Key Document: Fish Farms Damage Ocean Bottoms

This is a report on Shelburne Bay, NS, fish farming in 2012, prepared by Inka Milewski on damage to the bottom of the ocean:http://www.friendsofshelburneharbour.org/uploads/McGregorMilewskiSandyPointApr2012.pdf.

I post this out as it is current report and typical of the damage caused by fish farms to the bottom of the ocean, taking, in some cases more than a decade to recover once fish farms have been pulled out.

Milewski says that: "in her decades of research in the area, she has seen regular outbreaks of infectious salmon anemia (ISA), sea lice infect caged salmon populations in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. In February, Cooke Aquaculture was forced to slaughter 700,000 salmon in Shelburne Harbour and last week a firm in Newfoundland was ordered by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to slaughter more ISA-infected fish. [July, 2012]

"In April, Milewski sent a copy of the report and her findings to Fisheries and Aquaculture Minister Sterling Belliveau, with an invitation to meet with him to discuss her findings. She said that, to date, she has had no response to her offer." See this article:

She also says: "The government must release all environmental monitoring data for all existing salmon farm sites, says Milewski. “If the province can’t publicly produce environmental monitoring data from existing fish farms in a timely manner,” she says, “They certainly can’t be relied upon to act when environmental damage is being done by these farms”." 

The report is a stinging indictment of fish farming, and is typical of conditions found around the world. The issue that has not yet been measured is how the water column is infected with trillions of viral particles for many miles in both directions that the tide flows. This is particularly problemmatic in bays and sounds, like Shelburne and Clayoquot Sound, BC, because they have one closed end and thus to not flush.

Google:Environmental damage under fish farms: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=environmental+damage+under+fish+farms&oq=environmental+damage+under+fish+farms&gs_l=youtube.3...11321429.11332371.0.11332658.74.42.4.8.9.6.242.4296.21j18j2.42.0...0.0...1ac.jxeGnlW81Sc, 

to see how fish farms destroy the ocean bottom with sewage and feed, making them dead zones in many locations. 

Google:Youtube video on sea bottoms under fish farms: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ocean+bottoms+under+fish+farms&sa=X&spell=1&search=Search&oi=spell.There are move videos on sea bottom damage on YouTube, these are just sample videos.  In fairness there are a few, well selected sites, by fish farms.

 

As hard as it maybe to believe, Belliveau has just awarded Cooke Aquaculture $25 million to expand. This at the same time that they are charged with using the lobster killing and illegal chemical cypermethrin to kill lice. These charges may bring millions in fines and jail sentences. Cooke, in its court case, has said it wants to 'study the evidence', and thus has taken the subject out of the news. This is a very typical ploy by charged fish farms around the world, and in this case it is shameful that Belliveau came up with the $25 at a time when Cooke is charged and has had to slaughter. Just shameful.