ISA in BC - Actions Needed Now

I am sad to say that I have the unhappy distinction of being the person who broke the BC ISA story to the world. The OIE lab designated the world's ISA specialist, under Dr. Kibenge, confirmed ISA in BC sockeye smolts this week.

Here are the actions needed now:

1. Cull the farmed salmon.
2. Remove the salmon farms from the ocean and put them on land.
3. Immediately test all salmon strains in BC for ISA - there are 9,562 strains.
4. Inform our neighbours in Alaska and Washington that ISA is in BC.
5. Inform the Pacific Ocean nations that have salmon, that ISA is now in the Pacific.

DFO Minister, Keith Ashfield, and BC Premier, Christy Clark, need to move quickly to find out how big the problem is and take actions to solve the situation. As it stands now Ashfield has the unhappy distinction of possibly going down in history as the man who destroyed Pacific Ocean salmon, five other anadromous Pacific species, and saltwater bait fish related to salmonids such as herring, pilchards, anchovy, needle fish and others. This is serious.

Norwegian ISA has been carried to every location Norwegian derivative fish farms have set up shop since 1984. As there was no ISA in the Pacific, and it is the European strain of ISA, it has been brought here to fish farms through egg and embryo importation; they received 29 million.

Fish farms, the Province and DFO said ISA was not here and could not get here because of testing. But it is here and decisive action is needed now.