe and Mail
April 14, 2013

Key scientific documents needed before the department of Fisheries and Oceans can implement its plan to save British Columbia’s wild salmon have been held up in Ottawa for a year.

The documents, concerning sockeye conservation units on the Fraser River, were withheld from the Cohen Commission even though they were substantially ready for release at the time the federal inquiry was under way.

The reports, confidential draft copies of which have been obtained by The Globe and Mail, show that seven of the 24 conservation units in the watershed have been designated as “red zones” with another four rated red/amber. That classification means the salmon populations in those areas are considered at risk of extinction.

The reports show most of those red zones are located at the heads of distant tributaries, indicating the salmon that travel the farthest in the Fraser River system are having the hardest time surviving. That raises questions about the impact of climate change because the salmon that are in trouble are exposed to the warmer river temperatures longer.

Only five of the conservation units got “green zone” status, which means they are healthy, and six were amber or amber/green, at low risk, but of concern. Two populations weren’t rated because of a lack of data.

The stocks were rated when 34 top fisheries scientists and managers retreated for a three-day workshop in November, 2011. They analyzed a variety of ways to assess the status of conservation units and came up with a method that would allow DFO to evaluate all salmon conservation units in the province. The approach leads to long-term projections of stock health, not just immediate snapshots.

The documents are considered to be one of the final pieces that need to be in place before DFO can implement its wild salmon policy, a strategy that has been in development for nearly 10 years.

DFO has refused to release the documents, saying they are still in draft form – even though the reports were effectively completed in the spring of 2012.

Read the full article in the Globe and Mail.

FIS
April 11, 2013

The salmon farming company Multiexport Foods reported having detected the infectious salmon anemia (ISA) virus in one of the cages of the King production centre, located in the District No. 20, in the Aysen Region.

The cage in question contains 24,700 Atlantic salmon specimens with an average weight of 3.12 kg, and according to the safety protocols and the regulations that are in force, it will be harvested immediately.

The company stated that the cage represents only 0.12 per cent of the total fish being farmed at sea that currently Multiexport and its subsidiaries have (19,905,000 specimens of Atlantic salmon and trout).

In addition, it was stressed that quick steps were taken in coordination with the National Fisheries and Aquaculture Service (Sernapesca) to activate the contingency biosecurity protocols in the centre and in the district.

"We are convinced that the industry now has the necessary regulatory framework to address these new cases of ISA virus quickly and efficiently," said Andrés Lyon, general manager of the company.

And he added, "The industry and the government are working very proactively and quickly. The current situation has nothing to do with the conditions and regulations that were in force in 2007 when the ISA virus crisis occurred," Diario Financiero reported.

Multiexport's announcement adds to that made by Los Fiordos, which was the first salmon firm to report ISA virus signs in the fish from the cage of the Garrao centre, located in the Concession Group No. 18 D, of the Aysen Region

Sernapesca has just announced that it will implement a set of measures to address the sanitary situation in the north area of Aysen.

Read the full article in FIS.

Read related article:

• FIS; April 12, 2013; "ISA outbreak 'is quite localized', says the government"
• The Fish Site; April 9, 2013; "Weekly Overview: Bad News for Chile as Infectious Salmon Anaemia Makes Comeback"
• FIS; April 9, 2013; "ISA outbreak detected in salmon Aysen farm"
• Undercurrent News; April 8, 2013; "Chile confirms ISA in Los Fiordos farm"

Chronicle Herald
April 11, 2013

More than 300 members of the Atlantic Salmon Federation, many of them anglers, were planning to dine on Arctic char in Halifax on Thursday to support the organization’s promotion of land-based aquaculture.

“Ocean-farmed Atlantic salmon is typically one of the cheaper meals to serve at big dinners,” federation president Bill Taylor said in an interview. “We’re looking to make the point we can serve a large crowd fresh Arctic char from a sustainable land-based aquaculture operation for about the same price as ocean-farmed Atlantic salmon.”

Arctic char at the federation fundraising event came from a land-based aquaculture operation at Millbrook First Nation near Truro, developed in partnership with Sustainable Blue of Centre Burlington, Hants County.

Smoked salmon from a land-based aquaculture operation in West Virginia was also served at the annual fundraiser, being held in co-operation with the Nova Scotia Salmon Association.

Serving up seafood from land-based aquaculture operations is part of the federation’s Clean Up Salmon Farming campaign, and its continuing efforts to raise awareness about issues linked to ocean salmon farming, Taylor said.

The federation has posted some of its concerns about ocean salmon farming on billboards around Halifax-Dartmouth in recent weeks.

The billboards are part of a media campaign that includes full-page ads in The Chronicle Herald, a website and a Facebook page.

Ocean aquaculture is a threat to sport fishing, commercial fishing and tourism, Taylor said.

Read the full article in the Chronicle Herald.

Phys.org
April 10, 2013

ISA was detected for the first time in Norway in 1984 and still poses a serious threat to the fish farming industry.ISA is the only disease of farmed Atlantic salmon that is listed by the World Organisation for Animal Health. The disease usually breaks out in one cage and gradually spreads over a period of weeksand months to neighbouring cages. The disease cannot be treated and an outbreak of ISA can therefore result in large losses.

In her doctoral thesis, Maria Aamelfot elucidates some phases of the disease development. She has studied what type of cells which are receptive to the virus and what type of cells that actually becomes infected by the virus. Her findings describe the ability of the virus to infect or damage certain cells, tissues or organs. Aamelfot's research on this interaction between salmon and the ISA virus provides us with new knowledge about how the disease ISA develops and represents an important contribution towards, for example, disease prevention.

Virus and receptor = key in a lock

Aamelfot has developed a method of detecting which cells and organs the virus can attach itself to and use as a port of entry for infecting the organism. If a virus is to be able to infect a cell, the cell must have the virus' specific receptor (adhesion structure) on its surface. Different viruses use their own specific receptors and the virus adheres to these, just like a key fits in a lock.

The ISA virus' receptor was found in the following cells in salmon: in endothelial cells (the inner lining of blood vessels), in red blood cells in blood vessels and in cells covering the outside of the gills. This is the first research to reveal the presence and cell location of this type of receptor on sections of tissue. Aamelfot compared the receptor pattern with cells infected by the virus in diseased salmon and discovered a clear correlation.

Read the full article in Phys.org.

Business in Vancouver
April 9, 2013

As technology and public acceptance push closed-containment aquaculture into the mainstream, B.C. businesses are ramping up production of a new type of fish farming.

Closed containment breeds fish in large tanks on land. Proponents say it provides an alternative to open-net fish farms in the ocean, a practice that has come under attack from environmentalists and some scientists, who say it can spread disease to wild fish stocks.

Production from land-based farms is tiny compared with B.C.’s salmon farming industry, which produces 75,000 metric tonnes of salmon per year. But it’s beginning to gain acceptance from government, commercial fish buyers and the public.

That wasn’t the case several years ago, said Andrew Wright, a retired engineer and board member of Save our Salmon Marine Conservation Foundation (SOS).

“We met with many ministers in both provincial and federal government who argued that it was biologically, technically and economically not feasibly to raise salmon in a tank,” said Wright.

In March, a federal standing committee on fisheries and oceans released a report encouraging more study of closed containment systems, while cautioning that land-based fish farms have a higher carbon footprint than open-net operations and much higher capital costs.

SOS has partnered with the ’Namgis First Nation to build B.C.’s first closed-containment Atlantic salmon farm near Port McNeill. It cost $7.5 million to build and will produce 470 metric tonnes of fish when at full capacity. Most of the project’s funding came from Tides Canada, Sustainable Technology Development Canada and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO).

Read the full article in Business in Vancouver.

Seafood Choice
April 8, 2013

SeaChoice and the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program have released six new seafood recommendations, paying particular attention to closed-containment aquaculture.

Five of the six strongest recommendations, bearing the “green” label, include species farmed in recirculating systems in Canada and the United States — white sturgeon, Nile tilapia, gilthead sea bream, European sea bass, and yellow perch. The sixth recommendation, listed as “yellow,” is Atlantic halibut farmed in recirculating systems in Canada.

“These systems separate production from the natural environment, which minimizes the risk of escapes and disease transfer to wild fish,” said Bill Wareham, SeaChoice representative from the David Suzuki Foundation. “Water is purified to remove potential pathogens, eliminating or greatly reducing the need for antibiotics and chemicals, and then recirculated to reduce discharge. Effluent from the systems can also be treated before being released to mitigate negative impacts, and in many systems, waste products can be used as fertilizers.”

SeaChoice partnered with the Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey Bay, Calif. to produce the list of recommendations.

“We are pleased to see the aquaculture industry implementing environmentally responsible practices,” said Jennifer Dianto Kemmerly, director of the aquarium’s Seafood Watch Program. “Such innovation is critical to ensuring ocean health, especially as more of our seafood supply comes from farmed sources.”

Read the original article on Seafood Choice.

CBC
April 8, 2013

While controversy over horsemeat in the European beef and pork supply has captivated people around the world, food experts say Canadian consumers are blasé about mislabelled seafood in North America.

DNA analysis shows 33 per cent of fish sold in grocery stores, restaurants and sushi venues in the U.S. is mislabelled, according to a recent study conducted at the Biodiversity Institute of Ontario (BIO) at the University of Guelph.

The result is consistent with a 2011 study by BIO that looked at samples from five Canadian cities, including Vancouver, Toronto, Gatineau, Que., Montreal and Quebec City and found that 41 per cent of fish was mislabelled.

The latest study of U.S. fish samples, commissioned by the ocean conservation group Oceana, found inferior farmed fish are often substituted for more expensive species. For instance, pangasius is often sold as grouper, sole and cod; tilapia as red snapper; and Atlantic farmed salmon as wild or king salmon.

Dirk Steinke, BIO's director of education and outreach who conducted the 2011 study and helped interpret the results of the latest U.S. sample tests, said he was "a little amused" by Canadian consumers' lukewarm response.

"Of course the Americans were very shocked. I saw a few reactions from close by in B.C., where people said in Canada that won't be the case. Knowing that in Vancouver we found the same rate [of mislabelling], I'm a little surprised to hear that," he said.

Read the full article on the CBC.

Courier-Islander
April 5, 2013

The BC Salmon Farmers say there were valuable lessons learned after Infectious Haematopoietic Necrosis (IHN) virus was found on three farm sites in British Columbia In May and July of 2012.

In a press release this week the BCSF said the farming community's Viral Management Plan has now been updated to include additional and increased measures for both the prevention and the management of any virus of concern.

"The co-operative plan our members pro-actively developed two years ago was very effective last year - and we've found ways to make it even stronger," said Mary Ellen Walling, Executive Director of BC Salmon Farmers Association.

While IHN is naturally occurring in wild Pacific salmon species, it can be harmful to Atlantic salmon. Under order by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, those sites were depopulated and the sites were disinfected. All other farms were tested and found to be negative for the virus. IHN has no effect on human health.

The Viral Management Plan that had already been agreed to by BCSFA member companies was integral to the rapid and responsible management of this incident - which was the first of its kind in nearly 10 years, said the release.

Read the full article in the Courier-Islander.

Vancouver Sun
April 4, 2013

The Union of BC Indian Chiefs is calling on First Nations to suspend all fishing for Fraser River early chinook salmon, and it's demanding the federal government halt all non-aboriginal fisheries for the same run.

This is the third consecutive year the group has called for a complete ban on fishing of the early salmon run to allow for its continued recovery.

The union's vice president, Chief Bob Chamberlain, says all levels of government, and particularly the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, must take immediate and meaningful steps to protect early chinook runs.

He says ensuring the recovery and restoration of the stock is important to the continued survival as indigenous peoples.

UBCIC president Grand Chief Stewart Phillip says the early chinook stocks returning through the Fraser River and into the Nicola and Thompson systems have seen drastic declines.

Phillip accuses DFO of what he calls "poor and sloppy'' management of the entire Fraser system, allowing further deterioration of the river's salmon stocks.

Read the full article in the Vancouver Sun.

Chronicle Herald
April 4, 2013

Cooke Aquaculture Inc. is spending US$20 million to buy into a Chilean salmon farm.

The deal to acquire a 54 per cent stake in Invermar is slated to close at the end of this month.

“What’s attractive about it is it does have hatcheries, a processing plant and it has farms in the 10th Region of Chile,” Cooke spokeswoman Nell Halse said Thursday.

The New Brunswick salmon giant, which directly employs 135 people at operations in Nova Scotia, has owned Chile’s Salmones Cupquelan since 2009. It has farms in a fjord in Chile’s neighbouring 11th Region, she said.

“But we have had to contract out the hatchery and processing side of the business, and we’ve been looking ever since we’ve been in Chile for growth opportunities, not only to expand our capacity for production, but also to implement that integration model that we have here in North America whereby we would have hatcheries, farms, a processing plant and a sales and marketing division,” Halse said.

Both Pacific Ocean operations produce Atlantic salmon.

Halse wouldn’t divulge whether Cooke, which also has operations in Spain, intends to buy any additional Chilean fish farms.

Read the full article in the Chronicle-Herald.

Margaret Munro
April 2, 2013
Vancouver Sun

The federal information commissioner's office is launching a sweeping investigation into complaints the Harper government has been "muzzling" and restricting access to scientists.

Seven federal departments and agencies, from Environment Canada to the National Research Council of Canada, have been told Suzanne Legault's office plans to act on complaints about "the systematic efforts by the Government of Canada to obstruct the right of the media - and through them, the Canadian public - to timely access to government scientists."

"A notice of our intention to investigate and a summary of complaint has been sent" to the seven departments, Emily McCarthy, assistant information commissioner, says in a March 27 letter to Calvin Sandborn, legal director of the Environmental Law Centre at the University of Victoria.

The university centre and the non-profit group Democracy Watch asked Legault in February to launch an investigation arguing the Canadian public has a right to know about the science financed by tax dollars.

The two groups pointed to several instances where federal scientists have been "muzzled" and the tactics the government has been using to control discussion about everything from the oilsands to polar bears.

"With the resources of the information commissioner's office we hope to get to the bottom of it," Sandborn said.

He is also hoping "policies change so that Canadian taxpayers can get access to scientific information that they paid for."

The Canadian government should "emulate democracy to the south of us," Sandborn said, referring to U.S. government policy that "encourages" scientists to speak freely about scientific information and findings.

Canada's federal departments of the environment, fisheries and oceans, natural resources, defence, the National Research Council of Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency have been notified about the investigation, McCarthy says in the letter to Sandborn.

"We have also determined that the Treasury Board Secretariat should be included in your complaint because of its role in relation to the development and implementation of government policies," McCarthy says.

The commissioner's investigation comes after years of controversy over the way the government has tightened the leash on Canada's federal scientists, who used to be encouraged to discuss their work.

In several cases, documented by Postmedia News and the Postmedia newspapers, scientists have been denied permission to speak to the media about studies on Arctic ozone loss, prehistoric floods, and in one case, snow.

The University of Victoria lawyers and Democracy Watch allege the federal Access to Information Act is being violated by government policies, practices and guidelines restricting how and when scientists can discuss their work.

Read the full article in the Vancouver Sun.

Read related articles:

• Edmonton Journal; April 19, 2013; "Closure of fisheries’ libraries called a ‘disaster’ for science"
• CBC; April 3, 2013; "Saskatoon scientist breaks silence about muzzling"
• CBC; April 1, 2013; "Scientist muzzling probed by information commissioner"
• Globe and Mail; February 20, 2013; "Groups seek formal probe into Ottawa’s ‘muzzling’ of scientists"
• iPolitics; February 7, 2013; "New policy gives government power to muzzle DFO scientists"
  
• Globe and Mail; January 7, 2013; "Unshackle government scientists and let them do their jobs"
• Bundling of news items related to muzzling of scientists from March to July 2012.