Index to Articles on www.fishfarmnews.blogspot.com, Also Our Tax Money for Diseased Dead Fish - Updated Sept 25, 2015

If you are looking for the index to this site, it is in October 2014: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2014/10/key-document-index-to.html.

And here is some information from that post: October 2014. "Thanks to readers from around the world who are concerned about the environmental damage from in-ocean fish farms, this www.fishfarmnews.blogspot.com site has become a global success. Without any advertising or driving of page views, it has received 85,000 page views in the three years since being set up. And the rate is growing. In the coming year, it looks like an additional 50,000 or 60% more page views, in one year alone.

The purpose of the site has always been to summarize science, some 20,000 pages now and global fish farm press. I often read 100 pages of such news per week to aid writing these posts."

Well, it is only September 2015, and the page views have grown almost 50,000 more. I read four global fish farm newsletters every day, and continue finding research to put on this site. I am paid no money for doing this. My only purpose is to stand for wild Pacific salmon, and get fish farms out of our ocean.

For example, I am following today, Sept 8, 2015 a scary story on fish farm myobacteriosis in Tasmania; scary because it infects humans, too; Marine Harvest stealing fresh water in Ireland to kill AGD, a deadly gill disease, in its saltwater pens; Marks & Spencer taking heat for buying Scotland fish farm fish from the farm that killed the most sea lions in 2013 and 2014; and, fish farm lice are out of control in Norway. There are dozens of stories about the environmentally damaging fish farm industry around the world every single day.

Do note: I will add another index for the end of 2014 and 2015 in December 2015. As before, my post on the now 95 on-land fish farms systems I have found, comprising more than 10,000 actual on-land farms, is proof that we do not need fish farms fouling our oceans anymore and they should be on land. Scroll the blog list to the right and it is filed as a Key Document on January 15, 2012.

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Taxpayers Pay Big Money for Diseased Dead Fish Farm Fish

Many people, including staff at DFO, are stunned to find out that we taxpayers pay for diseased, dead fish farm fish to multinational, multi-billion dollar corporations like Marine Harvest, Cermaq and Grieg Seafood. My posts on these subjects are being looked at by hundreds of people right now, so I will give you them here together. Here is the best document to look at first: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2014/02/key-document-taxpayer-money-for.html. Here is another: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2013/12/mainstream-slaughtered-fish-money.html. Here is a third: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2014/01/dey-document-slaughter-payments-to-fish.html.

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NOTE: Here is a site so that you can follow the price per kilogram of farmed fish on world markets. The figures are the Norway export price in US dollars: http://www.indexmundi.com/commodities/?commodity=fish.

Fish Farm Lice Kill Wild Salmonids - Literature Review, 2015

Previous posts on this site have shown that research says that fish farm lice kill wild salmon, wild salmon fry and that in Norway, lice are out of control because they are resistant to all the chemicals used to kill them. See the index for 2014 (index for 2015 to come): http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2014/10/key-document-index-to.html.

Now there is a literature review on the Atlantic Salmon Federation that is fighting to get fish farms out of the water on Canada's Atlantic coast: http://www.asf.ca/effects-of-sea-lice-on-sea-trout.html.

This is the abstract and PDF link:

 Effects of salmon lice Lepeophtheirus salmonis on wild sea trout Salmo trutta—a literature review

This review focuses on impacts of sea lice on sea trout, but also has mention that sea lice can lead to an average of 12 - 29% fewer salmon spawners.

The article can be downloaded on this page, and from the website below.

http://www.int-res.com/abstracts/aei/v7/n2/p91-113/. 

ABSTRACT: Salmon farming increases the abundance of salmon lice, which are ectoparasites of salmonids in the sea. Here we review the current knowledge on the effects of salmon lice on wild sea trout. Salmon lice feed on host mucus, skin and muscle, and infestation may induce osmoregulatory dysfunction, physiological stress, anaemia, reduced feeding and growth, increased susceptibility to secondary infections, reduced disease resistance and ultimately mortality of individual sea trout. Wild sea trout in farm-free areas generally show low lice levels. In farm-intensive areas, lice levels on wild sea trout are typically higher, and more variable than in farm-free areas. Lice on wild sea trout are found at elevated levels particularly within 30 km of the nearest farms but can also extend to further ranges. Salmon lice in intensively farmed areas have negatively impacted wild sea trout populations by reducing growth and increasing marine mortality. Quantification of these impacts remains a challenge, although population-level effects have been quantified in Atlantic salmon by comparing the survival of chemically protected fish with control groups, which are relevant also for sea trout. Mortality attributable to salmon lice can lead to an average of 12-29% fewer salmon spawners. Reduced growth and increased mortality will reduce the benefits of marine migration for sea trout, and may also result in selection against anadromy in areas with high lice levels. Salmon lice-induced effects on sea trout populations may also extend to altered genetic composition and reduced diversity, and possibly to the local loss of sea trout, and establishment of exclusively freshwater resident populations.

- See more at: http://www.asf.ca/effects-of-sea-lice-on-sea-trout.html#sthash.aqQ2gj5G.dpuf

And in Norway, there are severe penalties for having too many lice on farmed fish: http://www.undercurrentnews.com/reports/?utm_source=Undercurrent+News+Alerts&utm_campaign=b26baf019f-Salmon_roundup_Sep_04_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_feb55e2e23-b26baf019f-92426209.

In Canada, the exact opposite situation. Just look at recent posts on fishfarmnews.blogspot.com how the laws has been weakened and new aquaculture regs allow fish farms to use chemicals far in excess of the past.

Skuna Bay Sells Farmed Salmon to Gullible US Open Tennis Tournament, And Again, Updated Aug 30, 2016

When I found out that Grieg Seafood's Skuna Bay operation was selling its farmed fish to the US Open Tennis tournament, I almost fell off my chair. It is hard indeed to believe that an in-ocean, sewage and lice releasing, disease leaching fish farm could convince anyone that they were sustainable.

But fish farms do make such claims from time to time. In Scotland, for instance, they have said so often that they are sustainable, and special, it has stuck even though there is no material difference from any fish farm in the ocean anywhere in the world. The sewage released in Scotland, Norway, and BC in each case is higher than the entire human populations of the nation/province where they are situated.

Shame on the US Open Tennis for not doing its homework. One thing that it would have found is that Skuna Bay (not really in Skuna Bay, but in Nootka Sound) killed 65 sea lions two years ago and was convicted last year and had to pay a fine of $100,000.

And here is a well-researched letter that goes down the list pointing out that Grieg Seafood's claims are untrue: http://wildsalmonrecipes.com/an-open-letter-to-skuna-bay-farmed-salmon-and-their-distributors/. The letter has a long list of sound critics of in-ocean fish farms.

Fish farms need to be on land. You will find an index on this site in October 2014, and I will be doing another one in December 2015. You can cruise the blog posts by month to access subjects of interest to you. The index is here: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2014/10/index-to-wwwfishfarmnewsblogspotcom.html.

And in 2016, the US Open has fallen for the Skuna Bay spin, again this year, having furunculosis in their pens and losing many fish to tumours and disease: http://www.seafoodnews.com/Story/1031620/Skuna%2DBay%2DSalmon%2DFeatured%2Dat%2DUS%2DOpen%2DTennis%2DTournament%2Dfor%2DFifth%2DStraight%2DYear

BC Residents Don't Vote Conservative - No to Stephen Harper and Marine Harvest, Cermaq and Grieg Seafood

British Columbia residents voted in high numbers against fish farms, more than 100,000 signing a petition to stop expansion, and to get fish farms out of out pristine ocean. See: https://www.change.org/p/restore-wild-salmon-ban-salmon-feedlots-in-bc.

The Conservatives, the Harper Government, did the opposite of what British Columbians want: they issued four more sites to fish farms in BC; they weakened the already weakened laws by bringing in new fish farm regs (See: my article on the recent Blacklock article: https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1880129387856188740#editor/target=post;postID=3089477178877178483;onPublishedMenu=posts;onClosedMenu=posts;postNum=6;src=postname; and they issued licences in BC for 9 years.

All of these actions are against what British Columbian voters want: we want DFO and the government to get on with saving wild Pacific salmon, and protecting the environment by putting fish farms on land.

Of the other federal parties, the Green Party has a specific policy against fish farms and will get them out of the water immediately after the election. See: https://www.greenparty.ca/en/policy/vision-green/economy/fisheries.

Please note that as of September 1, 2015, neither the Liberals nor NDP have stated policies to eliminate fish farms from BC waters. Those who support wild salmon, do not vote Liberal nor NDP.

In a province with 99.8% of all the wild salmon in Canada - some 73 million before fisheries in saltwater - salmon are an important issue, providing along with freshwater fishing $2.52 Billion, and with another $200 Million if the Georgia Strait chinook and coho stocks are brought back. In other words, $2.72 Billion. See my Pacific Salmon Foundation Salmon Steward editorial: http://onfishingdcreid.blogspot.ca/2015/05/pacific-salmon-foundation-psf-editorial.html. This post gives you links to all the references I used to derive these figures.

By comparison, fish farms, provide only $469 M revenue, or only 17 percent of what we receive from BC wild fish. Their sewage is a $10.4 Billion cost to BC taxpayers and voters. The Liberals and NDP need to get out in front of this issue by publicly stating policy to get fish farms out of the oceans.

Stephen Harper and the Conservatives Don’t Get BC – Atlantic Salmon Poster

As you can see from this Conservative Party election ad, Stephen Harper and the Conservatives don’t get BC. The salmon leaping on the ad is an Atlantic Salmon, not one of the five species of Pacific Salmon. All this ad does is make British Columbian’s angry, and confirm that DFO and the Conservatives don’t get BC.

As mentioned previously, virtually all British Columbians are against farmed Atlantic Salmon in BC. Some 110,000 citizens have signed a petition to stop fish farm expansion and to get fish farms out of our pristine ocean and put them on land where they belong. See: https://www.change.org/p/restore-wild-salmon-ban-salmon-feedlots-in-bc. But Stephen Harper and the Conservatives will not do what we want.

Instead, Harper has thrown $15Million in the BC pot for habitat restoration. You will know from many posts in the past few months that with the environmental laws weakened and scientists fired, DFO isn’t doing much on other fronts, either.

Now, there is some good news and some bad news about the $15Million. The good news is that it was given to the Pacific Salmon Foundation in BC. The PSF leverages such money between 4 to 7 times with contributions from BC residents and businesses.

The bad news is that it is a drop in the bucket. My estimate of money needed for habitat is $500 Million, and, by comparison, last year’s money spent on Vancouver Island was a measly $200,000.

If you look at the cost of a recent project, the Clay Bank on the Cowichan River, for instance, that 400 yards of earth removal cost $1.5 Million. When you consider that there are 70,000 culverts, and this is only one kind of damage that prevents fish passage for feeding or spawning in BC, it is easy to see that $500 Million will get used up pretty quickly.

Just so you know, my figure for pre-fishery, in-ocean BC salmon is 73 Million in an average year. But there are only 170,000 in-ocean adult Atlantic Salmon in more than half the country, some six provinces.

In other words, BC has 99.8% of the salmon in Canada. Harper doesn’t seem to get this. So much for John Duncan on Van Isle.

DFO and CFIA Testing of Diseases in Farmed Salmon

Here is a letter I received today about DFO not testing farmed salmon for PRV (Piscene Rheovirus aka HSMI, the Norwegian heart and skeletal muscle inflammation).

1. The point is that DFO and the CFIA are in conflict with the fish farm industry. The Cohen Commission told the federal government to end the conflict for DFO and take from it supporting farmed salmon, and get on with its duty to protect wild Pacific salmon.

2. The CFIA were shown to be only interested in the export dollars from farmed salmon, not wild Pacific salmon.

3. When the CFIA tested for ISA in Pacific salmon, they were shown to be testing for the Atlantic Canada variant of ISA. They found no ISA which is not surprising because it is the Norwegian variant of ISA that has been transported to BC. You will note AM's point that the samples kept were kept in RNA and thus are of no value.
4. DFO should not be appealing the decision that said all farmed smolts to be transferred needed to be tested. That is standing against wild Pacific Salmon.
5. I would be surprised if PRV was endemic as it is the virus associated with HSMI in Norway.
6. The CEO of Marine Harvest recently stated that they have 90 scientific studies going to find a solution to lice, which he said was the biggest problem in Norway. Sea lice are a problem wherever farmed salmon are allowed.






Alex Morton aksing DFO about PRV testing:

Dear Diane Trager

In a meeting earlier this year with you and representatives of Wild Salmon Forever, I asked you the question -  is DFO testing farmed salmon smolts prior to transfer into marine net pens on our wild salmon migration routes? You said you would find out, but I have not heard back from you.

As you know I won a legal decision this year that requires DFO to make the decision, at every transfer, whether PRV-infected Atlantic salmon smolts can be transferred into BC marine waters.

Somewhat shockingly DFO has joined with Marine Harvest to appeal this decision, so the salmon farmers can make this decision without DFO. It is hard to see how that serves the citizens of Canada,  however, I want to know is DFO testing salmon farming hatcheries today, prior to smolt transfer.  If not, defacto, the industry is making this decision, if they are even testing for PRV at all.

This is a significant issue as I know from my own work that nearly all Atlantic salmon for sale in BC markets are infected with PRV.  While DFO appears to depend on Dr. Gary Marty’s opinion that PRV is benign and endemic, his views were resoundingly debunked by scientists from across Canada.  

“To make that argument, Dr. Marty… has used the literature very selectively and improperly and in some cases he has misquoted or miscited information. These are cardinal sins in academia. His entire approach is very biased and presupposes the conclusion before he presents the evidence for it”  (Dr. Larry Dill, Vancouver Sun, June 12, 2015, 1st version)

This is extremely strong language and so DFO, at some level, must realize that there might be problems with Dr. Marty’s conclusions.

DFO’s preference for farmed salmon over wild salmon is shameful.  The failures are stacking up like sockeye dying in the Fraser River.  The CFIA testing for ISA virus is a sham as they stored the samples in RNALater, which prevents confirmation of the virus in Canada.  You have ignored the Cohen Commission, given the farms longterm leases, permission to use chemicals that kill fish, and DFO has done nothing to reprimand the companies involved in the shameful sea louse outbreak in the Broughton this spring that heavily infected over 90% of the juvenile out-migrating salmon.  The wild fish are a valuable public resource and yet they are treated as vermin.

DFO is allowing the industry to expand when Norway is reining them in due to their lack of ability to control sea lice, even with a wide suit of available drugs. DFO is no longer doing enumeration of wild salmon and there is no indication of response to the extreme conditions wild salmon are facing this summer in the rivers.  DFO now has a reputation of destroying scientific libraries and muzzling scientists.  

I can only conclude that DFO’s longterm plan is to closure of salmon fisheries and to let wild salmon slip into extinction, similar to how DFO presided over the demise of Canada’s cod fishery, muzzling DFO scientist, Dr. Ransom Myers who tried to inform DFO of how to protect that incredible valuable resource, one of the biggest wild food resources on earth.  But he too was muzzled, the cod collapsed and very quickly thereafter the Hibernia oil wells were affixed on the Grand Banks.  I think context is important here.

Are you allowed by your masters to answer this simple question?

Is DFO testing all farmed salmon for PRV and other pathogens prior to transfer into our marine environment.

For those of us determined to bequeath wild salmon to the next generation, we need to know.

Thank you,

Alexandra Morton

101 On Land Fish Farm Systems - Updated Oct 5, 2015

Go back and look at my post that summarizes the 101 on-land fish farm systems, now comprising more than 10,000 actual, on land systems around the world: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2012/01/key-document-34-mostly-on-land-closed.html.

There is no need anymore for the dinosaur, old-tech Norwegian-style in-ocean fish farms that use the world's oceans as free, open sewers. If you hear a fish farm making the claim they have to be in the public's oceans, tell them it just isn't so, and they need to get out of our oceans, contain their sewage, eliminate lice problems and chemicals, avoid killing sea lions and sea birds, avoid killing wild salmon and get with the rest of the world.

Marine Harvest operates in 22 countries - dumping their raw sewage right from their cages - and along with Cermaq and Grieg Seafood need to be chastised until they come out of the ocean. Don't buy farmed fish if you don't want our oceans polluted by companies that, collectively, put out more sewage than the entire human populations of many of the countries they operate in. This includes Norway itself, Scotland and BC Canada.

Note that you should also boycott Mitsubishi products, including their cars, because it bought Cermaq earlier this year.

Also, this just in Aug 20, 2015: AKVA on-land fish farms systems (a Norwegian company) is having its highest growth ever, even in Norway. See: http://www.undercurrentnews.com/2015/08/20/akva-seeing-historically-high-interest-in-land-based-farming-amid-record-quarter-h1/?utm_source=Undercurrent+News+Alerts&utm_campaign=d35cf2dd4c-Europe_briefing_Aug_20_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_feb55e2e23-d35cf2dd4c-92426209.