Sunday 19 October 2014

Index to www.fishfarmnews.blogspot.com, Updated Jan 12, 2016



Three years ago I knew little about global farming of Atlantic salmon. I thought the story was: jobs, revenue and feeding a hungry world. Then I read a Science journal article dated January 9, 2004 by Hites et al from Albany University of New York. It detailed the persistent organic pollutants (POPs), PCBs, dioxins and other chemicals found in farmed salmon, and that cause, among other things, cancer.

Then I read an article by David Miller of Bath University, UK on how the fish farm industry had systematically attacked the article’s, and scientists’ credibility and ultimately ‘proven’ that Scotland’s farmed salmon were sustainable and organic. The problem was that Miler’s article read like a Hollywood thriller: https://www.academia.edu/2939514/Spinning_farmed_salmon.

Since reading it I have questioned everything fish farms say. Marine Harvest, Cermaq, Grieg Seafood, 90% of the BC industry, are all from Norway. I realized the threat their diseases pose to wild Pacific salmonids, and that BC is the first place where contact with the Pacific species has happened. The obvious solution: putting fish farms on land, has been persistently refused by the global Norwegian companies, Marine Harvest in 22 countries, for example.

To do my small part in standing for wild Pacific salmon, I started the blog: www.fishfarmnews.blogspot.com. I had no idea it would become a global success, and, without any advertising, or anything other than putting up text, I have been stunned it has received 85,000 page views, with an acceleration to another 50,000 in the next year likely. To my surprise, I have received email from all continents. Recently a newspaper in Tasmania asked me for advice on how to deal with the industry moving there.

I have just placed all posts in an index so anyone interested has reference to all posts in one place. I go back and update posts, so even ones from three years ago can contain new information. Without doubt the post on the 69 Closed-Containment, On-land fish Farm Systems I have found around the world, and that comprise more than 8,000 actual farms, is far and away the most viewed post on the site. The world wants fish farms out of the ocean.

The purpose of the blog is to put up links to the science so anyone can read it and form their own opinions. I have read 20,000 pages of fish farm environmental damage science in the past three years, and often read 100 pages of fish farm news each week. There are times when my forecasts of global farmed fish prices and shares is more accurate than the brokers in Oslo and New York who get paid to do what I do for free.

Any reader who wants to look into, say, the science of on-land, closed, recirculating fish farms can get there from links on the site. One link is to a symposium held in Shepherdstown, Virginia in Sept 2013. There are more than 50 presentations at this link and will keep you reading for days. They are fascinating: http://tidescanada.org/salmon/aquaculture-innovation-workshops-and-reports/.

Of great humour, Marine Harvest, Cermaq (now Mitsubishi?) and Grieg Seafood, who are unwilling to give their real names in my list of followers, follow my site closely and obviously read everything the second I post it; this is because almost 12,000 page views are from Norway; 1 in 7.

Currently DFO is rewriting the aquaculture laws to allow fish farms to release anything they want from their farms into our oceans: chemicals, anti-fouling, diseases and sewage. My estimate of the last item is $10.4 Billion that we, taxpayers, in essence pay for. While this is bad, the BC industry could well be toast as its own parents companies in Norway successfully lobbied for the USA to remove a 26% tariff on their products – the US is the only real market of BC farmed fish, as in 85%, because Canadians won’t eat it. Chile, just back from the brink in 2008, losing a quarter of a billion fish to ISA disease, is at peak production and it goes into the States, too. In addition, Marine Harvest recently floated a bond in New York, and will be setting up in the USA soon. In other words, the BC industry may well be sacrificed by its own parent companies. Not a legal issue, simply economics.


In closing, Hites et al have gone on to publish several articles over the intervening decade about the chemical pollutants in farmed fish. And the big story in Norway the past year is their scientists and doctors telling consumers not to eat farmed salmon because of the health issues to do with eating those chemicals.



2014 Posts

*Atlantic/Wild Pacific Salmon Crosses – eggs and milt. http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2014/10/atlanticwild-pacific-salmon-crosses.html.
*$93 Million for Diseased Dead Fish: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2014/09/93-million-for-diseased-fish.html. Taxpayer money paid to fish farms for diseased, dead fish.
*Conflict of Interest Continues, DFO back Farmed Salmon, Not Wild Salmon: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2014/09/conflict-of-interest-continues-dfo.html.
*Fish Sales Fraud in Europe and the United States: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2014/09/fish-sales-fraud-in-europe-and-usa.html.
*Key Document – More Fat In Farmed Salmon than in Pizza: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2014/09/key-document-more-fat-in-farmed-salmon.html.

*Global Fish Farm Environmental Degradation – The Third World: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2014/08/global-fish-farm-environmental.html.
*NZ Talley Says Only Future for Farmed Fish is On-land: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2014/08/nz-tally-says-only-future-for-farmed.html.

*New Aquaculture Regulations in Canada – Very Sad for Wild Pacific Salmon: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2014/07/new-aquaculture-regulations-in-canada.html.
*Key Document – Kuterra – Land Based Farmed Salmon: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2014/06/kuterra-land-based-farmed-salmon.html.
*DFO and Nancy Greene Want Fish Farms in BC? We Don’t Want Them In Our Ocean: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2014/06/dfo-and-nancy-greene-fish-farms-in-bc.html.
*Consumers Will Only Buy Closed-Containment Salmon: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2014/06/consumers-will-only-buy-closed.html.
*Weakening the ‘Strictest’ Fish Farm Laws in the World: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2014/05/weakenng-strictest-fish-farm-laws-in.html.

*Nancy Greene Raine and Federal Senators – Please Support Wild BC Salmon: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2014/05/nancy-greene-raine-and-federal-senators.html.
*Nancy Greene Raine – Wants Fish Farms? What About Wild BC Salmon?: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2014/04/nancy-greene-raine-fish-farms-what.html.
*Fish Farm Sewage – DFO Expansions Cost You Money: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2014/03/fish-farm-sewage-dfo-expansions-cost.html.

*Key Document – Taxpayer Money For Diseased Dead Fish:
*Key Document – Taxpayer Money for Diseased Dead Fish: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2014/02/key-document-taxpayer-money-for.html.

2013 Posts

*Most Stringent Fish Farm Laws in the World – Not: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2013/12/most-stringent-fish-farm-laws-in-world.html.
*Sea Lice Kill 34% of Wild Salmon Smolts – Ireland – Updated: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2013/12/sea-lice-kill-34-of-wild-salmon-smolts.html.
*Chile: Millions of Escaped Farmed Salmon – Updated: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2013/12/chile-millions-of-escaped-farmed-salmon.html.
*Harper Government Dismantling Canadian Government Science Resources – Updated: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2013/12/harper-government-dismantling-canadian.html.
*Key Document – Cohen Commission Website, Updated on ISA, Updated: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2013/12/key-document-cohen-commission-website.html.

*Mainstream – Slaughtered Fish Money, Clayoquot Sound – Updated – Davie Miller Articles: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2013/12/mainstream-slaughtered-fish-money.html.
*Fish Farm Companies Make Taxpayer Money from Diseased Fish – Updated: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2013/11/fish-farm-companies-make-taxpayer-money.html.
*Key Document – Land-Based Closed-Containment Fish Farm Science – Updated: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2013/11/key-document-land-based-closed.html.

*Cermaq Mainstream Owned by Norwegian Public – Updated: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2013/09/cermaq-mainstream-owned-by-norwegian.html.
*Critique: Mary Ellen Walling Letter to Victoria Times – Kibenge: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2013/08/critique-mary-ellen-walling-letter-to.html.
*Key Document – Slaughtered, Diseased Fish Farm Salmon Compensation with Taxpayer Dollars: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2013/06/key-document-slaughtered-diseased-fish.html.

*Norwegians Won’t Eat Farmed Salmon – that Means Marine Harvest, Cermaq Mainstream, *Grieg Seafood and Others: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2013/06/norwegians-wont-eat-farmed-salmon-that.html.
*Morton and Eco-Justice Taking DFO to Court Marine Harvest to Court Over PRV Transferred To the Pacific Ocean: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2013/05/morton-and-ecojustice-take-keith.html.

*64 On-land Fish Farm Systems, Comprising more than 8,100 On-land Fish Farms Around the World – Updated: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2013/04/63-on-land-fish-farm-systems-comprising.html.
*ISA in BC Salmon – DFO States the Opposite of the Truth: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2013/04/isa-in-bc-salmon-dfo-states-opposite-of.html.
*Salmon Confidential – Debunking Fish Farm Claims: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2013/03/salmon-confidential-debunking-fish-farm.html.  
*Key Document - Sport Fishing – How We Stack Up - Updated: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2013/02/sport-fishing-how-we-tack-up-feb-6-2013.html.

*Fish Farms Kill More Than 50% of Wild Salmon – Updated: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2013/01/fish-farms-kill-more-than-50-of-wild.html.


2012 Posts

*Key Document - DFO Refuses to Admit ISA Virus in BC Wild Salmon: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2012/12/dfo-refuses-to-admit-isa-virus-is-in-bc.html.
*Move Fish Farms out of Clayoquot Sound to Save Wild Salmon: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2012/11/move-fish-farms-out-of-clayoquot-sound.html.
*Don Staniford Acquitted of Defaming Mainstream Canada: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2012/09/don-staniford-acquitted-of-defaming.html.

*Fish Farms Kill Seals and Sea Lions Around the World: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2012/09/fish-farms-kill-seals-and-sea-lions.html.
*Key Document – Fish Farms Damage Ocean Bottoms: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2012/07/key-document-fish-farms-damage-ocean.html.
*Key Document – Fish Farm Diseases that Infect Humans: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2012/07/key-document-farmed-salmon-diseases.html.

*Key Document: BC Conservative Members Who Voted Against Wild BC Salmon: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2012/06/key-document-bc-conservative-members_23.html.
*GAPI Report – Aquaculture Awards Not Environmentally Justifiable: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2012/06/gapi-report-aquaculture-awards-not.html.
*Key Links: Fish Farm Share Prices and Financial Information – Updated: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2012/05/key-links-fish-farm-share-prices-and.html.

*Key Document – Low Dose Hormones Lead to Worse Health Problems: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2012/04/key-document-low-dose-hormones-lead-to.html.

*Key Document – Farmed Fish Prices Will Tank in 2012 – Updated: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2012/03/key-document-farmed-fish-prices-will.html.

*Key Document: Royal Society of Canada – DFO Failing Canada’s Oceans: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2012/02/key-document-royal-society-of-canada.html.
*HSMI – A New Viral Infection of Farmed Salmon: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2012/02/hsmi.html.

*Key Document – 69 Mostly On-land, Closed Containment, Fish Farm Systems – More than 8,100 actual farms – Updated: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2012/01/key-document-34-mostly-on-land-closed.html.
*Key Fish Farm Statistics – Keith Ashfield, Jan 11, 2012 News Release: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2012/01/keith-ashfield-jan-11-2012-news-release.html.
*ISA – Deficiencies in BC Testing System, DFO and CFIA: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2012/01/isa-deficiencies-in-bc-testing-system.html.

2011 Posts

*Key Document – PCR Testing by BC Government, CFIA: A Crituque on Infections Salmon Anemia Virus Detection Capabilities of the Canadian Fish Health Protection Regulations – SA Goldes, MSC, 2011: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2011/12/key-document-pcr-testing-by-bc.html.
*Key Documents – OIE ISA Testing Manual, Cohen Commission Hearings, Dec 15, 16, 19,, 2011 – Updated: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2011/12/key-documents-oie-isa-testing-manual.html.
*Key Documents – Organic Seafood Does Not Include Farmed Atlantic Samon – Updated: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2011/12/key-documents-organic-seafood-does-not.html.

*Key Documents – High Levels of PCBs, POPs and other Chemicals in Farmed Fish – Updated: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2011/11/key-documents-levels-of-pcbs-pops-and.html.

*Chile Wants Compensation from Norway and Norwegian Fish Farms: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2011/11/chile-wants-compensation-from-norway.html.
*Closed, On-land Fish Farm Systems – Post Being Developed – Updated: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2011/10/closed-system-studies-post-being.html.
*Fish Farm Myths – A Growing List – Updated: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2011/10/fish-farm-myths-growing-list.html.
*Key Links – Fish Farm Share Prices and Financial Information – Updated: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2011/10/key-links-fish-farm-share-prices-and.html.
*Key Document – Fish Farm Tactics: Spinwatch.org – Updated: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2011/10/key-document-fish-farm-tactics.html.
*Key Documents – ISA Infections World Wide Since 1984 – Updated: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2011/10/isa-infections-world-wide-sine-1984.html.

*ISA Confirmed in BC – Salmon Extinction Possible: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2011/10/isa-confirmed-in-bc-salmon-extinction.html.
**Cohen Commission Testimony – Dr. Kristi Miller – Updated: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2011/10/cohen-commission-testimony-dr-kristi.html.

*Marine Mammals Killed by Fish Farms in BC – Updated: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2011/10/marine-mammals-killed-by-fish-farms-in.html.













Saturday 18 October 2014

Aquaculture Activities Regulations - Canada

These are the Aquaculture Activities Regulations that the federal government is about to pass: http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/aquaculture/management-gestion/aar-raa-proposition-eng.htm

Go and read their take.


Then read my comments to Harper, DFO et al, NDP, Greens, News Media: 



Hi Stephen Harper et al
The people of BC do not want fish farms in our ocean anymore, so we do not want your Aquaculture Act that would give them the opportunity to dump everything they have into our pristine waters. More than 100,000 people have signed a petition against fish farms in BC: http://www.change.org/p/restore-wild-salmon-ban-salmon-feedlots-in-bc.

The only people who want the old-tech, dinosaur fish farms in the waters of BC are a few federal and provincial employees and fish farms themselves. Fish farms only want to be in the water to use it as a free, open sewer. My estimate of the sewage damage in BC is $10.4 Billion that fish farms get away with but the cost comes to taxpayers. You will find the formula I used and a summary of 20,000 pages of fish farm environmental damage science on my site: www.fishfarmnews.blogspot.com. You will find the links to the science that shows that fish farms put out more sewage than the entire human populations of many countries they operate in. This includes Scotland, and Norway itself. Norway is so polluted they had to dredge several kilometres of one inlet of fish farm sewage and put it on land.

Of the 85,000 page views I have had in the three years that I have been posting, the most popular by far is the one on the 69 on-land fish farm systems I have found around the globe – comprising more than 8,000 actual on-land farms. People do not want fish farms in the ocean anymore. Marine Harvest, Cermaq and Grieg Seafood follow my blog daily  - they are followers who won’t use their own names – as 12,000 of the views are from Norway alone; that is 1 in 7. And look at the Nancy Greene Raine posts for the deficiencies in the current laws.

Fish farms like to say they operate under the strictest laws in the world – here and every other country they operate in, recently, Chile, Scotland and Norway. Norway is so polluted that the big story in the past year has been scientists and doctors warning Norwegians not to eat farmed fish because of the POPs, PCBs, dioxins and other organic chemicals that cause, among other things, cancer. But once fish farms say they operate under the strictest laws, they lobby behind the scenes for getting rid of them. Your Aquaculture Act is an example of this. Other of your examples include the omnibus ‘budget’ bill of 2013 that gutted S-35 and -36 of the Fisheries Act, and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, 2012. Among other things you fired 200 scientists, including those at the ocean sciences facility in Victoria. In addition, you will find a post on my site that the Royal Society of Canada scientists levelled a stinging indictment at you for your poor treatment of our three ocean coasts. I have just finished a book by a federal DFO enforcement officer, Randy Nelson, who points out that enforcement funding is always a race to the bottom because of the Ottawa view of west coast enforcement.

What your Aquaculture Act does is create a race to the bottom of all the countries that produce farmed salmon because fish farms then deal with those countries and tell them they will have to take their jobs and revenue elsewhere. And, the BC industry’s only market, 85% of it, goes to the USA, but the parent companies of the BC industry have just had a 26% tariff lifted in the USA so Norway is now selling into the only market for BC farmed salmon – and the Norwegian fish farm industry is ten times the size of its BC operations. They will be putting their own Canadian operations out of business, because they are also setting up shop in the USA right now. At the same time, Chile’s production has peaked since their 2008 crash due to ISA virus and most of it goes to the States. The BC industry is in peril from its own parent companies – right now. This has nothing to do with law, only economics.

You haven’t responded to the Cohen Commission that told you to eliminate DFO’s conflict with supporting fish farms and get on with saving wild salmon. The Williams review of the mid-90s and the 1982 Pearse Commission also made environmental recommendations to DFO. Unheeded.

Harper et al, you are forcing BC away from the rest of Canada. At the same time your fish farms are destroying our ocean and you want to make the weak laws even weaker, you are backing the Enbridge Pipeline and the Kinder Morgan Pipeline. There is the shipping of USA coal through BC and the Site C dam is current, along with LNG fracking and Mt Polly tailings pond break. The last three are provincial issues, but all of these are happening at the same time and your conservative government is taking the hit in BC. You undoubtedly know that your current majority is slim and balance of power is in BC.

Just so that you know, fish farms are not about jobs and revenue. They and DFO like to claim that employment is 6,000 and revenue is $800 million. These figures are not true. The BC Stats report shows that fish farming is stagnant and all of aquaculture contributes only $61.9 Million to GPP, while sport fishing, processing, and commercial contribute 90%, more than $600 million. These figures were paid for by DFO and its name is on the document, but because it didn’t like the figures, it took the 1,700 multiplier job figure for fish farms and inflated it 250% to 3,900 recently. This is simply not true. The actual employment is only 795 jobs. That is all there really are. You can find on the Marine Harvest site, for example, that it only has 6,000 staff world wide. As it operates in 22 countries, this means about 270 staff per country. As I have said, the real employment figure in BC is a small 795 jobs, that is all.

BC does not want fish farms anymore; they cause too much damage and the net economic effect is negative. Fish farms jobs don’t add anything, they just replace existing jobs. The commercial sector has lost the same number of jobs that BC stats says are the fish farm multiplier numbers of 1,700. Also on my site you will find the science that shows that fish farms result in a 50% decline in wild salmon numbers around the world. This includes BC and the indicator stream used on Vancouver Island, Black Creek, is in John Duncan’s riding.

DC (Dennis) Reid

Monday 13 October 2014

KEY DOCUMENT: Index to www.fishfarmnews.blogspot.com Posts.



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.

I have placed all posts in an index in this post so that you have reference to all the posts in one place. I often go back and update posts, so even ones from three years ago can contain new information. Without doubt the post on the 69 Closed Containment, On-land fish farm systems I have found around the world, and that comprise more than 8000 such farms, is far and away the most viewed post on this site. The world wants fish farms out of the ocean.

And of great humour, Marine Harvest, Cermaq (now Mitsubishi?) and Grieg Seafood, who are unwilling to give their real names in my list of followers, obviously follow my site closely and read everything I write the second it comes up on fishfarmnews. That is because of the 85,000 page views the site has gotten, almost 12,000 are from Norway, or one in 7 page views.

I get requests for information from concerned citizens around the globe who want the old-tech in-ocean fish farms moved out of the ocean, put on land or to go back to Norway where they are from. I get requests for information from the press around the world and am considered a top commentator on many newspaper websites. I do this without receiving any money from anyone. I do it to stand up for wild BC salmon, something the conflicted DFO does not do.

My approach has always been to put up the reference links so that when I make a post, a reader can go back to them, read them for themselves and come to their own conclusions. Obviously, there are a lot of people around the world who consider this site a major voice on the serious environmental problems that in-ocean fish farms create. They need to come out of the water, or they will go under because informed consumers will no longer buy their products. For example, in BC, Canada, 85% of farmed product has to be sold outside the country because Canadians won’t buy it - we eat wild or Kuterra salmon only.

It all goes to the USA. But the parent companies are now shipping into the USA because a tariff was lifted and are now trying to open up in the USA, so they are in competition with their own offshoot companies in Canada, and could likely put them out of business. Chile, also heavily Norwegian, is a major shipper to the USA, too.

Thanks everyone for your positive comments.

2014 Posts

Atlantic/Wild Pacific Salmon Crosses
– eggs and milt
$93 Million for Diseased Fish
– Taxpayer money paid to fish farms for diseased, dead fish.
Conflict of Interest Continues - DFO
backs farmed salmon, not wild salmon

2013 Posts

DFO Aquaculture Licencing

Mainstream – Slaughtered fish Money, 
Clayoquot Sound – Updated – David Miller Articles
Fish Farm Companies Make Taxpayer Money from Diseased Fish - Updated

Key Document - Land-Based Closed-
Containment Fish Farm Science 2013, Updated
IPN - Fish Farms Cause Disease 

2012 Posts

2011 Posts