Placentia Bay Fish Farm - Government Duped, Conflicted, Up dated April 2, 2017

Hi Justin/Dominic/Dwight 

I pass on to you the comments I made to Owen Myers, lawyer in the NL court case, Mark Quinn at CBC, writing on this subject  and Kenn Oliver of The Telegram: 

I send along a note that I put on Fishers Against Fish Farms, that I took from my own blog: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2017/01/bad-news-bites.html. My site has become a global portal for fish farm environmental science damage, and will exceed 300,000 page views in the next couple of weeks. 

You should know that there is more than simply environmental concerns with this mega-development. 

Here is the text: 

350. 'Conflict of Interest - NL, govt expenditure of $45m into Grieg, Placentia Bay dev is a conflict of interest by a government who has to regulate the industry.’ I should add that in Norway, the auction cost of the 11 in-ocean licences would be an $88- to $121-million outlay for Grieg, not 11 free licences plus $45 million. They know perfectly well that fish farms are a licence to print money and any government that would charge zero and add $45m, thus conflicting itself, is an idiot. See: https://www.undercurrentnews.com/2017/03/29/new-coalition-urges-nl-govt-not-to-buy-into-grieg-salmon-project/. “

Grieg Seafood, Marine Harvest and Cermaq have been part of the speculative licence situation in Norway for more than 30 years. Kjersti Sandvik’s book, Beneath The Surface, Glydendal, Norway, goes over this history, and the millions made by applicants who then sold the licences to others and made big bucks for doing nothing. At 23- to 25-% profit margin, it is a gold mine to have a licence.

The point is that the federal govt and NL government have not done their basic homework, and should be charging millions for each licence here, not falling for the disingenuous calling for funding because the development can’t go ahead without out it. That’s bull and Grieg knows it.

On the environmental side, two things: I have figured out that a fish farm kills 113 forage fish to bring one farmed salmon to harvest, in an industry the size of BC that means 5.76 billion killed fish for one harvest; also, the sewage cost is enormous. In BC, I estimate it is $10.4 billion that we taxpayers absorb. The same size of figure can be anticipated in NL. 

If you need more info or how to calculate the figures for NL, let me know.

DC (Dennis) Reid

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Updated, April 2, 2017: The evidence suggests that the cost of an in-ocean licence in Norway is even higher than the earlier auction price above: https://www.undercurrentnews.com/2017/03/29/land-based-salmon-farming-the-numbers-now-make-sense/.

"No new licenses have been awarded since 2014 [in Norway], when SalMar bid NOK 66 million for a license [$10.56 million Canadian]. Since then, the Seafood Index (OSLSFX) has doubled, suggesting the market value of a license is also higher.”

This means for the 11 licences Grieg would have had to pay in Norway, if indeed any were allowed for in-ocean, would be $10.56M X 11 = $116.2 million. Why are they not charged in Canada? Why does anyone think charging zero is reasonable, and then adding an additional $45M to sweeten the already sweetened deal? This is a $161 million subsidy for Grieg. Does any taxpayer want this for an industry that uses the ocean as a free open sewer?