Fish Farms Negative to BC Economy - Updated Sept 27, 2015

I have pointed out for years, that when sewage and other costs are taken into account, that fish farms are a negative on the economy. My estimate, for sewage in BC, is $10.4 Billion that we, taxpayers, absorb.

I did a lot of research into sewage around the world before being willing to believe my own estimate. Here is one of my articles that details the negative effects on BC's economy from fish farms: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2014/03/fish-farm-sewage-dfo-expansions-cost.html.

Look at the Index in October 2014 for past articles on sewage, or cruise 2015 for my articles on sewage cost in BC, as well as low or negative job effects and so on. For an article of mine that details the lopsided revenue picture, with wild fish revenue towering over farmed fish: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2015/05/salmonfishing-revenue-towers-over.html.

Here is an article that gives you more references to follow up on the negative costs of fish farming on the economy. It is vastly negative in BC, on sewage cost alone. And the BC Stats article that compares the fishing sectors, noted that all of aquaculture is worth only $61.9 M to the economy while the commercial, processing and sport sector are more than $600 M economic effect, fully 90% of all activity surrounding the fish resource. (For the BC Stats Report: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2013/02/sport-fishing-how-we-tack-up-feb-6-2013.html).

When the heavy environmental damage they cause is taken into account, fish farming operations often are found to generate more costs than revenues.

One study found that aquaculture in Sweden’s coastal waters “is not only ecologically but also economically unsustainable.” Another report concluded that fish farming in a Chinese lake is an “economically irrational choice from the perspective of the whole society, with an unequal tradeoff between environmental costs and economic benefits.” Simply put, aquaculture drives heavy ecological harms and these cost society money. In the U.S., fish farming drives hidden costs of roughly $700 million each year – or half the annual production value of fish farming operations.

This article is at this link: http://worldtruth.tv/norwegian-scientists-warn-against-eating-farmed-salmon-everything-you-need-to-know-about-farmed-fish/. 

Farmed Atlantic Salmon Should Not be Eaten - Norwegian Scientists, Doctors Say - Updated Oct 14, 2015

The following article link is a a really good one and I think that anyone who has eaten or is considering eating farmed fish should reconsider, and not buy it.

The health problems with eating farmed salmon started in 2004 with a Science article Jan 9, 2004 by the Hites group from Albany University. The fish farm industry literally went after the group to neutralize the article. I read the Spinwatch article on what they did and it was the beginning of my not believing anything a fish farm company says without ground proofing it myself. Look in the index for this site in October 2014. It will lead you to the Hites article and the Spinwatch piece by David Miller, UK.

The Hites group has published several articles in the past ten years on the organic and cancer-causing chemicals in farmed salmon.

In 2014, Norwegian scientists and doctors warned Norwegians not to eat farmed salmon, particularly women and children.

Go read for yourself: http://worldtruth.tv/norwegian-scientists-warn-against-eating-farmed-salmon-everything-you-need-to-know-about-farmed-fish/.

Despite this, Stephen Harper, Justin Trudeau and Thomas Mulcair will not take fish farms out of the ocean and put them on land. Elizabeth May will take fish farms out of the water.

Cermaq Site in Clayoquot Sound Closed by Ahousaht Protest

Fantastic news. The Yaakswiis fish farm slated for Clayoquot Sound has to be removed because of the Ahousaht First Nation protest at the site. (See Lennie John video below).

This is a first in Canada: a site closed. It is hard not to say WOW when you have been following global news on fish farms daily for many years. I also read four newsletters daily and thousands of pages of science every year on fish farm environmental damage.

This is the fist time I have ever heard of a site being closed! Fish farms would eat their arms off before giving up a site. And several weeks ago in Chile, the Tortel region, also had a fish farm turned down. Perhaps, finally, the people have done what politicians can’t bring themselves to do: side with the people, who, where they have to live with fish farms, overwhelmingly reject them.

And to the 110,000 British Columbians who signed a petition to get fish farms out of the water (and that Christy Clark originally ignored), thank you. See: https://www.change.org/p/restore-wild-salmon-ban-salmon-feedlots-in-bc.

Now the Green Party will get fish farms out of the water. The Conservatives won’t and they are losing votes over this, along with the Liberals and NDP who have refused to answer the call. You are losing votes.

This is a big victory, and it’s now time to get the other 21 fish farms out of the non-flushing Clayoquot Sound, and put them on land. The Sound is a UN Biosphere no less.

Here is the video of Lennie John describing the end of Yaakswiis fish farm site: https://vimeo.com/139758043.

Here is the link to a letter to the Norwegian people asking them to divest of fish farms: https://www.change.org/p/to-the-citizens-of-norway-divest-from-dirty-salmon.

Russia: Fish Farm Pollution in Russia, Kills Wild Salmon, Pollutes Ocean, Company Denies Everything

A news update on the dumping of rotten salmon in Murmansk, Russia. This includes infected wild salmon in local rivers. Russian Aquaculture denies this. See: http://barentsobserver.com/en/business/2015/09/dumped-salmon-points-perverted-industry-08-09?utm_source=Watershed+Watch+Email+List&utm_campaign=350cc33fca-Salmon_News_Sept_16_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_405944b1b5-350cc33fca-166907249 .

The disease is: lethal fungal infection Saprolegnia.  “The proportions of this outbreak can only be called an ecological catastophe”, a news report from the Murmansk-based Arctic TV says. And: "The company, which over the last years has massively developed fish farming in regional fjords, among them the Pechenga Bay near the border to Norway, has far too much fish in their cages, the website reports."

"In early summer, a major number of fish escaped from a facility operated by the company. The infection could now pose a serious threat also to salmon in neighboring Norway."

And what does the company say?  “With full certainty, I can say that we have never registered a single case of this kind of infection in our facilities”, spokesperson Ilya Bereznyuk underlines to newspaper Gazeta.ru."

Fish farm companies always deny a problem, but disease, for instance, is reported everywhere fish farms set up shop, for example, Norway, Russia, Scotland, Atlantic Canada, BC Canada, Chile and others. Chile is widely seen as the most polluted fish farm country in the world, but my estimate is that in BC the sewage cost is $10.4 Billion, just like in other countries where fish farm sewage exceeds the sewage load of all the humans in the country, for example, Scotland and Norway, itself.

The index to this site in October 2014 gives you the references to check for yourself::  http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2014/10/key-document-index-to.html. And I will post an updated index for this site in December for 2015.

BC First Nations Take on the Court Battle to get Cermaq, Marine Harvest and Grieg Seafood Fish Farms out of Ocean

The Ahousaht First Nation has stood up and refused to allow another Cermaq fish farm in the poorly flushing sound of Clayoquot, as has the residents of Tortel, Chile, along with Nova Scotians demanding that fish farms be taken out of the ocean:  http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2015/09/ahousaht-first-nation-stands-up-to.html.

Now, the aboriginal chiefs of BC are taking action in court with the goal of taking all fish farms out of the ocean in BC for good. Link to come:

As mentioned previously, people who have to live with fish farms overwhelmingly reject them.

Ahousaht First Nation Stands Up to Foreign Multinational Cermaq, and Stephen Harper, Chilean Residents Take on Cermaq and Win, Nova Scotians Boycott Farmed Fish In Stores, Updated Sep 14, 2015

Well, finally, someone has said no to more fish farms in Clayoquot Sound, BC. The Ahousaht First Nation has blockaded the site - the 22nd  fish farm in a non-flushing Sound. If you have been to Ahousaht, it is clear that it needs major support from our BC and federal government, not fish farms that destroy their food resources.

Clayoquot Sound has only 501 wild chinook left in six rivers. There should be no fish farms here. During Cohen Commission hearings, Dr. Kristi Miller said 25% of farmed fish, in this case chinook, had diseases. Some 125,000 per farm. With 65 billion viruses being released per hour during an infection at each infection site, it is not hard to see why local wild BC salmon can't survive with fry having to swim through disease at an early stage in their lives.

The Kennedy Lake sockeye run, decimated by DFO commercial authorized fishing, was wiped out in the 1990s and has never returned during the time that fish farms have been in Clayoquot Sound. This is not right.

Good luck Ahousaht for standing up on behalf of all British Columbians and for all wild Pacific salmon. I hope this becomes an election issue, which it should have been in the last election.

Here is a news report from CTV: http://vancouverisland.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=701676.

And here is some breaking news from Chile: http://oceana.org/blog/ceo-note-expansion-harmful-salmon-farms-stopped-chilean-patagonia-community.

The problems they note are the same ones in BC, Scotland, Ireland, Tasmania, Norway, around the world really:

"Current practices employed in Chile’s salmon farms pollute the environment, destabilize traditional fisheries and harm populations of native species. Aquaculture facilities can be significant sources of pollution with excess feed, fish waste and dead fish dispersing into the surrounding environment. Captive salmon also often escape into the environment, where they can spread disease and prey on native populations.  The process of feeding farmed salmon is highly problematic. According to most estimates, it takes between three to five pounds of wild-caught Chilean Jack Mackerel, anchoveta, sardines, and other smaller species or forage fish ground into fish meal to produce one pound of farmed salmon. This practice wastes countless healthy seafood meals (which could be eaten directly in the form of these smaller fish) and has led to the overfishing of forage fish. 

Chile’s salmon industry is notorious for its increasingly excessive use of antibiotics to fight off bacteria and disease that threaten the stock. Antibiotic use rose 25 percent from 2013 to 2014 alone, according to government data, reaching a world record of 536,200 kg of antibiotics by the whole industry only in 2014. Norway, the main producer of farmed salmon in the world uses less than 1,000 kg a year. While Chilean officials maintain that quantities of antibiotics used are safe for human consumption, there’s widespread concern that overuse may cause human antibiotic resistance and harm marine environments.  Such concern has prompted several prominent companies in the U.S. food industry, including Costco Wholesale Corp., Whole Foods Market Inc. and Trader Joe’s, to partially or entirely phase out Chilean farm salmon, according to Reuters."

Here is my comment for the Chileans: Thank you for having the fortitude to take on the Norwegian multinationals, and the Chilean authorities. The problems you note are the same ones around the world and here in BC Canada. The same movement is happening today in BC, with the Ahousaht First Nations blocking Cermaq (from Norway) from opening the 22nd farm in their territory. See: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2015/09/ahousaht-first-nation-stands-up-to.html. 

September 14, Nova Scotians Boycott Fish Farm Fish

Now, at the same time there are significant protests and progress eliminating in-ocean fish farms in BC and Chile, Nova Scotians are darn mad, too.

See:http://www.thechronicleherald.ca/letters/1310567-reader%E2%80%99s-corner-boycott-open-pen-fish-farming-products#.VfbNqaalmvg.facebook. 

" What is being done about the Doelle-Lahey report? Two lawyers pocketed a significant amount of taxpayers’ dollars to relay what every coastal resident already knew about the disastrous pollution, disease and poisons of ocean-based fish farms, seemingly to have their findings shelved by the Liberals. Doelle-Lahey insisted that all of the recommendations must be adopted to make the industry environmentally sustainable."  

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