The Fish Site
December 23, 2013

Specific types of fish farming can be accomplished with minimal or no harm to the coastal ocean environment as long as proper planning and safeguards are in place, according to a new report from researchers at NOAA’s National Ocean Service.

The study, led by scientists at National Ocean Service’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS), evaluated the environmental effects of finfish aquaculture, including interactions with water quality, benthic habitats, and marine life across various farming practices and habitat types.

“We did this study because of concerns that putting marine finfish farms in the coastal ocean could have adverse effects on the environment,” said Dr James Morris, NCCOS ecologist. “We found that, in cases where farms are appropriately sited and responsibly managed, impacts to the environment are minimal to non-existent.”

“This report provides coastal and farm managers with a global perspective on a range of potential environmental effects and their relative intensity,” said Dr Michael Rubino, director of NOAA Fisheries Office of Aquaculture. “It is a tool that can be used when evaluating proposed or operational farming sites and gives them a factual basis to make decisions.”

In the report, scientists said that continued development of regional best-management practices and standardized protocols for environmental monitoring are key needs for aquaculture managers. As aquaculture development increases in the coastal ocean, the ability to forecast immediate or long-term environmental concerns will provide confidence to coastal managers and the public.

“This report contributes to the growing body of evidence supporting marine aquaculture as a sustainable source of safe, healthy and local seafood that supports jobs in coastal communities,” said Sam Rauch, acting assistant NOAA administrator for NOAA Fisheries.

Read the full article on The Fish Site.

Read related articles:

• Providence Journal; January 14, 2014; "Boost for fish farming"
• NOAA; December 18, 2013; "Coastal ocean aquaculture can be environmentally sustainable"
• MPBN; December 24, 2013; "NOAA Study: Coastal Fish Farming Can be Environmentally Safe"
• Feedstuffs; December 26, 2013; "NOAA: Coastal ocean aquaculture environmentally sustainable"
• Carteret County News Times; December 28, 2013; "NOAA study: some fish farming OK"

Mark Hume
April 7, 2011
Globe and Mail

Carol Schmitt got up early for the move because she had a lot to pack – 48,500 live salmon to be exact.

Luckily she had rented a semi-trailer tanker truck the night before, sterilizing it so the fish could safely be transported from the Omega Pacific Hatchery, near Port Alberni, to the Sarita River, on the west coast of Vancouver Island.

The fish – precious not only because Chinook are endangered in many places in British Columbia, but also because they are part of a bold experiment – had to be handled with care.

Unlike millions of salmon that are being released from Department of Fisheries and Oceans hatcheries in B.C. this spring, Ms. Schmitt’s fish have been held almost one year longer and grown more slowly, to mimic conditions in nature.

DFO releases Chinook from hatcheries at eight months of age. The fish are known as S-0s, because they are smolts, with less than one year in freshwater. Ms. Schmitt’s approach, perfected over decades growing salmon for B.C. salmon farms, is to keep the fish for 17 months, raising them in water as cold as the native stream from which their brood stock originated. And she restricts feed, so the fish mature more slowly. Those fish are known as S-1s and she believes such “stream type Chinook” are the key to the restoration of wild salmon populations in B.C.

“If you raise them in warmer water and feed them lots, as DFO does, they grow bigger and faster, but you trigger ‘smoltification’ too soon,” Ms. Schmitt said.

Smoltification is when young salmon undergo dramatic physiological changes, turning from fry into smolts, as they adapt for the move from freshwater to salt water.

DFO’s Chinook look ready when they are released, but their immune systems aren’t fully evolved, she said – and most will die from vibriosis, a bacterial disease that attacks fish in salt or brackish water.

“I feel 85 to 90 per cent of federal S-0s are dead within four to six months,” Ms. Schmitt said.

Read the full story in the Globe and Mail

Read related stories:

• Globe and Mail; December 16, 2013; Salmon farmer fishing for higher returns. 
• The First Perspective; September 22, 2011; "Nature encouraged to take its course in Chinook salmon"

Carey Restino
December 22, 2013
Alaska Dispatch

A Bristol Bay resident on vacation in the Lower 48 last week was surprised to pick up a package of Ocean Beauty Seafoods Cajun smoked salmon and find on the back the words “Farm Raised, Product of Chile.”

Ocean Beauty Seafoods -- a major player in the U.S. seafood market -- is half owned by the Bristol Bay Economic Development Corp., a nonprofit community development corporation that provides jobs, training and educational opportunities to eligible residents of Bristol Bay. The corporation ­-- founded in 1992 as the Community Development Quota holder -- is also charged with providing economic development tools and resources for communities in the region -- particularly in relation to fisheries.

So a company half-owned by Bristol Bay fishermen selling farmed salmon products was a surprise to some, especially fishermen who remember the price dive Alaska salmon took in the ’90s as farmed fish began flooding the market.

But some fishermen, as well the head of Bristol Bay Economic Development Corp. and the vice president of marketing at Ocean Beauty Seafoods, say farmed fish is for the most part good for Alaska salmon.

“Producing smoked salmon from farmed fish is what allowed us to build our wild salmon business,” said Tom Sunderland, vice president of marketing with Ocean Beauty Seafoods.

Wild salmon accounts for less than one-third of U.S. fresh and frozen salmon consumption, while farmed Atlantic salmon production has grown dramatically in recent years, according to a report released this spring titled “Trends in Alaska and World Salmon Markets” by Gunnar Knapp with the Institute of Social and Economic Research with the University of Alaska Anchorage.

But while farmed fish prices impact wild fish prices, as was seen when farmed fish prices fell in the 1990s, they also opened up the market. World demand for salmon grew significantly after 2002 at the same time as farmed salmon production declined due to disease. The prices of both farmed and wild fish steadily rose since then. Meanwhile, programs aimed at educating consumers about the difference between wild fish and farmed fish have had an impact, particularly in the Pacific Northwest.

Read the original article in the Alaska Dispatch. 

Glenda Luymes
December 20, 2013
The Province

From the outside, it looks like another Abbotsford dairy farm.

But try to find a cow in Bruno Rempel’s barns and you’ll be looking until the cows come ... well, suffice it to say you’ll be looking for a long time.

Instead, you’ll find fish — 180,000 tilapia, to be exact.

“It’s still very much a niche market,” said Neil Schellenberg, president of Sumas Lake Aquafarm.

The land-based fish farm has been operating on the edge of the Sumas Prairie for about four years, but faces stiff competition from tilapia farms in the U.S., where it costs less to produce fish that like tepid, 28-degree water.

“It’s not a get-rich-quick scheme,” agreed farm operator Rempel. “But that seems to be the definition of farming.”

Sumas Lake Aquafarm’s fish are imported as fry and raised in a closed-containment system in a former dairy barn. Water is circulated among 24 large metal tanks, each containing about 5,000 fish, and a sophisticated filtration system using RAS (recirculating aquaculture system) technology. The farm is completely bio-secure, and no waste water is released into the environment.

After eight months, the fish, which weigh about 700 grams, are picked up by semi-truck and transported live from Abbotsford to Asian food markets in Richmond, Vancouver and Surrey.

There, they must compete against imported fish for customers’ attention. Their local upbringing is often unknown due to a lack of signage, although their appearance gives them an advantage.

“Our fish are the ones with all their scales on,” quipped Rempel.

That’s because the local tilapia travel only an hour to reach market, while live fish from Arizona and Alberta spend much longer in transport.

Schellenberg said it has taken “a while,” but retailers are beginning to demand his locally grown tilapia, largely because they look and taste better. He’s hoping the local food movement will increase consumer interest in the fish as well, but he doesn’t expect to see much change in the fresh and frozen markets. The fish are cheaper to raise and process in warm climates, where they can be farmed in outdoor ponds. As a result, most of the non-live tilapia in grocery stores are imported from South America and China.

“I don’t know if that’s going to change, even with the interest in local food,” said Schellenberg.

Some segments of the seafood industry seem to have lagged behind in the excitement over the 100-Mile Diet and the demand for locally grown food, agreed Jenna Stoner with the Living Ocean Society.

“Fish have an interesting place in the local food movement,” she said. “Vancouver has so much seafood, but it doesn’t always factor into the conversation.

“Food security definitely doesn’t stop on land,” she added.

Stoner praised the RAS technology for its minimal impact on the environment. The Living Ocean Society is one of several groups that provides SeaChoice rankings for various fish — green means the group has designated it a “best choice,” while yellow means there are some concerns and red should be avoided.

The SeaChoice ranking for tilapia produced in contained systems in the U.S. is green. An assessment of one Alberta farm also resulted in a green rating.

A contained land-based system, like the RAS technology at Sumas Lake Aquafarm, prevents environmental damage from waste water, as well as the transfer of pathogens between wild and farmed fish. It also virtually eliminates the risk of escape, said Stoner.

Land-based fish farms, both those that are contained and those that employ a flow-through model, are experiencing a surge in global popularity as controversy continues to swirl around ocean-based net-pen fish farms.

In addition to tilapia, several types of fish are being raised on land-based farms in B.C., including sturgeon (at Target Marine Hatcheries on the Sunshine Coast), trout and sockeye salmon (at Willowfield Enterprises in Langley), as well as coho salmon (at Swift Aquaculture in Agassiz).

In March, the first Atlantic salmon from the ’Namgis First Nation’s closed-containment salmon farm will be harvested. The facility is the first land-based, closed-containment Atlantic salmon farm in Canada, and one of the first in the world to raise Atlantic salmon to full market size, said community liaison Jackie Hildering.

The project is going well, but that’s not “to suggest it’s easy,” she said.

Like tilapia, Atlantic salmon aren’t native to B.C. waters.

The ’Namgis First Nation chose to raise Atlantic salmon to prove there is an environmentally sustainable and economically desirable alternative to farming Atlantic salmon in net-pens on the B.C. coast.

For Sumas Lake Aquafarm, the demand for live tilapia represents an opportunity to take a typically imported fish and provide a local alternative.

At the end of the day, Rempel said fish farming is not much different than dairy farming.

“You’re still dealing with livestock, just a different sort,” he said before ducking out to hand feed the tilapia, a chore that needs to be done every hour for 15 hours of the day.

Added Schellenberg: “It’s a great product, and we’re proud of it.”

Source: The Province 

December 18 2013
The Fish Site

NORWAY - A genetic comparison of virus that can cause Heart and Skeletal Muscle Inflammation (HSMB) in salmon shows that is probably transmitted between farmed and wild fish.

In 2010, scientists found a new fish virus that was named Piscine Reovirus (PRV).

The virus is common in farmed fish and it is thought to cause HMSI in salmon. The virus is also found in wild salmon, but no one has been able to detect disease.

Researchers at the National Veterinary Institute and Natural History Museum have conducted a genetic analysis of the virus which shows that it is the same PRV type in both farmed and wild fish.

This suggests that infection occurs between the two groups, but it is not easy to research the virus in wild fish.

"It is difficult to catch sick wild fish to sample because they die and disappear or are eaten by other animals," said Eirik Biering at the National Veterinary Institute.

He believes this is one reason why studies of wild show few discoveries of dangerous viruses and bacteria.

Read the entire case on forskning.no 

Read on The Fish Site

Sarah Petrescu
December 17, 2013
Times Colonist

The proposed oil industry expansion on B.C.’s coast is not worth the risk to wild salmon, says a new report by the Raincoast Conservation Foundation.

“The public needs to know our concerns,” said Misty MacDuffee, the Sidney-based organization’s lead researcher.

She said a thorough look at the affects of the oil industry on B.C. salmon habitats is crucial because of a lack of recent data on the state of the species in the province. It is also timely as plans for two major oil pipeline expansions along the B.C. coast move ahead.

A federal joint review panel will issue recommendations on the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline on Thursday. Federal approval is expected next year. The project is the subject of Vol. 1 of Raincoast’s report, Embroiled: Salmon, Tankers and the Enbridge Northern Gateway Proposal. The second volume, which focuses on the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline, will be released in February.

On Monday, Kinder Morgan officially filed plans to expand its pipeline with the National Energy Board. The $5.4-billion project would triple capacity for shipping tankers to carry 890,000 barrels of oil a day between Edmonton and Burnaby. Public consultations are to be announced.

“These projects are going ahead and it will be up to the citizens of this province to say what they want for the future,” MacDuffee said.

The study is a response to public concern raised in Northern Gateway consultations and largely uses scientific data gleaned from the Exxon Valdez oil spill off the coast of Alaska in 1989.

“There is a lot of value from Exxon Valdez because prior [to the spill] it was a cold-water, pristine salmon habitat — much like our coast,” MacDuffee said. “There are 20 years of studies that came out of it … showing long-term effects.”

The acute effects of a major oil spill are documented but there’s also the chronic issues, the effects of small spills over time and on the developmental stages of all species of salmon in the area.

Read the full story in The Times Colonist. 

Jane Taber
December 15, 2013
Globe and Mail 

Jon Grant doesn’t much care for the taste of Atlantic salmon.

But the Dalhousie University oceanographer is passionate about Atlantic Salmon farming. He says critics who argue it destroys the environment are relying on “rumour.”

“Go to any place on the ocean in Nova Scotia and tell me if it’s ruined. It’s not,” said Mr. Grant, who was awarded last week $1.6-million and appointed the Cooke Industrial Research Chair in Sustainable Aquaculture to conduct research, map the ocean floor and devise models to determine how to improve this multimillion-dollar business. “It’s rumour and it’s people willing to make conclusions without facts. This is the biggest problem. As a scientist, to me, evidence is the most important thing.”

His five-year study will mostly focus on concerns about better managing the waste from farmed fish, preventing disease transmission and ensuring the pens are secure so fish don’t escape into the wild.

Half of the money comes from a major Maritime business, Cooke Aquaculture, and the other half from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), which spent a year vetting the long-time Dalhousie professor and his research proposal. It is the first time that industry and a university have worked together so closely in this area.

In the same way the land provides nutrients and sunshine for farmers to grow crops, Dr. Grant, 59, says the ocean provides “clean water and oxygen and the right temperature to grow Atlantic salmon.”

The Atlantic Salmon Federation, however, disagrees with Dr. Grant’s statements dismissing concerns about the industry. “It is concerning that Dr. Grant is beginning a five-year research project biased enough to say that critics who argue that open-pen salmon farming destroys the environment are relying on ‘rumour’,” Holly Johnson, of the Atlantic Salmon Federation, wrote in a letter to The Globe and Mail.

“Escapes are frequent occurrences in open-pen fish farming. Escapees enter rivers, and breed with wild salmon, causing reduced genetic diversity and fitness in wild populations. The prevalence of disease and parasites increases with the high density of fish in pens that is common to salmon aquaculture and spreads to wild fish, subsequently threatening the persistence of wild populations.”

Read the full story in the Globe and Mail.

Read related stories:

• South Coast Today; December 16, 2013; Pro-industry professor worrisome to some
• Telegraph Journal; December 11, 2013; Cooke, Dalhousie join forces to grow aquaculture industry

December 16, 2013
Science Daily

Gill diseases in salmon farmed at sea lead to huge losses in some years and occur particularly in the autumn in salmon that has been released into the sea in the spring. Agnar Kvellestad's PhD thesis shows how several different causes play a role in the development of these diseases.

One of the diseases, proliferative gill inflammation (PGI) was identified in the 1980s. The biggest losses resulting from PGI have been in South West Norway. The causes have been partially identified, but more knowledge is needed so that preventive measures can be implemented to a larger degree than has been possible up until now.

By using light microscopy (histology), Kvellestad describes in detail the changes that occur in cases of PGI disease. PGI has several causes. In this study, a number of different pathogenic organisms were found in the gills of fish suffering from the disease. The study also appraises the effect of environmental factors.

One virus that was unknown up until now, the Atlantic salmon paramyxovirus, was isolated and characterised. The virus was detected in fish where there was an outbreak of PGI in gill tissue showing disease changes, but it was not documented as a primary cause of the disease. In addition, two different bacteria were found in the gills, one that was already known and another new one, which is normally found in so-called epithelial cysts and is called "Candidatus Branchiomonas cysticola." These bacteria may be among the primary causes of PGI. Parasites, which have also been detected, appear to be a secondary cause.

Kvellestad examined whether environmental factors can play a part in PGI by studying data registered by aquafarms and by the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research (www.imr.no/en). The results indicate that the prevalence of the disease is linked to high seawater temperatures, especially when the temperature of the surface water is high in august.

Read the complete story on Science Daily. 

Read related news:

• FIS; December 16, 2013; Multiple causes of gill diseases in farmed salmon examined
• The Fish Site; December 15, 2013; Causes and Losses of Gill Diseases in Farmed Salmon

Mark Hume 
December 16, 2013 
Globe and Mail

It will be a year before Carol Schmitt knows if her really big experiment with salmon has worked, but preliminary results that came early this winter are pointing to success.

Phenomenal,” is the word Ms. Schmitt uses to describe the early returns she is seeing on the Sarita River, on Vancouver Island. As the co-owner of Omega Pacific Hatchery, near Port Alberni, Ms. Schmitt has been growing salmon for the fish-farming industry for 34 years. During that time, she figures the company has spawned more than 10,000 adult Chinook and reared more than 30 million juveniles from eggs.

Along the way, she became convinced the best way to grow young Chinook salmon is to mimic nature by raising them in colder water, for longer and feeding them less than the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) does in its federally run hatcheries.

Now she’s testing that theory in the wild.

She calls her slow grown fish S-1’s, because they aren’t released into the ocean until they are smolts more than one year old. By contrast, DFO grows S-O’s, or smolt zeros, which are less than one year old. They’re released typically at eight months of age.

Ms. Schmitt’s theory is that S-1’s, with which she’s had great success in fish farms, will survive better in the ocean because they are more like wild fish, and therefore hardier than DFO’s hatchery product. One recent study by Richard Beamish, a leading fisheries researcher with DFO before his retirement, found that wild smolts in the Cowichan River had a 3.6-per-cent survival rate to adulthood, compared to hatchery fish, of which only .08 per cent survived.

Read the full story in the Globe and Mail

Read related stories:

• The First Perspective; September 22, 2011; "Nature encouraged to take its course in Chinook salmon"
• Globe and Mail; April 7, 2011; Bold experiment hopes to boost salmon population in B.C. waters

December 16, 2013
The Fish Site

NORWAY - A PhD project carried out at the Norwegian School of Veterinary Science in collaboration with the Institute of Marine Research has investigated the use of sterile salmon in aquaculture as a means to prevent escaped farmed salmon interbreeding with wild salmon.

The study used a method known as triploidy to induce sterility in Atlantic salmon. The results suggest that in order to successfully integrate triploid salmon into the industry, some modifications are required to the current protocols used today to prevent heart and skeletal deformities.

Salmon farming is a major industry in Norway. However, environmental concerns remain over the industries impact on wild salmon populations. Hundreds of thousands of farmed salmon are reported to escape in Norway each year and these fish can breed with wild fish creating hybrids that are less adapted for life in the wild. The use of sterile fish would prevent this situation.

Triploidy, whereby the individual retains the genetic material using discarded during fertilisation, is the most feasible method to produce commercially available sterile fish. Indeed, triploids are currently used in global shellfish production and salmon production in France and Australia. However, previous work has shown triploids to have more skeletal deformities and lower temperature optima than the diploid salmon currently used in Norwegian aquaculture. 

Read the complete story on The Fish Site.

Read related stories: 

• Phys.org; December 10, 2013; Sterile salmon: Reducing the environmental impact of farm escapees 
• The Fish Site; November 7, 2013; Aquaculture 2013: Controlling Reproduction and Inducing Sterility in Farmed Fish

December 16, 201
CBC News

Two scientists who helped review a risk assessment of a P.E.I. facility that produces genetically-modified salmon eggs are surprised there is no mention of export limits in Environment Canada's approval.

Dylan Fraser and David Meerburg are independent scientists who were part of a 23-member panel that reviewed a risk assessment document from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. AquaBounty is producing eggs in Bay Fortune, P.E.I. for salmon that are genetically-modified to grow twice as fast as regular salmon.

The eggs are exported to Panama to be grown into full-size fish. The American company has applied to the U.S. FDA to be allowed to sell the fish as food in the U.S.

AquaBounty applied to Environment Canada to export the eggs commercially if it gets that FDA approval. The P.E.I. plant has been operating as a research facility, but Environment Canada has approved it for commercial production.

Fraser and Meerburg are puzzled that there is no mention of a limit on the number of eggs that can be exported.

The Department of Fisheries and Ocean's risk assessment of AquaBounty states twice that the company does not intend to ship more than 100,000 eggs to Panama a year. That limit is not included in the final requirements set by Environment Canada that AquaBounty will have to follow if it goes into commercial production.

Those rules do say, however, that any significant new activity at the facility would require further review.

Meerburg, scientific and policy advisor with the Atlantic Salmon Federation, said it was his understanding the project would involve a maximum of 100,000 eggs annually.

Read the complete story on CBC News

Read related stories at this link. 

December 13, 2013
Fisheries Information Site

A young Chilean researcher was awarded a prize by a prestigious US institution for her research aimed at developing technology to obtain antibiotics substitute for farmed salmon.

The new technological solution is environmentally friendly. Its goal is to improve productivity in salmon farming through the use of a food additive with an active compound derived from indigenous marine bacteria off the coast of Valparaíso Region.

Due to her innovative research, co-founder of the company Micro Marine Biotech and researcher at the University of Valparaiso, Claudia Ibacache, received an award from MIT Technology Review, a magazine from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), reported Valparaiso University.

"One of the main threats faced by aquaculture, locally and globally, is the economic loss caused by infections produced by microorganisms," explains the researcher.

The technological solution presented aims to improve salmon farming industry productivity with less use of antibiotics by using a food additive that does not create resistance, is non-toxic to farmed fish cultivation and does not harm the environment.

"In aquaculture tetracycline is even more widely used. Also those of quinolone type, which pose a high risk because these two types of antibiotics are used in human health. Therefore, it is important to control these diseases through other mechanism," Ibacache added.

The active ingredient developed "can be properly incorporated into fish feed manufacture production process," the researcher went on to say.

As she explains, "there are compounds of natural origin with the ability by inhibiting virulence mechanisms to fight and avoid one of the major problems threatening both human and animal health: bacterial infections resistant to antibiotics. 

Read the complete article on FIS. 

Tampa Bay Tribune
December 8, 2013

When the Asian market developed an insatiable taste for Florida's freshwater turtles, commercial harvesters swept across the state, shipping tons of the native reptiles across the ocean.

State officials in 2009 began scrambling to implement protections before global demand could wipe out the creatures.

Audubon Florida and the Pew Charitable Trusts want to head off a similar potential problem with small forage fish that are the major food source for many imperiled bird species, snook and tarpon.

They might be little fish, members of these environmental groups say, but they are a big deal to birds and other marine creatures, and they need protection.

“We need to get ahead of these issues, instead of waiting until there is a dire situation,” said Julie Wraithmell, director of Wildlife Conservation for Audubon Florida. “As some of these new forage fisheries develop, we need to look at how many fish we need to leave in the ocean so birds can continue to recover.”

Many of the coastal birds that depend on forage fish nest and live along the Tampa Bay coastline and on Pinellas County beaches, said Marianne Korosy, coordinator of Important Bird Areas for Audubon Florida.

“Reddish egrets and roseate spoonbills and Caspian, royal, sandwich, least and gull-billed terns, as well as black skimmers, are some of the most important birds in this, because forage fish are their primary food base,” Korosy said.

The birds nest in natural areas along the bay's rim — including the Alafia Bank — on bay islands, on gulf islands off north Pinellas and on Egmont Key.”

A report by Audubon and Pew outlines how, even with a statewide net ban in place, commercial fishermen harvested 9 million pounds of mullet in 2012 — mostly for their eggs, a delicacy in Asia.

The Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission, which oversees both the state's shorebirds and its fisheries, has drafted “action plans” for 60 bird species, 10 of which rely on forage fish such as greenbacks, shad, sardines and ballyhoo as the staple of their diets. Audubon and Pew are calling on the commission to consider those findings when setting rules for the fisheries, said Holly Binns, director of U.S. Oceans Southeast program for Pew.

“Rather than waiting until the market develops to increase pressure on these forage fish, it is better to take steps now to make sure they are appropriately regulated and protected,” Binns said.

Already, these little fish species are harvested for bait, food and commercial products, including fertilizer and fish meal. Few Florida state regulations limit the amount of fish such as sardines and herring that can be commercially harvested.

Read the full article in the Tampa Bay Tribune.

The National
December 7, 2013

When it was revealed last month that salmon farming in the UAE would soon become a reality, some said it was impossible.

But, inspired by Sheikh Zayed’s historic challenge, the team behind the plans say residents should expect to see UAE-produced salmon on our shelves within months.

“We wanted to take up the challenge of having certain species that are difficult to raise, like salmon,” said Tamer Yousef, marketing manager of Asmak, the Abu Dhabi-based company which is building the fish farm.

Farmed salmon need a steady supply of clean water kept at a relatively low temperature, a tall order in the UAE summer months.

But Asmak says it has the technology for the project, and its projects will boost diversification, cut prices and improve food security.

Read the full article in The National.

Read related articles:

• Arab News; November 27, 2013; "Asmak brings salmon farming to desert"
• Gulf Business; November 27, 2013; "UAE Firm Brings Salmon Farming To The Desert"
• Saudi Gazette; November 27, 2013; "Asmak brings salmon farming to the desert"
• World Fishing & Aqaculture; November 26, 2013; "New salmon factory in Dubai"
• Maritime Reporter; November 26, 2013; "Dubai Maritime City Partners with Norwegian Salmon Company"

Herald Scotland
December 5, 2013

Critics of the fish-farming industry will try to dissuade shoppers from buying farmed salmon in Edinburgh today and deliver a letter to the First Minister.

Signed by more than 100 people including some of the country's top angling writers, it will call for an immediate moratorium on the expansion of salmon farming, which it claims damages wild salmon stocks.

Read the full article in the Herald Scotland.

FIS
December 4, 2013

Tofino-based farm-raised salmon producer Creative Salmon has achieved all the requirements set by the Canadian Organic Aquaculture Standard.

This firm, located on the west coast of Vancouver Island, has been farming Pacific chinook (kng) salmon using sustainable methods for many years.

“We are thrilled to be a leader in organic aquaculture,” says Tim Rundle, Creative Salmon’s General Manager. “Consumers are looking for organic product. Creative Salmon is proud to offer an organic product backed by a made-in-Canada standard.”

As required by the organic standard, the firm explained that their specimens have a low density environment occupying less than one per cent of the volume of their pen, their sites and nets are cleaned and maintained by power washing with sea water or by exposing them to natural ultraviolet from the sun. Besides, their market fish are free of antibiotics and genetically modified organisms.

The firm stated they raise Pacific species in the Pacific Ocean, which contributes to make their fish perfectly adapted to the sea conditions, including a natural tolerance to sea lice.

Read the full article on FIS.

Chronicle Herald
December 3, 2013

Fish farmers are asking Parliament to remove them from the Fisheries Act.

The aquaculture industry says the environmental and conservation rules of the act are so onerous, they prevent new projects from going ahead.

They’re asking for a new Aquaculture Act to be designed specifically for their business.

“Our industry is regulated by the Fisheries Act, which is a wildlife management act that was never intended for an innovative food production centre,” said Ruth Salmon, the appropriately named executive director of the Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance.

“This is a piece of legislation that dates back to Confederation, when commercial aquaculture in Canada did not exist.”

The industry’s proposal is controversial.

During the roughly 35-year history of fish farming in Canada, various local governments have passed their own rules to govern it.

The industry contends this has caused a “reactive and inefficient” patchwork of regulations.

But some ecologists and fisheries groups oppose the expansion of aquaculture.

They fear that fish farms can hurt the local ecology and damage nearby fisheries.

Eugene O’Leary, president of the Eastern Fishermen’s Federation of Grand Manan, N.B., said he thinks there’s a place for fish farms but he’s opposed to removing the industry from the oversight of the Fisheries Act.

Read the full article in the Chronicle Herald.

Read related stories:

• The Chronicle Herald; December 12, 2013; Fish farm woes go to Senate

Herald Mail Media
December 2, 2013

Tucked away off the back roads of Shepherdstown is a typical-looking farmhouse.

A gravel drive winds behind it, leading to a nondescript building, a research lab that is the heart of the Freshwater Institute, an internationally recognized program of The Conservation Fund.

Nature is teeming in that lab, the centerpiece of which is a tank filled with 40,000 gallons of water and 5,000 Atlantic salmon, each weighing about 4 to 6 pounds.

That tank and the fish within it feed the research into sustainable aquaculture conducted by the staff, including Senior Research Associate John W. Davidson III. He presented his findings at a conference in Denmark in October.

“Many companies in Europe are interested in this type of technology,” Davidson said.

He has traveled to Canada several times for work, as well as to conferences in the United States.

Davidson, 38, has been working at the Freshwater Institute since 1998, when the research lab, which now has 20 employees, was being built.

Read the full article in Herald Mail Media.

Sou'Wester
December 2, 2013

A recent storm that brought over 100 kilometre winds to the area last week caused some damage to Cooke Aquaculture property but according to company officials, the damage was minimal.

“No fish escaped,” said Nell Halse, communications representative with Cooke’s.

Damage was primarily limited to the nets that keep birds away from the salmon pens in Jordan Bay.

Halse said a barge holding a generator was also sunk by the high winds.

“We sent out divers right away,” she said.  The divers were able to retrieve the generator and the incident was reported to the Canadian Coast Guard and the province.

Read the full article in the Sou'Wester.

Global BC
November 30, 2013

One of the world’s largest aquaculture companies is betting future economic growth in Chile on a “robust” species of salmon native to the Pacific but will continue to raise the controversial Atlantic salmon on its British Columbia farms.

Norwegian-based Cermaq has released plans for its economic growth in the South American country, saying coho salmon will become a key component of future growth.

The Chilean industry’s Atlantic salmon farms have suffered significant losses due to a strain of infectious salmon anaemia in recent years, and the company said in a news release that coho are robust, less affected by disease and sea lice than their Atlantic cousins or trout, and as a result cost less to farm.

But the company’s farms along B.C.’s West Coast will continue to raise Atlantic salmon despite criticism — from environmentalists and in a report on the collapse of the Fraser River sockeye fishery — about the negative impact the Atlantic salmon farms have on wild Pacific fish.

Read the full article on Global BC.

Read related articles:

• Vancouver Sun; November 30, 2013; "Fish-farm firm still focused on Atlantic salmon in B.C. despite shift in Chile"
• CTV News; November 30, 2013; "Large B.C. fish-farm firm still focused on Atlantic salmon despite economic shift"
• CTV News; November 30, 2013; "Company to keep farming controversial Atlantic salmon in B.C."
• CBC; November 30, 2013; "Salmon farmer eyes Pacific coho growth in Chile, not B.C."
• The Fish Site; November 27, 2013; "Cermaq to Reduce Cost of Atlantic Salmon Production in Chile"
• FIS; November 27, 2013; "Cermaq determined to reduce salmon production costs"

Digital Journal
November 29, 2013

The Atlantic Salmon Federation (ASF) is working in Canada to convince government to implement better controls of the salmon farming industry to protect wild Atlantic salmon and their environment.

“We have found,” said Sue Scott, ASF’s VP of Communications,” that the management of salmon farming in Maine holds the industry there to higher standards than is the case in Canada.”

Ironically, a major salmon producer, New Brunswick-based Cooke Aquaculture, operates in both countries, but is better regulated in Maine thanks to the clout of the U.S. Endangered Species and Clean Water Acts. Now Maine has few salmon escapes from open nets in the ocean, and better control of sea lice and disease thanks to better codes of containment, stricter monitoring and third party audits.

In Canada, the industry is essentially self-regulated. Large-scale escapes are frequent occurrences in open-pen fish farming and can happen through routine handling, or large-scale events, such as storms. There is potential for farmed escapees to enter rivers, and breed with wild salmon, causing reduced genetic diversity and fitness in wild populations. In addition, wild salmon are then faced with a new competitor for freshwater resources.

The prevalence of disease and parasites increases with the high density of fish in pens that is common to salmon aquaculture. Diseases and parasites can spread to wild fish, subsequently threatening the persistence of wild populations. Ocean open-pen operations spread infections among densely-packed fish and magnify the intensity of diseases such as Infectious Salmon Anemia (ISA).

"ISA outbreaks in the salmon aquaculture industry have been an ongoing problem in Canada, first in New Brunswick, and then Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, when the industry expanded there requiring compensation from taxpayers' dollars," said Scott.

As few as eight sea lice can kill a wild Atlantic salmon smolt going to sea. The dense crowding in salmon farms encourages a population explosion of sea lice, which must be treated with chemicals. Sea lice become resistant to treatments, requiring the industry to use more toxic chemicals that get into the ocean, killing other sea creatures.

Read the full article in the Digital Journal.

Read related articles:

• The Fish Site; December 4, 2013; "Maine's Salmon Farming Management Sets Good Example"
• The Fish Site; November 29, 2013; "Maine's Aquaculture Industry Bouncing Back"

The Coaster
November 26, 2013

Cyr Couturier, the Executive Director of the Newfoundland Aquaculture Industry Association (NAIA), said that the government’s consultation process on a renewed aquaculture strategy will be a great opportunity for all interested parties to have input into the future growth of the industry.

The provincial government said on November 18 that it will engage in consultations about the industry from Monday, November 25 to Friday, December 13. The consultations will be used to update the government’s aquaculture strategic plan that was last revised in 2005.

The Honourable Keith Hutchings, the provincial Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture said that the industry has matured since 2005 in becoming a true economic driver in the province.

Read the full article in The Coaster.

Nature
November 25, 2013

For Canada's fish, today marks a big departure from the status quo. Scores of freshwater species lose their protection under the country’s Fisheries Act as controversial changes made in 2012 take effect.

The law, enacted in 1868, is one of the country's oldest pieces of environmental legislation. It has long provided blanket protection for all fish and their habitat. The revised legislation now restricts protections to fish that are part of a commercial, recreational or aboriginal fishery, and only against “serious harm”. It also does away with a prohibition on "harmful alteration, disruption or destruction of fish habitat".

As a result, 80% of Canada's 71 freshwater fish species currently at risk of extinction will lose the protection previously afforded to them under the Fisheries Act, according to an analysis published this month in the journal Fisheries1. Affected species include the Channel darter (Percina copelandi), Coastrange sculpin (Cottus aleuticus), Plains minnow (Hybognathus placitus) and Salish sucker (Catostomus catostomus). "It's pretty clear that, overall, our aquatic habitat protection has taken a big hit, and is now less protected than it would be in the US or Europe," says John Post, a fisheries biologist at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada and an author of the study.

That the law removes protection for fish habitats strikes many biologists as especially short-sighted. "The one thing that fish need to persist is a safeguarding of the place they live, and that is no longer an explicit part of the fisheries act," says Eric Taylor, who studies fish evolution and conservation at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.

Read the full article in Nature.

Irish Times
November 25, 2013

An EU inquiry into the prevalence of sea lice around salmon farms and their impact on wild salmon, which was closed in September 2012, is to be reopened.

The reopening of the inquiry follows complaints that information from State agency Inland Fisheries Ireland on the scale of damage caused to wild fish from lice associated with salmon farms, was withheld by the Department of Agriculture.

The EU initially sought information on the scale of the sea lice issue from Ireland as part of a larger EU study as far back as 2009.

Friends of the Irish Environment complained to the EU that a key report from the Inland Fisheries Ireland had been “suppressed” by the Department of Agriculture, which handled Ireland’s response to the Commission.

Friends of the Irish Environment said the Inland Fisheries Ireland report was critical of the effect of salmon farms on the prevalence of sea lice and the failure of Ireland’s programme to control the spread of sea lice.

This evidence was not included in the Department of Agriculture’s final submission in 2011, which preferred other evidence from the Marine Institute.

The Marine Institute claimed wild salmon suffered only a 1 per cent mortality rate from sea lice.

Read the full article in the Irish Times.

Read related article:

• Galway Bay FM; November 25, 2013; "European Commission to reopen investigation into sea lice threat"

Richmond Review
November 21, 2013

A closed-containment coho salmon farm on land. Heat flowing to an existing pulp mill. And a pharmaceutical algae farm to soak up captured carbon dioxide.

That's all part of Aquilini Renewable Energy's vision for "eco-industrial" uses that would be paired with a garbage incinerator it wants to build for Metro Vancouver on Squamish Nation land at Port Mellon, across Howe Sound.

Aquilini's is one of four prospective waste-to-energy plant sites unveiled Thursday that Metro will consider further.

The only other site not previously made public is one in south Vancouver at the foot of Heather Street, near the Oak Street Bridge.

The Vancouver site has been advanced by Plenary Group even though Coun. Andrea Reimer noted the City of Vancouver has banned mass-burn incineration within its city limits.

The other two sites – previously reported by Black Press – are one at Duke Point near Nanaimo, where proponent Wheelabrator/Urbaser would barge waste across the Strait of Georgia, and Delta's Lehigh Cement plant, which proposes to burn garbage that it would first dry and process into refuse-derived fuel.

Read the full article in the Richmond Review.

Read related news:

• The Chief; December 5, 2013; Waste incinerator eyed at Port Mellon - Aquilini proposal one of a handful of Metro Vancouver options

• The Vancouver Sun; November 21, 2013; Four sites, including one in Vancouver, secured as potential sites for waste incineration

• The Surrey Leader; November 21, 2013; Four sites unveiled for new Metro Vancouver waste incinerator

World Fishing & Aquaculture
November 21, 2013

Scotland’s Salmon and Trout Association has demanded that the Scottish Government “stop prevaricating” and order an immediate cull of farmed salmon in light of the latest sea lice data.

The organisation says that latest data, published by the Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation (SSPO), shows that in the third quarter of 2013 sea lice numbers were “massively out of control” in the North West Highlands.

Worst affected farms include eight salmon farms run by Loch Duart Ltd, seven farms operated by Wester Ross Fisheries Ltd and Scottish Sea Farms Ltd and four fish farms operated by Marine Harvest (Scotland) Ltd and the Scottish salmon Company. The farms all had average lice counts which between nine and 12 times the industry’s threshold.

But these claims that levels are “too high” has been dismissed by the SPPO as “an arbitrary concept invented by the Salmon and Trout Association.”

Irish Examniner
November 20, 2013

Environmental groups protested outside the Good Food Ireland awards and called on the food and tourism sector to boycott farmed salmon this Christmas.

The groups which included Friends of the Irish Environment, Save Bantry Bay and Save Galway Bay were protesting against the building of two large organic salmon farms in Cork and Galway. 

The Department of Agriculture, Marine, and Food has yet to decide whether to give the green light to the two farms. One is a private commercial concern in Bantry Bay, and the other, off Inis Oirr, is being developed by state agency Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM). 

In an open letter to the Good Food Ireland Annual Conference, the Irish Friends of the Environment called on those in attendance to boycott farmed salmon and arrange for substitutions by products "less harmful to the environment, to wild fish — and, indeed, to the consumer’s health". 

"Many arguments — such as the impact of farmed salmon lice on wild salmon mortalities — have been well known and documented by eminent scientists here in Ireland, across Europe, and in Canada. They have been the subject of ignored scientific recommendations to separate farmed salmon from wild salmon since 1994," read the letter. 

It stated the group was not against salmon farming or aquaculture but was against "open net pen salmon farms in our bays that are on the migratory path of the wild salmon". 

Chairman of the Federation of Irish Salmon and Sea Trout Anglers (FISSTA) Paul Lawton said the protest was peaceful and that protesters had spoken to a number of people attending the awards. 

"We asked them to boycott farmed salmon and pointed out that this mega fish farm in Galway Bay needs to be stopped. If it gets the go-ahead, it will ruin the West of Ireland — and all for a quick buck."

Read the full article in the Irish Examiner.

Common Sense Canadian
November 19, 2013

The only thing keeping a number of Norwegian salmon farms afloat in Canada is the hundreds of millions of dollars they net from taxpayers when their fish die of disease.

You might think the multi-billion dollar fish farm industry was a licence to print money. You’d be almost right, but not for the reason you might think. Norwegian aquaculture giants Marine Harvest, Cermaq Mainstream and Grieg Seafood comprise 90% of BC’s farmed salmon industry and Marine Harvest operates in 22 countries. What you don’t know is that taxpayers, meaning you and me, pay big money to them when their fish get diseases and have to be slaughtered.

Food safety regulator’s fishy business

Once the Canadian Food Inspection Agency detects a reportable disease, it issues a slaughter order and the fish are destroyed. Then the CFIA sends a very large cheque to the fish farm. This taxpayer cheque compensates them for disposable items like infected nets, cost of transport and offloading, cost of sequestering diseased carcasses in perpetuity, and disinfecting all other items that came in contact with the fish, including the boat that transported them. In addition to all this, the commonly accepted extra payment for each fish is up to $30. This figure really comprises an average payment because of all the other costs mentioned.

You’d think the fish farms would have insurance for losses, but my conversations with a marine insurer tell me they have difficulty getting insurance because they lose so many ‘crops’ to – wait for it – disease. So why are we, the Canadian taxpayer paying these foreign, multi-billion dollar corporations?

Read the full article in the Common Sense Canadian.

BBC
November 19, 2013

Fish farmers have a new approach to tackling a parasite. Sea lice affect farmed and wild salmon. So can "cleaner fish" be used to guard the salmon? 50,000 have been reared to do just that.

The growth of salmon farming on Scotland's west coast has been as dramatic and fast as the fish itself.

The rich flesh of salmon - "the king of fish" - used to be enjoyed by only a select few. But that has changed.

In just 45 years, the amount of farmed salmon reared in Scottish waters alone has risen from zero to around 150,000 tonnes.

Scotland is now a world-leader in the industry. The total value of Scottish farmed salmon is now around £500m, annually. And with demand growing in emerging markets such as China, the future of fish-farming looks bright.

But this extraordinary growth has given rise to environmental challenges around the Scottish coast, and in the waters off Chile, Ireland and Norway.

Read the full article on BBC.

FIS
November 20, 2013

Marine Harvest says it is taking measures to limit salmon escapes after a hole was discovered in a cage at its farming site in Slokkholmen Ost, Leka commune, in Nord Trondelag.

The hole was found during an inspection carried out after the storm Hilde and the Directorate of Fisheries has been already notified of the incident.

The salmon farming giant informed that the damaged cage contained 127,234 fish of about 2 kg each and that some fish were seen outside it. 

The number of fish remaining in the cage will be counted as soon as the weather permits.

Marine Harvest has deployed nets in the surrounding areas to try to catch the escapees and is also offering local fishermen a reward of NOK 500 (EUR 60) per each salmon recaptured and returned to the facility.

The firm stated that the cage has been repaired and all the company's equipmet is being visually inspected. And it added that a new pen will be put at sea when weather conditions improve.

“We take this incident very seriously and we will review this event with the Directorate of Fisheries and suppliers to learn from what has happened,” the company stated.

Marine Harvest has set a goal of zero escapes.

Read the full article on FIS.

Read related articles:

• Daily Meal; November 21, 2013; "Farm Offers Bounty on Escaped Salmon"
• Straits Times; November 18, 2013; "$100 bounty placed on escaped Norwegian salmon"
• IOL; November 18, 2013; "Bounty placed on Norwegian salmon"

Chilliwack Progress
November 18, 2013

A national boycott of open-net farmed salmon that kicked off earlier this year in Chilliwack at a local store parking lot, is expanding on Nov. 19 to more communities.

Boycott rallies are slated simultaneously for the lunch hour Tuesday at eight Superstore locations across B.C. — including the one on Luckakuck Way in Chilliwack.

The ultimate goal of the coordinated rallies is to get stores to remove the product from their shelves and have open-net pens removed from the migration routes of wild salmon.

The national boycott was launched locally in early 2013.

"The peaceful rallies at all locations will have pamphlets, signs, posters and other tools to help consumers make informed decisions to protect their health, especially children and pregnant women," said local boycott coordinator Eddie Gardner, a First Nations elder.

Concerns have been raised about health alerts that have been issued, including SeaChoice seafood guidelines, which "red-list" net-pen farmed salmon, cautioning some to avoid it.

"This movement is growing and we plan to expand the boycott of net-pen farmed salmon to the U.S," he said.

Open-net aquaculture is "a flawed technology," Gardner said, since it is not known the extent of the damage to wild salmon stocks and habitat caused by open net pens on the migration routes of wild salmon.

Read the full article in the Chilliwack Progress.

South Coast Today
November 15, 2013

Concern is escalating on Newfoundland's south coast about the effect escaped farmed fish will have on the wild salmon population, according to a CBC report Thursday.

Recreational fishermen say farmed salmon are showing up as far west as the Grandy River, near Burgeo.

Tony Tuck, who runs a fishing lodge near the Grey River on the south coast, fears fish farming is harming wild salmon.

He believes sea lice infestations at fish farms are killing young, wild salmon.

"[The] vicinity around the sea cages is heavily infested with sea lice ... and the sea lice gets on these smolt and kills them."

Read the full article in South Coast Today.

The Fish Site
November 15, 2013

Marine Harvest Canada has received Health Canada approval for a new sea lice management option for farm-raised salmon.

Hydrogen peroxide (Brand name Interox™ Paramove 50) is now in application for a provincial permit.

The use of Paramove 50™ will enable the company to continue managing sea lice and reduce its use of the drug emamectin benzoate (Brand name Slice™) - the only effective treatment available to BC salmon farmers for the past 14 years.

"Our current use of Slice is minimal and has been very successful," says Clare Backman, Marine Harvest Canada's Director of Sustainable Programs. "However, strict third party salmon certification standards press for continued reduction of Slice over time, so we are seeking to have another option for sea lice management."

Paramove 50™ has been used successfully elsewhere, including Eastern Canada, and is applied topically as a bath to remove small external fish parasites attached to the salmon. After treatment, the compound rapidly breaks down into water and oxygen. A summary of recent studies is available on the Marine Harvest Canada website (www.marineharvestcanada.com).

Read the full article on The Fish Site.

CBC
November 14, 2013

Concern is escalating on Newfoundland's south coast about the effect escaped farmed fish will have on the wild salmon population.

Fishermen say farmed salmon are showing up as far west as the Grandy River, near Burgeo.

Tony Tuck, who runs a fishing lodge near the Grey River on the south coast, fears fish farming is harming wild salmon.

He believes sea lice infestations at fish farms are killing young, wild salmon.

"[The] vicinity around the sea cages is heavily infested with sea lice ... and the sea lice gets on these smolt and kills them."

More than 750,000 salmon have escaped from sea cages on the south coast since fish farming started, and DFO has confirmed that farmed salmon are now in nine south coast rivers.

Don Ivany of the Atlantic Salmon Federation said no one knows what's happened to them.

Read the full article on CBC.

The Fish Site
November 12, 2013

This autumn, cases of Ameobic Gill Disease (AGD) have grown on Norwegian fish farms. AGD has been found in more than 50 localities and in many places disease progression occurs very quickly.

"It is unclear why we have this resurgence of outbreaks now but increased ocean temperatures may be one of the reasons," said Tor Atle Mo,  at the National Veterinary Institute.

"The sea gradually becomes warmer in the great waters during autumn. Higher average temperatures can provide favorable growth of amoeba. At the onset of 2006, the average sea temperature was four degrees higher than usual."

Mo says that the infection does not affect all farms equally as hard. Some people have not had big problems with the infection, while others suffer from high mortality.

Read the full article on The Fish Site.

Pique
November 10, 2013

The current federal fisheries minister and former Conservative fisheries minister John Fraser don’t agree on much when it comes to the current state of west coast salmon.

Fraser participated in a news conference with the Watershed Watch Salmon Society to mark the one-year anniversary of Justice Cohen’s Commission of Inquiry into the Decline of Sockeye Salmon in the Fraser River.

The salmon society believes the federal government has taken very little meaningful action since the release of the Cohen findings.

Fraser, who lives in Whistler, said he wants the federal government to explain, with examples, the benefits of recent federal changes impacting salmon and salmon habitat. He also wants the Conservative government in Ottawa to reveal what recommendations they plan to take action on from the Cohen inquiry.

“There’s 75 recommendations and we’re entitled to know as Canadians; what are they going to pursue and what are they going to dump?” said Fraser. “We spent over $20 million on that thing.”

Read the full article in the Whistler Pique.

Vancouver Sun
November 10, 2013

An effort by environmentalists, a First Nation and commercial fishermen to use a NAFTA side agreement to force Canada to change the way it polices British Columbia's salmon farms has bogged down in legal arguments.

Fish-farming opponents from B.C. and the United States wrote the Commission for Environmental Co-operation in October 2012, alleging the federal government wasn't enforcing the Fisheries Act.

The groups claim Ottawa is exposing wild salmon to sea lice, disease, toxic chemicals and concentrated waste.

Environment Canada wrote the commission last month, arguing a continuation of the complaint would interfere with two legal cases that are currently underway.

The commission has now written back asking for further explanation within 30 working days and has a set final deadline of Dec. 17.

According to their submission, the complainants want the commission to write what's known as a factual record on the issue.

"The submitters may be able to use that to press the government to make changes in the way they enforce the law," said Hugh Benevides, legal officer for the commission in Montreal.

Chief Bob Chamberlin of the Kwikwasu'tinuxw Haxwa'mis First Nation in Alert Bay, B.C., said a factual record would also put the issue on the record.

"The NAFTA agreement ... has some teeth, some validity between the governments, and it's important for us because what we're doing is we want to raise the awareness about what we see the impact at an international level, and that's what the NAFTA agreement provides us," said Chamberlin.

He said the majority of product that comes out of his territory goes to the United States.

Read the full article in the Vancouver Sun.

Read related articles:

• Huffington Post; November 10, 2013; "Fish Farming: B.C. Legal Battle Intensifies"
• News 1130; November 10, 2013; "Legal issues holding up fish-farming complaint"

CBC
November 8, 2013

Cooke Aquaculture is shutting down its Harbour Breton salmon processing plant in the wake of an order by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) to destroy a large number of its ISA-infected salmon, CBC News has learned.

CFIA previously confirmed the ISA outbreak at the company's Hermitage Bay facility back in June, but the company had hoped to grow out and process some of the stock.

Cooke spokesperson Nell Halse said this latest depopulation order now means there won't be enough market-sized salmon currently available to operate the Harbour Breton plant.

"We brought in our employees yesterday and they have been given notification of a layoff. It's really all about loss of fish, or lack of market-ready salmon to go through the plant," Halse told The Fisheries Broadcast.

"Really, our hope had been we would have been able to grow the rest of the fish out to be able to market and harvest them. But we had been experiencing some mortalities and so we now have this depopulation order."

Halse said the company will be forced to depopulate two cages at the site, but she couldn't say how many fish were affected, only that the number was "certainly significant for our Newfoundland operations."

Read the full article on CBC.

Read related articles:

• The Telegram; November 23, 2013; Cooke shuts down for about six months
• VOCM; November 11, 2013; Salmon Being Destroyed, Fish Plant Shutting Down
• VOCM; November 11, 2013; Minister Says Aquaculture Industry Strong Despite Setbacks

UToday
November 7, 2013

Federal government changes to Canada’s fisheries legislation have eviscerated the ability to protect habitat for most of the country’s fish species, scientists at the universities of Calgary and Dalhousie say in a new study.

The changes were politically motivated, unsupported by scientific advice – contrary to government policy – and are inconsistent with ecosystem-based management, fisheries biologists John Post and Jeffrey Hutchings say.

Their comprehensive assessment, in a peer-reviewed paper titled “Gutting Canada’s Fisheries Act: No fishery, no fish habitat protection,” is published in Fisheries, a journal of the 10,000-member American Fisheries Society.

“The biggest change is that habitat protection has been removed for all species other than those that have direct economic or cultural interests, through recreational, commercial and Aboriginal fisheries,” says Post, professor of biological sciences at the University of Calgary.

Read the full article in UToday.

Seafood Source
November 7, 2013

Mary Ellen Walling announced this week she will be “moving on” from her position as executive director of the British Columbia Salmon Farmers Association (BCFSA), effective 31 December.

Walling joined the association in 2002.

“As executive director, one of the personal highlights that I am proud of is the development of certification programs and subsequent adoption of these,” said Walling. “This year the BCFSA board has approved a five year strategic plan. It will position the industry well for the future and makes an excellent timing for the end of my term.

“In my near future, there are new opportunities which will once again provide the kind of challenge that I enjoy.”

Walling did not give a reason for her departure and BCFSA said it will not comment further on the matter beyond Walling’s statement.

Read the full article in Seafood Source.

Business Insider
November 5, 2013

It may be difficult to govern in Washington at anything less than a point of crisis, but we can’t make the same mistake with our oceans. The consequences are too dire.

If we fail to work together now, we risk the collapse of 71% of the Earth’s surface with severe economic consequences. We threaten hundreds of millions of jobs and billions of people who rely on seafood for protein and nutrition.

These frightening assertions are not exaggerations, but facts based on undeniable data. Meanwhile much of the international community is barely waking up to the problem and many are still hitting the snooze button despite the warning signs.  

More than 80 other nations are involved in the fishing trade, an industry that generates $102 billion dollars yearly. In addition to providing food and livelihoods, the oceans help absorb 25% of our carbon emissions and international trade generates trillions of dollars in commerce thanks to the unobstructed transit routes the oceans provide for shipping.  Although commercial fishing has grown tremendously in the past 50 years, 30% of the world’s fisheries are overexploited, depleted or recovering from depletion. 

The economic consequences of poor fishery management to large businesses as well as small-scale producers are dire.  Currently, we are experiencing an estimated $50 billion in lost economic potential every year from mismanagement of ocean fisheries.  Some 350 million jobs are directly linked to the world’s five oceans. That’s more than double the number of people in the U.S. workforce. Needless to say, as a civilization we stand to squander a great deal if we don’t put real effort into protecting the sustainability of our oceans, and the private sector needs to be involved.

Read the full article in the Business Insider.

The Fish Site
November 4, 2013

An outbreak of Infectious Salmon Anaemia has been reported on a salmon farm in Gulen, Norway.

Of the 145,453 salmon susceptible the outbreak lead to 15,000. 

In order to control the spread of the disease, all salmon at the site have been destroyed.

The outbreak is thought to be the first occurrence of ISA in this geographical region and is not thought to be related to any previous occurrences of ISA earlier in the year.

The source of the outbreak is unknown.

Read the full article on The Fish Site.

The Guardian
November 4, 2013

The Scottish salmon farming industry is struggling to meet a controversial target to rapidly increase production to help feed China's growing appetite for fresh and smoked salmon.

The Guardian has established that Scottish salmon producers have fallen way behind their goal of increasing production by 60,000 tonnes, or 50%, by 2020 to help meet surging demand for the fish from China's middle classes. Scottish ministers now admit that hitting the target is a "challenge".

It is central to a major deal to become one of China's preferred suppliers, struck in January 2011 by Alex Salmond, the first minister, just as China signed parallel deals to lend two giant pandas to Edinburgh zoo and take a major financial stake in Grangemouth oil refinery.

In the weeks before that agreement, the Beijing government had dropped Norway as China's preferred salmon supplier in retaliation for the decision by the Oslo-based Nobel organisation to award the Nobel peace prize in 2010 to the jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo.

Scottish ministers soon promised that Scotland's fish-farming industry would rapidly expand production to 210,000 tonnes a year by 2020, to help meet Chinese demand. That is equivalent to China's total salmon consumption in 2009, which has since grown substantially.

Salmond started his fourth trade visit to China on Saturday, where he is promoting Scottish salmon and seafood. Scottish seafood producers are also flying out to China for a major trade fair on fisheries and seafood this week, to bolster the sales push.

Before leaving, the first minister said salmon exports to the Far East had leapt from 2% to 19% of all overseas sales already this year: more than half has been sold to China, with sales there now worth £20m annually.

Yet that sharp increase in exports could stall.

After hitting less than half that growth target in 2011 and 2012, Scottish salmon production is expected to fall by 10,000 tonnes this year to roughly 152,500 tonnes, the largest annual fall in nearly a decade, after being hit by a series of disease outbreaks and production stoppages.

Environmentalists now fear the missed targets could lead to salmon farmers reneging on stricter environmental standards which they recently accepted, after the industry came under intense pressure to deal with disease outbreaks, marine pollution from toxic veterinary chemicals and surges in infestation by sea lice parasites.

Read the full article in The Guardian.

Douglas Magazine
November 2013

With open-net salmon farms under heavy criticism from environmental groups and increasingly eco-conscious consumers, a consumer push is giving innovators like Nanaimo’s Steve Atkinson an opportunity to test the waters with new land-based fish farming and other fish-growing systems and technologies.

Read the full article in Douglas Magazine.

FIS
November 1, 2013

Four conservation groups from the United States and Canada filed and objection to the recertification of Alaskan salmon fisheries proposed by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC). 

The Final Determination Report, issued by Intertek Moody Marine (IMM), reached the conclusion that 13 out of the 14 certification units were fit for the conditions set in the MSC standard. And it states that the 14th unit, Prince William Sound, is still under assessment. 

The NGOs filing the objection -- Watershed Watch Salmon Society, the Raincoast Conservation Foundation and the Skeena Wild Conservation Trust, based in British Columbia, Canada, as well as Washington-based Wild Fish Conservancy -- claim that Alaskan fishermen intercept too many salmon from endangered populations as the fish migrate through Alaskan waters on their way to spawning grounds in British Columbia and the continental US. 

After the official objection has been filed, the documentation submitted will be reviewed by an Independent Adjudicator, which will then decide if a formal objections hearing is the next step. The final outcome is determined on the basis of the submitted documents. Occasionally, it is also based on an oral hearing. 

The Alaska salmon fishery lands five different Pacific salmon species: chum (Oncorhynchus keta), coho (Oncorhynchus kisutch), chinook  (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha); sockeye (Oncorhynchus nerka); and pink (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha).

"The Alaskans are good at not overfishing their own wild salmon runs and we'd just like to see them extend the same conservation ethic to some of these salmon runs in BC, Washington, and Oregon that are in serious trouble," pointed out Kurt Beardslee, of the Wild Fish Conservancy.

For his part, Greg Knox, of Skeena Wild, remarked that: "MSC let them consider the various chinook runs exploited by the fishery as large groups, rather than looking at the status of the individual runs. This allowed the certifier to ignore rampant overfishing of the endangered runs. They did it at the 11th hour, and without consulting stakeholders." 

Read the full article on FIS.

Read related articles:

• Alaska Native News; November 4, 2013; "Amid Controversy, Marine Stewardship Council America's Regional Director Kerry Coughlin Resigns"
• BYM Marine Environment News; November 4, 2013; "Conservation Groups object to Marine Stewardship Council's "Green Light" to Alaskan harvest of endangered salmon"
• The Fish Site; October 31, 2013; "Objection Filed to Proposed Certification of Alaska Salmon Fishery"

Globe and Mail
October 31, 2013

One year after the release of a public inquiry report on the decline of Fraser River sockeye, wild salmon advocates – including a former Conservative fisheries minister – say Ottawa hasn’t taken meaningful action on its recommendations.

But the current Fisheries Minister disagrees, arguing government has used the report to guide its day-to-day work and introduced three major measures that address the inquiry’s findings.

Bruce Cohen, the B.C. Supreme Court justice who was appointed to lead the inquiry, released his three-volume report on Oct. 31 of last year. The inquiry was ordered after the Fraser River sockeye run – which once yielded 100 million sockeye – brought only one million spawners in 2009.

Mr. Cohen said there was no “smoking gun” behind the collapse and made 75 recommendations. He said government could restore the Fraser runs if it invested in research, limited the impact of fish farms, contained diseases in hatcheries, and rededicated the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to protecting wild salmon and their habitat.

The Watershed Watch Salmon Society held a news conference in downtown Vancouver on Wednesday to mark the anniversary. Craig Orr, Watershed’s executive director and an inquiry participant, was joined by former fisheries minister John Fraser, and John Reynolds of Simon Fraser University. Mr. Reynolds also participated in the inquiry as an expert witness.

The men raised several concerns, saying government had missed more than a dozen time-related deadlines and not taken steps to rebuild salmon numbers.

“We’re just here today to simply urge government to honour the intent of its own inquiry and to show a commitment to wild salmon and people who care about wild salmon,” Mr. Orr said.

Read the full article in the Globe and Mail.

Read related articles: 

• The Now; November 15, 2013; "No action on report"
• FIS; November 1, 2013; "Salmon farming moratorium in BC's Discovery Islands to be extended"
• Times Colonist; October 31, 2013; "One year later, nothing has improved for wild salmon"
• The Province; October 31, 2013; "Harper government slammed for lack of response to declining Fraser River salmon fears"
• Kamloops Daily News; October 31, 2013; "Groups demand action on salmon decline"
• Vancouver Sun; October 30, 2013; "Harper government fails to act on declining Fraser River sockeye, former fisheries minister says"
• Maple Ridge News; October 30, 2013; "Feds accused of ignoring Cohen's steps to save sockeye"
• Campbell River Mirror; October 30, 2013; "Feds accused of ignoring Cohen's steps to save sockeye"
• North Shore News; October 30, 2013; "Missing the boat"
• Global BC; October 30, 2013; "Feds extend farmed-salmon moratorium in B.C."
• Huffington Post; October 30, 2013; "B.C. Salmon: Fisheries Minister Extends Moratorium In Discovery Islands"
• Montreal Gazette; October 30, 2013; "Fisheries minister extends farmed-salmon moratorium in B.C.'s Discovery Islands"
• Medicine Hat News; October 30, 2013; "Fisheries minister extends farmed-salmon moratorium in B.C.’s Discovery Islands"

The Fish Site
October 31, 2013

On the 21 October 2013, Norwegian companies Futurama and AquaOptima signed an agreement with Lim Shrimp Organization to create 'Aquapolis', the world's first land based fully intergrated salmon and cod farming facility in Hainan, China. Lucy Towers, TheFishSite Editor reports.

The aquaculture complex will cover the production of cod and salmon from egg to market size in a demonstration farm and smaller grow-out units will be run and managed by individual farmers.

The farming system will be an indoor temperature controlled recirculating aquaculture system (RAS), with multiple stack in one building, thus increasing the productivity and shortening the length of culture, Djames Lim, CEO of Lim Shrimp Organization, told TheFishSite.

Futurama and AquaOptima will be responsible for supplying fingerlings to the farms and for selling the fish to market.

With China's population currently standing at 1.3 billion and growing, the Aquapolis will provide Atlantic cod and salmon to meet the increasing demand for fish, especially from the growing middle income families.

"If we start growing Atlantic Cod and Salmon in China, we will be at the door step of the huge market, thus reducing the cost of production and fish importation," said Mr Lim.

Read the full article on The Fish Site.

Read related articles:

• Aquaculture Directory; October 31, 2013; "Salmon and Cod Aquaculture Complex to be built in China"
• Fish Farming Xpert; October 31, 2013; "Norwegian tank technology being transferred to China"

Digital Journal
October 30, 2013

Biologists with the Atlantic Salmon Federation (ASF) are concerned that the large number of farmed salmon showing up at a fish trap on the Magaguadavic River in New Brunswick is indicative of a large escape of farmed salmon. Escapes from sea cages in the Bay of Fundy that have gone unreported by the aquaculture industry are very likely entering other Bay of Fundy and Gulf of Maine rivers.

In most Bay of Fundy and Gulf of Maine rivers, there is no trap to prevent farmed salmon escapees from entering these rivers. Some of the escapees are sexually mature and the timing of this latest incident coincides with the wild salmon spawning season, which increases the likelihood and severity of negative interactions between wild and farmed fish. When farmed and wild salmon interbreed, the progeny are less fit to survive and are less likely to produce healthy offspring themselves. Salmon farming has been identified by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada as a significant threat to endangered wild salmon.

“This is a serious issue,” said Jonathan Carr, ASF’s Director of Research and Environment. “It is mandatory in New Brunswick for industry to report incidents of escapes of 100 salmon or more. Our monitoring program on the Magaguadavic provides an early warning system for the salmon rivers in the region,” said Mr. Carr. “For instance, when previous escapes have been reported to Maine officials, they have set fences or traps in specific rivers to try to stop the infiltration of the escapes into those systems. These methods should also be adopted in Canada. Keeping these escaped salmon from interacting with endangered wild salmon in the Gulf of Maine and Bay of Fundy is fundamental to the recovery of wild Atlantic salmon populations.”

Read the full article in the Digital Journal.

Science Daily
October 29, 2013

Anne Stene's PhD thesis explains how environmental factors affect the outbreak and transmission of pancreas disease (PD) in farmed salmon. Both infected and dead salmon can shed the salmonid pancreas disease virus into the sea and the virus particles can be spread by the wind and ocean currents from one fish farm to the next along the coast.

Pancreas disease (PD) is currently the most serious of the viral infections affecting Norwegian farmed salmon. The disease leads to increased mortality, weight loss and low fish product quality. It therefore has a significant influence on fish welfare and on profitability in the aquaculture industry.

The PD virus can survive for long periods of time outside the salmon host in cold, clean seawater and it therefore has a strong infective potential along the Norwegian coast. Using a hydrodynamic model developed by SINTEF (http://www.sintef.no/home/), Stene was able to demonstrate that the transmission of the disease between fish farms at different locations is primarily caused by the direction of ocean currents near the surface of the water. Her findings also show that fish farms located in close proximity to infected/diseased salmon and fish farms owned by companies with many other infected farms have an increased risk of their stocks becoming infected with PD.

Irish Times
October 28, 2013

The Office of the Ombudsman is to extend its inquiry into the Irish Government’s response to an EU Commission sea lice investigation.

The Ombudsman’s Office is already inquiring into the handling of questions put to the Department of Agriculture by the EU, on the prevalence of sea lice near salmon farms and their impact on wild salmon.

The inquiry followed a complaint by Friends of the Irish Environment that a key report from the State body Inland Fisheries Ireland had been withheld by the Department in its response to the EU.

The Ombudsman’s Office confirmed it has now extended that inquiry into the handling of the issue by the Department of Foreign Affairs which was the first port of call for the EU Commission inquiry.

The Commission has also asked for information on the allegations that the Inland Fisheries report was withheld, and has told MEP Nessa Childers it may reopen its original investigation.

At the centre of the row are plans by Bord Iascaigh Mhara to develop a number of large-scale salmon farms along the west coast, including a 456-hectare farm in the lee of the Aran Islands, in Galway Bay.

Read the full article in the Irish Times.

Cowichan News Leader
October 23, 2013

A small group of protestors against stores selling open-pen farmed salmon took their message to Duncan’s Walmart Supercentre Tuesday.

“Safeway and Overwaitea have already changed their policies,” said Shawna Green of Wild Salmon Forever.

She explained Walmart brass have signalled a willingness to ban open-pen farmed salmon, but failed to pull it from their freezers.

“They haven’t changed a thing. Our job is to let people know, so maybe (Walmart) will change its policy. It’s really up to consumers now.”

Walmart leaders are following the retail giant’s sustainable-seafood policy — while keeping doors open to feedback from groups such as Green’s,  plus other non-governmental groups, its corporate affairs director said.

Alex Roberton explained his company’s policy recognizes claims by various NGOs, the Global Aquaculture Alliance, and followers of best aquaculture practices.

“At this point, we don’t have any plans to pull open-pen farmed salmon from our shelves, but we’ll continue dialogue (with various groups),” he told the News Leader Pictorial from headquarters in Mississauga, Ontario.

Green, and several other supporters in Duncan, claimed activity and compounds in open-pen fish farms are damaging the coastal environment — claims that are vehemently disputed by the industry and not supported by government.

They also cited sea lice, and three viruses, affecting wild-salmon stocks.

“It’s affecting the ecosystem,” Green said. “Lots of people don’t know the dangers of open-pen farmed salmon.”   

Read the full article in the Cowichan News Leader.

Georgia Straight
October 22, 2013

As the days get cooler and shorter, millions of salmon are making the arduous journey up the rivers and streams of British Columbia to the spawning grounds where they were born. Waiting for this rich pulse of life from the Pacific Ocean are bears, gulls, wolves, eagles, ospreys, crows, pine martins, and dozens of other species. Communities and businesses wait, too. It’s fitting that this time of year also marks the first anniversary of the final report of the Cohen Commission of Inquiry into the Decline of Sockeye Salmon in the Fraser River.

The record decline in sockeye returning to the Fraser River in 2009 provided the initial push for a federal judicial inquiry. Now, four years later, the offspring of those salmon are returning to spawning grounds in dismally low numbers—so low that sockeye salmon fishery closures are widespread.

What happened to Justice Bruce Cohen’s 75 carefully crafted recommendations to rebuild Pacific salmon? What will happen to the industry and communities that depend on them?

The Cohen Commission took three years, 2,145 exhibits, 892 public submissions, and 138 days of hearings with 180 witnesses to create its report. The David Suzuki Foundation worked with lawyers at Ecojustice to provide research and testimony to help ensure the inquiry looked into problems within the current management system. With optimism that the federal government was taking the decline of wild salmon seriously, this independent and thorough review created a blueprint for action. What had become a contentious and polarizing issue had a direction forward.

That clear direction, however, has been followed with near silence and little effort from the government. Although politicians say they’re reviewing the report and taking actions “consistent with the recommendations”, the few steps they have taken, such as providing grants for research projects, miss the mark and don’t address the significant issues and opportunities raised by Justice Cohen.

Read the full article in the Georgia Straight.

Globe and Mail
October 21, 2013

Many federal scientists say they fear they would be punished by the Conservative government if they exposed a decision made by their department that could harm the public.

Large numbers also told Environics Research last June that they are aware of actual cases in which political interference with their scientific work has compromised the health and safety of Canadians or environmental sustainability. And nearly half of those who took part in the survey said they knew of cases in which the government suppressed scientific information.

In addition, the poll results suggest that 24 per cent of government scientists have been asked to exclude or alter technical information in federal documents. Liberal science critic Ted Hsu, who is also a physicist, said any political interference in scientific papers would be alarming.

The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC), which represents 55,000 professional civil servants, engaged Environics to survey 15,398 government scientists in 40 departments and agencies. The results released on Monday suggest a broad consensus among the scientists that they are being muzzled to the detriment of the public.

“According to the survey, 90 per cent of federal scientists do not feel they can speak freely about their work to the media,” Gary Corbett, the president of PIPSC, told a news conference. “But it is even more troubling that, faced with a departmental decision or action that could harm public health, safety or the environment, nearly as many scientists – 86 per cent – do not believe they could share their concerns with the media or public without censure or retaliation.”

About 26 per cent of the government’s scientists – 4,069 of them – took part in the poll. Derek Leebosh, the vice-president of public affairs for Environics, said that is a “robust” response compared to other surveys of this nature. The results are expected to reflect the opinions of all federal scientists accurately within 1.6 percentage points 19 times out of 20.

Read the full article in the Globe and Mail.

Read related articles:

• Vancouver Sun; October 21, 2013; "Scientists live in a ‘climate of fear’; poll suggests federal researchers can’t speak freely"
• CBC; October 21, 2013; "Muzzling of federal scientists widespread, survey suggests"

Irish Times
October 21, 2013

Up to 20,000 farmed salmon have been lost due to a jellyfish “bloom” off Clare island, Co Mayo.

Aquaculture company Marine Harvest has said the losses occurred off Clare Island in the past few days, due to warmer sea temperatures which have seen similar occurrences at fish farms across Europe.

An “accelerated” harvest also occurred at its sea water sites in Donegal to try and avoid the impact of jellyfish blooms on the farmed stock.

The company could not confirm the numbers of fish lost off Clare Island, but said they were substantial.

The Norwegian company, which has 14 sea water aquaculture sites on the Irish west coast, has already been taking precautionary measures – feeding fish less to keep them less active, with gill covers closed – due to the marked rise in reporting strandings of jellyfish from Donegal to Kerry.

Read the full article in Irish Times.

FIS
October 21, 2013

For the first time, scientists have managed to quantify how escaped salmon have interbred with wild salmon in Norwegian rivers. These results provide a basis for reassessing the impact that escapees from fish farms have on the wild salmon in Norwegian rivers.

Escapees are considered as one of the most serious environmental problems in the fish farming industry, and since the Atlantic salmon farming industry was established in the early 1970's, there has been a long-standing debate about farmed escapees, and their genetic impacts on native populations.

"Methodological limitations have created insecurity on how big the problem is. However, we have now developed a stronger tool that can measure the percentage of farmed fish that has interbred," says Kevin Glover, senior scientist at Institute of Marine Research in Norway (IMR). 

Read the full article in FIS.

Herald Scotland
October 20, 2013

Scotland's environment watchdog has bowed to pressure from the salmon industry to keep secret the number of farmed fish killed by disease, according to internal correspondence seen by the Sunday Herald.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) agreed to delete information on millions of dead fish from a public database on fish farming launched this month because the Scottish Salmon Producers' Association (SSPO) argued it would be commercially damaging.

Now campaigners against fish farms have accused Sepa of acting like an industry "lapdog". The databaase, which also omits crucial information on sea lice, is no more than "spin", one claimed.

In February, the Sunday Herald revealed that the number of farmed salmon killed by diseases had leapt to more than 8.5 million in 2012, compared to 6.8 million in 2011 and 5.5 million in 2010. The rise was blamed mostly on the spread of amoebic gill disease.

A few days after the report appeared, SSPO's chairman, Phil Thomas, wrote to Sepa's chief executive, James Curran, accusing it of "fundamentally poor regulatory practice", arguing that it had "no justifiable need" to collect and make available information on the level of fish mortality.

"You were potentially placing information in the public domain which could be used to the commercial detriment or competitive market disadvantage of the companies submitting the data," Thomas wrote. "You were in fact providing competitor companies both within and outwith the UK with significant market and business information."

In reply, Curran said he understood SSPO's concerns, and promised that in future it would be made clear that for most fish farms supplying information on the number of deaths was done voluntarily.

He added: "Although numbers of mortalities do appear in the current version of Scotland's aquaculture database, which is being launched to partner organisations soon, it is our intention to make a small change to ensure that these data on the numbers of mortalities are not included in the version released to the public."

Read the full article in Herald Scotland.

The Fish Site
October 17, 2013

A PhD candidate from Skretting Aquaculture Research Centre (ARC) is to study the interaction between sea lice and salmon skin. Rebecca Heavyside’s research project aims to identify new functional ingredients in fish feed to improve reductions in lice burden.

Sea lice represent a big threat to salmon farms in many parts of the world. After attaching themselves to the fish, they feed on the skin mucus and epidermal layers causing wounds, reducing growth and sometimes leading to mortalities. 

PhD candidate Rebecca Heavyside will investigate how salmonid skin defences may be modulated by functional ingredients in fish diets. The project is supported by the Industrial PhD scheme of the Research Council of Norway.

“This study is a development of previous research on this topic. My objective is to help create or improve existing feed produced with the purpose of preventing the weakening of fish immunology system,” explains Rebecca.

Atlantic salmon are more susceptible to sea lice infestations than other salmonid species and treatment options are limited, posing a challenge to the industry. Modern practices contribute to the reduction of pharmaceuticals and help to build more cost-effective and sustainable aquaculture.

The PhD work, which started in the second half of 2013, will last three years with work divided between Skretting ARC and the University of Aberdeen. “ARC facilities and histology labs allow me to run many more trials than if the PhD was strictly academic. I believe the combination of business with academy has a good impact on both sectors”, highlighted the candidate.

Read the full article on The Fish Site.

FIS
October 17, 2013

Experts on fish and other animals’ pathology as well as those in human health met this month in Puerto Varas to discuss and analyze the main disease that afflicts the salmon produced in Chile: salmon rickettsial syndrome (SRS).

Twenty six specialists from five countries participated in the 'II Salmon Farming Research Conference,' responding to an invitation from the Salmon Technological Institute (Intesal) under the Association of Salmon Industry AG (SalmonChile).

Intesal general manager, Matías Medina, explained that 13 scientists (seven foreigners and six Chilean experts), three specialists from the Institute, four representatives of salmon producers in our country and six pharmaceutical companies attended the meeting.

For five days the specialists addressed the SRS issue from a multisectoral approach "that made it possible to discuss its implications in detail for national salmon farming and to plan work strategies that allow us to fight against the syndrome," Medina informed.

"We are convinced that the way forward is a better relationship between science and the current production processes," he continued.

Read the full article in FIS.

Vancouver Sun
October 16, 2013

Long a vocal critic of B.C.’s conventional fish-farming industry, environmentalist David Suzuki has helped create a new product being tested as feed for farmed salmon.

Suzuki and Brad Marchant, CEO of the Vancouver-based start-up company Enterra, coined the idea of using maggots fed on food waste to create a sustainable source of protein while fly fishing in Yukon.

“For years we’ve been fighting salmon aquaculture, not because we are against aquaculture, but we felt that [conventional] aquaculture was the wrong way to do it,” Suzuki told The Vancouver Sun. “First of all, the salmon are grown in open nets, so you are using the ocean as a sewer. Closed containment is the way it has to go.”

Suzuki said he would oppose using the feed in open-net salmon aquaculture.

“I would not like that at all,” said Suzuki. “I think it should be used, with vision, in hard containers, but I think that [technology] is coming.”

“I wouldn’t be happy, but I guess it’s better than fish meal,” he said.

Recent advances in closed containment fish farming have begun to address some of the effects of salmon farms on wild salmon, predators and the marine environment, but feed remains problematic.

Critics, including Suzuki, complain that the feed used to grow farmed salmon simply converts one kind of fish — often anchovy from Peru — into another at a huge cost to the health of wild fisheries.

Read the full article in the Vancouver Sun.

CTV0
October 15, 2013

You would think a large appearance of Atlantic salmon in a river where the fish had virtually disappeared would be cause for celebration.

Not so in New Brunswick, where the wrong kind of salmon are showing-up and no one knows precisely where they’re coming from.

Jonathan Carr pulled a six kilogram Atlantic Salmon out of a fish ladder on the Magaguadavic River Tuesday.

Five others were caught today, almost 80 this month alone.

The problem is, they’re not supposed to be there.

They are escapes from salmon farms, and Carr fears it means thousands of farmed salmon are infiltrating rivers along the Bay of Fundy.

“There’s dozens of other rivers in the Gulf of Maine, outer Bay of Fundy, inner Bay of Fundy, where these fish have free access right now,” explains Atlantic Salmon Federation Biologist Jonathon Carr.

So far, no one has reported a large escape of farmed salmon.

Read the full article on CTV.

Read related articles:

• Fish & Fly; October 17, 2013; "Escaped Farmed Salmon Found in Large Numbers in New Brunswick Rivers"
• Metro; October 17, 2013; "Newfoundland fishermen net escaped salmon"
• Telegram; October 9, 2013; "Company followed strict rulesafter salmon escape"

Vancouver Observer
October 11, 2013

On a windy, wet morning earlier this week, two councillors from the Tla-o-qui-aht Nation near Clayoquot Sound took a boat three miles out in the ocean to greet a visitor. They stopped as they came near Greenpeace's Rainbow Warrior, which displayed a giant sign along the deck:  “End destructive salmon farming.”  They pumped their fists in support, as the boat went by to join a larger fish farm protest planned by Clayoquot Action.

The councillors, Terry Dorward and Joe Martin, oppose the 21 fish farms in their region. But they also know there are some people in their community who depend on these farms to make a living for their families.  “I know there are a lot of people who work out there in the fish farms, and I'm certainly not against any of them,” Martin told the Vancouver Observer. “But we want the fish farms out of our waters, because I'm concerned about our wild stocks.”

It's been over 20 years now since Creative Salmon, a Chinook salmon farm, set up in their traditional territory. These days, the company's website features a glowing statement by the Tla-o-qui-aht, praising the “economic benefits” the farm has given their people. Dorward commented that the unnamed writer of the statement is "obviously avoiding" concerns about fish farms' impact on their coastal waters.

Wild salmon in BC have been on a decline for years, with no definitive answers as to why this is taking place. Industry advocates point out that there's "correlation, but no causation" between salmon farm expansions since the 1980s and declining wild salmon returns. Things came to a head after a total collapse of the Fraser River sockeye in 2009: the Department of Fisheries and Oceans expected over 11 million fish to return, but just 1.4 million did, setting off alarms about how millions of fish could have gone "missing".

The federal government launched a mammoth 18-month federal inquiry known as the Cohen Commission to get to the bottom of the cause. But after three million pages of documents were reviewed and 179 witnesses heard, there was no “smoking gun” to be found. While acknowledging that fish farms can introduce diseases to the wild, The Cohen Commission laid the blame on a multitude of factors, including climate change. 

World Fishing & Aquaculture
October 10, 2013

As Norway orders the slaughter of two million sea-lice infested farmed salmon, the Salmon & Trout Association (Scotland) is questioning whether Scottish Government would ever take similar action.

The Norwegian authorities have recently ordered that some two million sea-lice infested farmed salmon in the Vikna district of Nord Trondelag be slaughtered with immediate effect after becoming resistant to chemical treatments against the sea-lice parasite.

The action has been prompted specifically to protect wild young salmon (smolts) migrating through the fjords to the open sea next May and June from huge numbers of juvenile sea-lice being produced on and released from particular salmon farms that have been unable to control their lice numbers.

Last week the Salmon and Trout Association (Scotland) (S&TA(S)) wrote to the Scottish Government, drawing attention to the situation in Norway and asking what consideration it is giving to applying “similar punitive sanctions” against salmon farm operators in Scotland which are unable to keep sea-lice numbers below agreed thresholds.

Hugh Campbell Adamson, Chairman of S&TA(S), said: “Norway’s clamp-down on those salmon farms where sea-lice numbers are out of control shows that it takes the protection of wild salmon seriously. The contrast with the situation in Scotland could hardly be more marked. Here the salmon farming industry’s own figures confirm that sea-lice numbers have been out of control for many months on farms in areas such as West Sutherland and the northern part of Wester Ross and yet the Scottish Government declines to take any action whatsoever. It is difficult to reach any other conclusion but that Scottish Government has decided that west coast wild salmon and sea trout are expendable and that such a price is worth paying in the interests of salmon farming and its expansion.”

Read the original article in World Fishing & Aquaculture.

Times Colonist
October 6, 2013

Greenpeace's flagship, the Rainbow Warrior will make Chesterman Beach its first stop on a two-week Canadian tour.

En route from Korea, the "flotilla" (Greenpeacespeak for a protest on the ocean) will be held on Monday around 9 a.m. off Chesterman Beach.

Locals are invited to participate by paddling, motoring, or sailing out to join the Rainbow Warrior following a welcoming ceremony.

"The flotilla that we're going to be having there is intended to raise awareness and show solidarity for people that have been negatively impacted by the net-pen salmon farming industry," said Greenpeace oceans campaign coordinator Sarah King.

Local conservation group Clayoquot Action is helping Greenpeace coordinate the event locally.

"We're really happy to be involved," said Clayoquot Action co-founder Bonny Glambeck. "We don't believe the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve is any place for open-net fish farms."

Glambeck believes the vessel will bring an international spotlight to the West Coast.

King said Greenpeace has been highlighting farmed salmon as a product of concern for a number of years and has been urging Canada's biggest retailers not to sell farmed salmon.

"The public have been seeing this as a concern for a long time and we'd like to see the government start to act and take the Cohen (Commission) recommendations more seriously," she said.

Read the full article in the Times Colonist.

Read related article:

• News 1130; October 6, 2013; "Greenpeace’s Rainbow Warrior coming to North Van" 

Vancouver Sun
October 4, 2013

The makers of Salmon Confidential aren’t keen on keeping anything about their new documentary quiet.

The movie, which debuted Wednesday at the Vancouver International Film Festival, looks at B.C. activist Alexandra Morton’s quest to save the province’s iconic, beloved and delicious wild salmon. Morton aims to ensure her story of the viruses infecting B.C.’s sockeye salmon goes viral and, to that end, is releasing it for free on the movie’s website salmonconfidential.ca after the movie wraps at VIFF on Oct. 4.

Morton set her big screen debut in motion when she contacted filmmaker Twyla Roscovich. She felt a movie needed to be made to raise awareness about the state of the fisheries and the fallout from the federal inquiry called in 2009 to look into the decline of sockeye salmon in the Fraser River. Dubbed the Cohen Commission — it was headed by Justice Bruce Cohen — the inquiry’s final report released in 2012 was titled The Uncertain Future of Fraser River Sockeye.

Morton believed what she witnessed through the proceedings “had to be put into a film so people would know, because wild salmon are so important to B.C.’s economy, ecology and spirit.”

Asked what she’s hoping audiences will take away from the movie, Morton said, “If you want wild salmon we have to make salmon farms get out of the ocean and into tanks. Second, if the Canadian government is not looking after wild salmon — if we want salmon it is up to us to figure out what is happening to them and convince society to make the changes required.”

Read the full article in the Vancouver Sun.

Read related article:

• Georgia Straight; October 11, 2013; "Vancouver International Film Festival 2013 award winners: Down River, Salmon Confidential, and more"
• Globe and Mail; September 27, 2013; "Documentary filmmaker captures the wild life of salmon"

The Media Co-op
October 3, 2013

As sockeye salmon braved killing temperatures in the Fraser River this year, tempers heated up over federal inaction on conservation recommendations released by the Cohen Commission last fall.

The iconic Fraser River sockeye—a keystone species in West Coast ecology—have been in decline for the past two decades. This year's run of only 3.7 million fish prompted Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) to shut down commercial, sport and Aboriginal sockeye fisheries in August.

The parent generation for this year's run was the disastrous run of 2009, when only 1.4 million sockeye--instead of the expected 10 million—returned to the Fraser to spawn.

That collapse spurred the creation of the $26 million Commission of Inquiry into the Decline of Sockeye Salmon in the Fraser River, led by Justice Bruce Cohen. In October 2012, Justice Cohen released a 1200 page report containing 75 conservation recommendations. Yet according to the Cohen Report Card released by the Watershed Watch Salmon Society, DFO has already failed to meet 14 of 23 deadlines.

“It's hard to find somebody who isn't upset,” said Aaron Hill, an ecologist for the Watershed Watch, in a phone interview with the Vancouver Media Co-op (VMC). “It's been almost a year since the [Cohen] report came out, and there's been no official response from DFO. It's just crickets -- there's nothing happening.”

Read the full article on The Media Co-op.

For more information see the Cohen Report Card presented by SOS Marine Conservation Foundation and Watershed Watch Salmon Society.

The Fish Site
October 3, 2013

The whisky and salmon industries in Scotland are about to embark on an innovative new partnership which will convert co-products from whisky production into feed for salmon and fish farming.

Over 500 million litres of whisky are produced in the UK each year. But for every litre of whisky produced, up to 15 litres of co-products can be generated.

Chemical engineers from Heriot-Watt University in Scotland are looking to convert some of the co-products into protein-rich feed, which could have the added benefit of providing a sustainable and economic supply of feedstock for the growing Scottish fish farming industry.

A pilot plant trial of the Horizons Proteins project is scheduled for August 2014 in a whisky distillery to assess the economic, nutritional, environmental and chemical engineering processes involved in large scale production of the proteins.

David Brown, chief executive of the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE), said: “Distillery effluent can be damaging, but also contains potentially valuable nutrients and micronutrients. The co-products can also be used to produce a microbial biomass which has the potential to be a cheap and sustainable source of protein-rich feed.

Read the full article on The Fish Site.