Seventeen ways the Government is Helping Kill Wild Salmon

Jeff Mathews, in a strongly worded article in today's Huffington Post, details a list of 17 ways the federal government, Harper Government, DFO, and the CFIA is helping kill wild BC salmon.

Go look at this: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/jeff-matthews/wild-salmon-farmed-salmon-aquaculture_b_7419712.html?fb_action_ids=1673064862922068&fb_action_types=og.likes.

The list is well dotted with references and makes many of the points that I have been making on fishfarmnews. Do secure the link. I have been finding recently that government bodies tend to delete important parts of the fish farm environmental damage narrative that they do not agree with.

The obvious example of this is DFO deleting the Cohen Commission, as a way of leaving that all behind. However, so many journalists, citizens and environmentalists complained, DFO had to repost an archival version of the site: http://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/206/301/pco-bcp/commissions/cohen/cohen_commission/LOCALHOS/EN/INDEX.HTM.

Global Aquaculture Loses One Third to One Half of all Production to Disease

I post once again the seminal work of Dr. Fred Kibenge on global losses for all of aquaculture: one third to one half, some $32 - $49 Billion.

The reason for giving you this link is that the OIE copy of it has been removed from the internet, presumably after the Canadian CFIA asked for his being de-accredited, and the OIE did so.

The link is: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1EKNKFOjnazZcKaOMnYa2Hwek4b6tCnCaPY3B9htJYtE/present?slide=id.p92.

Control over the narrative to do with fish farming rests in the hands of government departments that have high budgets. The CFIA has an annual budget of $740 Million. It simply ignores narratives that don't agree with it.

I repost this link because, like the Cohen Commission - his entire website - was deleted by DFO and it only resurrected it because journalists and environmentalists complained so much that it brought back an archival version.

I suggest you take this list and keep it aside for the time when you are needing to have a reference for the disease problems of aquaculture.

Norwegian Fish Farm Disease and Lice Costs

Two recurrent themes in fish farm environmental damage are: disease losses and out of control sea lice and their associated diseases.

See: http://www.undercurrentnews.com/2015/03/02/norway-salmon-farmers-q4s-confirm-sea-lice-as-key-driver-in-2015-supply/.

You judge for yourself::

1.      February 2015, Rabobank analyst Gorjan Nikolik suggested sea lice management will continue to define the global salmon picture this year.

2.      In 2015, Chile is once more constrained by its own biological situation.

3.      In Norway: Capacity growth is hard to come by... will involve managing all sanitary conditions, including pancreas disease (PD) and amoebic gill disease (AGD).

4.      In Norway, Marine Harvest: spent on sea lice problems: NOK 53m in Q1, NOK 80m in Q2, NOK 74m in Q3 and NOK 96m in Q4, for a year total of NOK 303m, or $40m.

Comment: The cost of seal ice chemicals was 70% higher than in 2013.

5.      Marine Harvest noted: NOK 199m… relating to sea lice mitigation and extraordinary mortality. [Pancreatic Disease and Amoebic Gill Disease].

6.      Salmar had: a challenging situation with respect to salmon lice and PD” in its central Norway region.

7.      Norway Royal Salmon: production cost was still high as a result of costs associated with AGD and PD.

8.      Norway Royal Salmon: was indicted by Norwegian government over misrepresenting sea lice numbers.

9.      Grieg’s costs were up: as a result of lice treatment, and mortality due to gill disease in Shetland, as well as fish that had been affected by PD in Norway's Rogaland region.

Then go back and read this post, a study that says one third to one half of global aquaculture product is lost to diseases. That was 2002, and in 2015, disease and lice are still big killers. All of this could be eliminated by on-land fish farms, and no exposing of wild Pacfic salmon to lice and disease from fish farms: 

Nova Scotia Public Strongly Against Fish Farms in the Ocean

I have mentioned that any place that fish farms like Marine Harvest, Cermaq Mitsubishi and Grieg Seafood set up shop that the public soon comes to hate having them in their pristine ocean.

In Norway it is ISA, escaping fish, diseased steelhead, and parties in the federal government itself calling for fish farms to be on land. In BC 110,000 people have signed a petition to stop expansion and get fish farms out of the water: https://www.change.org/p/restore-wild-salmon-ban-salmon-feedlots-in-bc. And Norway will forego the ocean licence fees of $1.68 Million. This is a freebie in BC because the licence is only $5000. The Harper Conservatives are going to lose plenty of ridings in the federal election over supporting fish farms, with DFO minister Gail Shea ignoring what the public wants and issuing new licences and expansions, the Sir Edmond Bay site for example.

Now it is the citizens of Nova Scotia who are angry with fish farms and want them on land. Read this editorial: http://thechronicleherald.ca/opinion/1287018-surette-after-good-start-liberals-fumbling-fish-farm-file. Scathing is the only word that comes to mind. And that is after a scientific study heavily criticized fish farms: http://www.aquaculturereview.ca/sites/default/files/Aquaculture_Regulatory_Framework_Final_04Dec14.pdf.

Here are a few quotes from a Chronicle Herald, by Ralph Surette.

"After painstaking study, the Doelle-Lahey panel acknowledged that the critics — which include the fishing and tourism industries as well as environmentalists and a broad swath of community groups — have plenty of reasons to be concerned about these operations."
And: 
"Although it disappointed some critics in not calling for an outright ban on open-pen feedlots — instead, giving the industry the chance to redeem itself with better practices in future — it outlined a regulatory process to gain public trust and move the industry forward." 

Note that is the opposite from what DFO is doing in BC. Gail Shea is ignoring, at her own peril, strong public sentiment. Shea et al have weakened the Fisheries Act, Canadian Environment Act, among others to give fish farms carte blanche about chemicals, sewage and other issues.

Minister Keith Colwell, brought in new legislation, Bill 95, that ignoed the Douelle-Lahey recommendations, and:

"Notably, veterinary records would be off-limits to freedom of information requests — a rank move to prevent the public and fishermen from being upset by the chemicals and medications used in feed, against lice and as defouling agents in these operations."
And:
"Meanwhile, the Harper government is being helpful by trashing the Fisheries Act. Two years ago, Glenn Cooke, CEO of the dominant player, Cooke Aquaculture, and other company officials pleaded guilty in a New Brunswick court to using an illegal pesticide that killed untold amounts of lobster larvae and were fined $500,000. It’s a sleazy business, but not to worry in future. Under the Harper changes, chemicals toxic to lobster will be legal."

Like fish farms in other jurisdictions, Cooke, when it was becoming a public flash point, withdrew from being prosecuted to 'study' the findings more closely. Scarcely six months later, Cooke was given $25 Million by the provincial government. And then it was fined $500,000 for using cypermethrin (that kills lobster, the biggest crop in the Atlantic Ocean) for two years.

And: "Last December, Premier Stephen McNeil angrily and rightly called on Cooke to return a chunk of the $25 million gifted to it by the former NDP government, since none of the promised jobs had materialized."

The Chonicle Herald is pretty steamed, just like NS citizens: 

"Indeed, even if you consider objections to shoreline fouling, pesticides in the ocean, threats to wild salmon and other marine life, sludge in the sea currents, dead zones under cages and diseased fish on the market as so much whining, consider the economics. For our $25 million we were supposed to get a processing plant in Shelburne, a hatchery in Digby and an expanded fish-feed mill in Truro. A processing plant — while established South Shore fish processors can’t get enough workers and are shipping product elsewhere! Indeed, if there was a running plant, it would be closed now because all the South Shore fish were killed off by “superchill” last winter and infectious salmon anemia is cyclically rampant (in New Brunswick, production is down 40 per cent because of sea lice). Besides, salmon farming is notoriously easy to mechanize. Jobs are declining, not increasing, wherever processing takes place. In other words, the promise of jobs is a lie for gullible politicians."

There are several posts on fishfarmnews.blospot.com that detail that the promises of jobs and revenue are simply not true. In BC fish farms say 6000 jobs and $800 Million in revenue. But there are only 795 actual jobs and GDP contribution is a measly $61.9 M - for all of aquaculture. And, fish farms are a boom bust industry. Take Aqua Grey in Newfoundland that was in receivership in the summer of 2014.

The tone of the CH article make mine sound tame. Obviously there are lots of citizens very angry about fish farms fouling their Atlantic Canada ocean.

Marine Harvest - Lice Are Our Worst Problem in Open-Net Fish Farms

Last year, I mentioned that the CEO of Marine Harvest said that they wouldn't put in 4 billion smolts in Norway because they thought they would all be killed by sea lice. Within 2 days this news was taken off the internet. I know because I went to look for it and it was gone, and I checked it with another environmentalist and it was confirmed that it was on and then off the internet.

Shortly thereafter, Marine Harvest CEO, Helge Aarskog, said that sea lice were their worst problem. In recent months MH has conceded on global news that it has some 90 scientific studies on the go because lice are resistant to all chemicals and are eating farmed salmon alive. Of course, citizens around the world have little sympathy for fish farms because their lice have been shown to infect and kill wild salmonids. Citiaens want fish farms out of the ocean and put on dry ground along with the 77 on-land systems I have found.

Just so that it is on this site's record, here is what Aarskog said, and the date:






When a fish farm in BC says there is no lice problem, you refer it to its own CEO that says so. We don't need more sea lice science - nor those 90 studies - just fish farms out of water and on land where they belong.

I should also add that the Conservative government in Ottawa does not that British Columbians want fish farms out of the water. More than 100,000 British Columbians have signed a petition to eliminate fish farm expansion and to get fish farms out of our water: https://www.change.org/p/restore-wild-salmon-ban-salmon-feedlots-in-bc.

Second Post: PRV Found in BC, Judge Tells DFO, Fish Farms They Can't Put Diseased Fish in the Sea

The following article has been translated from the Norwegian where in Norway, Marine Harvest, Cermaq and Grieg Seafood, among others, knows that it is now illegal to put diseased farm fish in BC's pristine ocean threatening all wild salmon. This is very important as BC is the first place with millions of wild salmon.

In Atlantic Canada, six provinces, half the country, only 170,000 adult Atlantic salmon remain. In BC before all fisheries their are about 75 Million salmon in the ocean. This is why Ottawa does not get BC. In DFO
s half of the country, salmon are virtually extinct. In BC DFO is the most serious threat to the existence of the five species of wild Pacific salmon.

Although the Google translation leaves something to be desired, you will get the point:

The Federal Court of Canada has determined that the Canadian Fisheries Ministry broke the law when they allowed the fish farming industry to transport contaminated farmed salmon in open sea cages, in British Columbia. The ruling has the potential to have great consequences for the international aquaculture industry.

There are miljøkrigeren Alexandra Morton who have dragged the Department of Fisheries and Ocean (DFO) and Marine Harvest Canada to justice. In the Federal Court of Canada beat judge Donald j. Rennie stated that DFO had broken the law when they gave the Marine Harvest Canada permission to move the farmed salmon in open cages in British Columbia. This was underpinned with the tam the salmon is the carrier of the disease with the potential for extensive damage to wild fish the stem on an international level.

Judge Rennie point in its judgment of 6. may that DFO takes no responsibility to attend to the villfisken in the area by giving the fish farming industry permission to move sick-or disease-bearing tamfisk in this way. According to Alexandra Morton is most of the farmed salmon from British Columbia infected with the virus piscine reo (PR). A number of Norwegian scientists have known that published articles on just this virus, and in their publications that the virus leads to the development of the disease HSMI, which in turn leads to severe heart damage with the salmon.

In the Court the hearing pointed out, the Canadian Fisheries Minister, that she had been guided by professional advisers when permission was given, and that the license criteria was based on what she referred to as the scientific evidence. Judge Rennie was on his page not gracious with the Minister, stating among other things that she had never talked about science in the past. He pointed out also that the Minister was hiding behind the Marine Harvest Canada their alleged truths, without proper support for these. Rennie also made it crystal clear that the Minister could not be put forward so called scientific evidence without tangible proof.

In the 40 pages long, the verdict will be Morton its application for judicial review of the Fisheries Ministry's permission granted, including costs. The Court States that the Ministry has broken the law, and they have given the Marine Harvest Canada is declared invalid

The Norwegian, the nonprofit organization Save the salmon are jubilant over the verdict from Canada. Chairman of the Board Jens Olav Stain think that this can have a ripple effect all over the world, and maybe even make your way to the closed plant shorter.

"This is a big win for both Alexandra Morton, and everyone who cares about the wild salmon. I expect that there will be an appeal, and what one is actually ends up with in the end, it's hard to say for sure, but it's still great to win the first legal battle in such a case. If the verdict is being dealt with, of course, responsible authorities should take responsibility. Then, we have namely been established once and for all that this in fact is a problem, "said the Stain to the Hooked.

He does not hide that he thinks the fish farming industry is sure to be aware of the problem with the disease-bearing fish, and he also says straight out that it probably has to do with a lot of political governance when it comes to the industry's position and the emergence here on land.

"It's the money and the development that controls this, and the most important thing is to make money and get lives and jobs in sparsely populated areas. It's basically a noble thought, it seems the me too it, but then, these are the consequences when, "he said to the Hooked.

About the actual verdict says Stain that he as the layman find it difficult to put themselves into the details, but that it is unquestionably is positive that one now has obtained a judgment related to the spread of diseases between the tame and Wild Salmonids.

-As mentioned travel the verdict also part problems positions here at home, then there is no doubt that the aquaculture industry is spreading the infection, and that this leads to the death of among wild fish. Alexandra's untiring and self-sacrificing work that has led up to this judgment is impressive, "he said.
http://www.hooked.no/artikler/historisk-oppdrettsdom

Historisk oppdrettsdom

PRV Found in BC, Judge Tells DFO, Fish Farms They Can't Put Diseased Fish in the Sea

Here is the kind of uncritical news on the internet that fails to groundproof what fish farms say.

Judge Rennie ruled that BC fish farms couldn't put diseased fish in the pristine BC ocean. It told DFO it had four months to put regs in place.

But on Seafood News, their version is:

http://www.seafoodnews.com/Story/974908/75113/Anti-Salmon-Farm-Activists-Win-Court-Victory-in-BC-as-Court-Buys-Disputed-Claim-About-Transfers.

Anti-Salmon Farm Activists Win Court Victory in BC, as Court Buys Disputed Claim About Transfers

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [The Canadian Press] May 8, 2015 

[This court ruling was a victory for anti-salmon farming activists in BC.  However it is unclear about the practical effect, because the virus in question is naturally occuring in BC waters and existed long before salmon farms were introduced.  The actual charge of illegally moving 'sick' fish, was due to the presence of this naturally occuring virus which is not identified as a disease by salmon farmers. JS]

The problem is that PRV is a Norwegian Atlantic disease and the claim it is in BC naturally is bull. Norwegian PRV causes HSMI and is one of the recent, big killers of farmed salmon. Miller's work in the Cohen Commission showed that as high as 90% of wild Fraser sockeye were infected with this disease, after passing fish farms.

And fish farms not identifying it as a disease matters little, as it is DFO's responsibility and the OIE to make this determination. Also fish farms trade on the semantic issue that, as they claim, a fish can have the virus but not the disease. They are the only people in the world who construe the disease this way. It is a killer in Norway and BC wild salmon have been shown to have it, too.

Salmon/Fishing Revenue Towers Over Farmed Salmonm Updated Nov 16, 2016

I wrote the following article for the Pacific Salmon Foundation's Salmon Steward as an editorial they wanted me to do. The point, for this site, is that the revenue from salmon/fishing towers over the farmed salmon by such a huge margin that there is no point leaving fish farms in the water where they threaten all BC wild salmon.

The BC Stats report (reference below) revenue figure for farmed is $400 Million. I found that salmon/fishing revenue is $2.72 Billion, meaning that farmed fish that pollute our ocean, are only 14.7% of the revenue from wild salmon and other fishing. There is no point from a revenue standpoint in allowing the environmental degradation of this industry. It should be on land.

Here is a new post on this issue:  http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2016/11/wild-salmonfishing-revenue-is-630.html.

Pacific Salmon Foundation (PSF) – Editorial – DC Reid.

The PSF asked me to do an editorial on the value of salmon/fishing to BC and what needs to be done to bring salmon back. Below is the text that ran in the Salmon Steward on April 6, 2015. You can get a PDF for the entire document from Elayne Sun, esun@PSF.CA.

Below the text is backup for revenue and salmon numbers.

Examining the massive impact B.C. salmon have on Canada’s economy

BY DC REID

DC Reid is a B.C. poet, novelist and angling  writer

British Columbia’s calendar begins when salmon come back, and resident and non-residents alike eagerly take to the waters. Salmon are more than just fish to British Columbians. They compose a socio-economic backbone for aboriginal and non-aboriginals alike. Even BC vegetation responds. Fifteen percent of carbon in cedar trees 1000 years old comes from salmon toted into the woods by bears, wolves and eagles. With almost a million square kilometres, less than a tenth of the country, British Columbia has 99.8% of the salmon (that’s 42,900% more than the rest of Canada). In turn, we issue 300,000 freshwater licenses, 300,000 salt-water licences, and 200 First Nations licenses, comprising almost a third of all Canadian licenses.

Expenditures on salmon capture and freshwater fishing topped $1.716 Billion in 2014. If we add the commercial and processing sectors, the value is: $2.52 billion. We need to protect our fish because, for example, in the Strait of Georgia, there has been no commercial fishery for more than 20 years, and the sport fleet is a spectre of what it once was. Fixing the Salish Sea’s Georgia Strait could add $200 million in additional revenue, more than $2.72 billion in total, and that is only part of our 25,000 km shoreline. Salmon are that important.

Need for Change

But there are problems to solve on the way to prosperity. We need to accelerate the use of land-based fish farms. The Namgis First Nations are proving that closed-containment land-based aquaculture can be an economically viable option through their Kuterra farmed salmon brand. Additionally, our science must adapt to climate change which results in dry hot water in summer and floods in winter. We need to know the genetics of fish that can stand extremes.

A century’s logging damage must be addressed along with 77,000 culverts that prevent fish movement and spawning. Habitat work costs millions. Passing the responsibility to B.C. from Ottawa could help strengthen support for provincial salmon needs.— Last year Ottawa’s total B.C. program was $0.9 million, when one clay bank project on the Cowichan cost at $1.5 million a few years ago. Not enough.

The $25 million Salmon Enhancement Program needs to be taken out of the Conservation and Protection standard object — where it is whittled down as a freebie for the West — and placed in its own budget along with the new announcement of $4 million for salmon enhancement in the east.

A drastic interim need is widespread netpens for sterilized Chinook to address food needs for imperiled killer whale populations that now only consist of 78 individuals, with the residual adding to winter fisheries and adult returnees. There is little genetic issue with fish that cannot reproduce and there is little competition for food with wild fish, because there are so few wild Salish Sea Chinook. Ending the herring roe harvest would improve salmon numbers, too, allowing us to slowly replace netpens with wild Pacific Chinook in Georgia Strait.

Salmon Need Habitat and Money

The Pacific Salmon Foundation has a vital role in bringing back wild Pacific salmon. The most important role is improving habitat for salmon. Additionally, the Freshwater Fisheries Society that puts out 8 million freshwater trout, and has a well-developed marketing program that could be adapted to salt water, too.

In terms of funding, the $1.8 Million Salmon Conservation Stamp revenue was dedicated to the Foundation recently. I think the Salmon Conservation Stamp should quadruple to $24 per licence, making the amount $7.2 million per year. At the same time, the federal and B.C. governments could make matching contributions making available $21.6 million for habitat reconstruction. This annual amount would comprise a sound base given the community groups that the Foundation funds ability to leverage dollars some seven-times, through donations and in-kind contributions in for work and equipment used. Let’s bring them back one at a time and let’s do it in British Columbia.

                                                                        ***

Now, let me show you how I derived the financial figures and fish number figures.

1.      Revenue

The financial numbers were derived from several reports. We normally say it is a billion for angling, but when I looked deeper into the reports, and accounted for processing and commercial, updated for inflation, found separate figures for fresh and salt angling, the figure came in much higher. Note that my purpose was saying what the total value of salmon/fishing is to BC, not simply sport revenue.

My estimate should be conservative, as I made no inflation adjustment for the BCFFSBC figure, and used $200 M for Salish Sea potential, rather than the high end of $400M or higher.

1.      BC Stats Report: $344.8M Commercial + 427.5M Processing  = $772.3 for Commercial and Processing = $806.4M updated for inflation.

(See my site for the table and link to the BC Stats report: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2013/02/sport-fishing-how-we-tack-up-feb-6-2013.html).

2.      The BC Freshwater Fishing Society document says freshwater alone is: $957M.

(Freshwater Angling and the B.C. Economy –  Megan Bailey (Environmental Policy Group, Wageningen, UR) and U. Rashid Sumaila (Fisheries Centre, UBC), 2012). I made no adjustment for CPI.

3.      From a DFO report I found for tidal waters direct sport expenditures on investments: $706.0M, updated for inflation = $758.7M.

(See: http://sportfishing.bc.ca/docs/110_-_national_recreational_fishing_survey_-_bc_tidal.pdf).

 Total: $806.4M + $957M + $758.7 = $2.52Billion.

4.      Then I added the mid-range value from the stats on the Salish Sea derived for the PSF: $200M 

Grand total: $2.52B + $.2B = $2.72 Billion

                                                                        ***

2.      Fish Numbers

A.    Atlantic Salmon

I was simply stunned to find out that all Atlantic salmon, in six provinces, half the country (and you can add Maine in, too) was only 170,000 adult salmon at sea. I think that this alone explains why DFO in Ottawa does not get BC.

See the graph in this document: http://0801.nccdn.net/1_5/039/0bf/290/nasco-background2014v4.pdf. You will note that the numbers of Atlantics has been below the lowest threshold for fisheries of 213,000 for more than 20 years.

B.     Wild BC Salmon

As for wild BC salmon, I looked over five DFO and PFRCC reports and settled on three for most of the data:

Riddell on northern BC: https://www.psf.ca/sites/default/files/SalmonResources-North_2004_0_Complete.pdf. QC Sound to Portland Canal.

Mark Johannes: http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/Library/347505.pdf. Transboundary rivers in North BC

Marc Labelle, PFRCC Doc, 2009 for southern BC: Can be found on the PSF and DFO's site:
http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/Library/347505.pdf.

There were problems with data and methods: data holes, differing methods, for ex, aerial survey versus on foot, flood years, methodological differences, estimated figures, graphs with trends but no current figure, different models and so on. I spent seven full days figuring out the numbers of fish from all systems in BC.

Where needed, I made assumptions of what seemed the most reasonable fish figures in comparable years. For escapement in an average year, meaning in-river after all fisheries, the wild BC salmon number is 38.62 million salmon. The number of salmon in the ocean before all fisheries is about twice that size or 72.65 million salmon. To figure out a mega-year in-ocean number of salmon before fisheries, I scoured the documents for peak year numbers, for example, in the Fraser, add 15M for extra sockeye, and 20M for pinks, and this came out to 128.05M wild salmon in BC.

Now, BC’s percent of all Canadian salmon, in an average year, is: 72.65M / .17M + 72.65M = 99.8% of all the salmon in Canada. The six eastern provinces have only .2% of all salmon.

Similarly, BC has 72.82M / .17M = 42,835% more salmon than the rest of Canada.