This just in: "Since 1996, at least $135 Million has been paid by government to compensate industry for having to eradicate farmed salmon infected with ISA."
See: http://www.thefishsite.com/fishnews/21916/maines-salmon-farming-management-sets-good-example#sthash.UJ6ZZFpi.dpuf.
Now back to the original post:
I now have reliable figures on slaughtered fish payments of your taxpayer
dollars to billion dollar Norwegian derivative fish farms in BC, and others across
Canada. Cermaq Mainstream, Marine Harvest and Grieg Seafood may be happy to
hear I will eat some crow, as the BC figures are much lower than my earlier estimate.
The reason for having to make estimates is that fish farms typically
do their best to prevent the public knowing how much taxpayer money they
receive from us for diseased fish that foul our pristine oceans. Behind the
scenes, they often have lawyers trying to keep such numbers, and in the BC
case, the disease records for testing of their farms, from the public, as
happened during the Cohen Commission. He didn’t buy it.
And in this case, it was precisely that, a fish farm legal
injunction made my request wait 10 months before our taxpayer dollars were put
in a table and sent to me. My estimate of $35 million in BC is incorrect. The
payments to Cermaq Mainstream's IHN diseased Clayoquot Sound farmed salmon are:
$2.64 Million for 959,498 diseased salmon (report date: Nov 2012); and,
$201,000 for infected equipment and supplies (report date: Jan 2013). The total
is $2.8 Million, or $3 per fish, not $30 per fish.
What has not made much news is that the Grieg Seafood open net
operation in Sechelt also received payment for slaughtered IHN diseased fish:
$1.61 Million for 312,032 diseased salmon (report date: Nov 2012); and,
$152,000 for infected equipment and supplies (2013), or $5.60 per diseased
salmon.
But get the bottom line: in little more than a year, the Canadian
Food Inspection Agency paid fish farms almost $50 Million taxpayer dollars for
diseased slaughtered fish across Canada.
In July 2013, Manuel's Arm, a Kelly Cove Salmon farm, was
paid $23.96 per fish for 100,000 diseased fish, and its Pot Harbour/Hermitage
Bay site was paid $8,232,000, or $23.52 per fish for 350,000 diseased fish in
December 2012. In fact, the big story from the east is that at the same time fish
are dying of ISA and other diseases and we’re paying for it, DFO is giving NL almost
$400 million more taxpayer money to put in more open-net fish farms! What a
waste. And one of the firms we gave money to, Gray Aqua, has been sliding in
and out of bankruptcy proceedings since last summer.
The reasonable British Columbian has to ask: where is the
money for BC’s wild salmon? We want $400 Million for habitat restoration. What
is DFO actually spending here? DFO’s community habitat program for Vancouver
Island is so small it is almost non-existent: $200,000. For all of BC it is $.9
M this year or .45% of the NL money. DFO: we want $400 Million for wild salmon
here. Not simply the $1.8 M salmon licence money given to the Pacific Salmon
Foundation, where the $400 M should go so BC once again takes control of its
own fish with a made-in-BC program.
The real solution to fish farms is to get the old-tech dinosaurs
out of the water, which the BC government can do in 60 days by cancelling
leases. Even though fish farms say it can’t be done, I have a list of 65
different closed systems comprising more than 8,000 actual on-land farms around
the world.
You may wonder why DFO backs in-ocean fish farms in BC at all. I
sure do. And we all remember the Cohen Report recommended DFO be stripped of this
conflict of interest and deal solely with wild salmon – the 2005 Wild Salmon
Policy and 1986 Habitat Policy, with a new west coast director general for
bringing back Fraser sockeye. None of these have happened since Report date of
October 31, 2012.
It’s hard to fathom DFO’s interest in fish farms. Perhaps they
believe what they and fish farms like to say: fish farms create employment and
revenue. Well, I waited five years for the best source of info to update their
numbers, and they show decisively that fish farms don’t contribute much of
either.
In BC all aquaculture comprises a measly $61.9 Million of
Gross Provincial Product, meaning only 9% of the fishing sector’s total of
$667.4 M BC GPP contribution. Sport fishing is miles above at $325.7 M or
48.4%. And the employment that they talk of is similarly small at 1,700 or
12.2% in multiplier terms that include spin off jobs. The entire fish sector is
13,900 jobs, with sport fishing 60.4% at 8,400 jobs. The $400 Million for wild
salmon restoration would do wonders for processing, commercial and sport
fishing employment, not to mention the entire wild BC province.
And
there’s more. I spotted a science paper that confirms what most supporters of
wild salmon have always suspected: wild salmon stocks in BC have declined 50%
since fish farms set up shop: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2013/01/fish-farms-kill-more-than-50-of-wild.html.
The paper shows the same in
Ireland, Scotland and Atlantic Canada. Note that Commercial sector employment
has been cut 50%, 1,400 jobs, in the same time period.
So,
I did some sleuthing and found that the actual number of real fish farm
jobs in BC is a very small 795. Commercial job losses in the same period are
1,400 jobs due to the loss of wild salmon. So fish farm jobs likely eliminate
jobs in other sectors, resulting in a net employment loss. The same can be said
for revenue.
This
does not add in losses in processing, and the sport sector from DFO allowing
wild salmon to decline 50%. Little wonder the Cohen Commission said DFO is in a
conflict of interest. His recommendation was that fish farm support needs to be
eliminated and DFO should concentrate solely on the Wild Salmon Policy and its
Habitat Policy.
Notes:
BC Stats 2011 Report: Fish, Processing, Sport Fishing and Aquaculture Stats -
Figures in Millions (and 2002 constant dollars, except for 2011 Revenue)
|
Commercial
|
Processing
|
Sport
|
Aquaculture
|
Total
|
Contribution
to GDP, and %
|
$102.3
(15.3%)
|
$177.5
(26.6)
|
$325.7
(48.8%)
|
$61.9 (9.3%)
|
$667.4
100%
|
% GDP
|
|
|
|
|
0.4%
|
Employment
(% of
total)
|
1,400
(10.1%)
|
2,400
(17.3%)
|
8,400
(60.4%)
|
1,700
(12.2%)
|
13,900
100%
|
Wages and
Salaries
% of Total
|
$78.4*
$8.4
2.2%
|
$105.3
$105.3
27.5%
|
$218.9
$218.9
57.1%
|
$55.7
$55.7
14.5%
|
-
$383.3
100%
|
Total 2011
Revenue (increase/decrease)
|
$344.8
(+4.1%)
|
$427.5
(+2.1%)
|
$936.5 (+0.8%)
|
$469.0
(-12.2%)
|
$2,177.8
|
Revenue %
of Total
|
15.8%
|
19.6%
|
43.0%
|
21.5%
|
100%
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
A
USA report says commercial and sport fishing is worth $199
Billion to the US economy and employs 1.7 million people: http://www.thefishsite.com/fishnews/19805/report-finds-commercial-recreational-saltwater-fishing-generated-199-billion-in-2011
