March 2017 - Most Popular Posts on Fish Farm News

I have been posting the most popular posts of the month since October 2016. Look on the first day of the succeeding month (or close to it) for the lists.

For March 2017, the most popular post by a large margin is this one: Liberals Deal Body Blows to BC. Justin Trudeau and Dominic LeBlanc don't get that salmon are as important to BC as French is to Quebec. Go and read the post as it has a good list of references, including to the survey that proves that salmon are that important to BC.

The other thing that has come clear in 2017 is that in-ocean fish farms are on the run nearly all around the world. The most recent place is Tasmania where residents are complaining that they need to be on land. Ottawa just doesn't get that the BC industry is an out of date dinosaur. The Atlantic Sapphire, 90,000 mt fish plant to be built in Florida, will be bigger than the entire BC industry and is going to eliminate BC's sales into the USA, more than 50% of its business.

As before, the most-often-read posts are near the beginning. This does not make them anymore important than the other posts, simply an indication of the global audience's preferences in March, 2017. Examples of very important posts toward the end are: 7. Habitat Protection and Changes to Laws; and, 11. ISAV in BC but DFO, the CFIA and BCMAL Can' Find Disease. Here are the posts:

1. Liberals Deal Body Blows to BC - fish farms, Kinder Morgan, environmental issues, good references: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2016/12/liberals-deal-body-blows-to-bc-will-we.html. Will BC fight? Just watch us.

2. BAD NEWS BITES - more than 300 bad news stories about the global fish farm/seafood industry, since January 14, 2017. More than 1,400 bad news stories since July, 2015: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2017/01/bad-news-bites.html. Scan the bold faced text to see a quick list of the litany of problems

3. The Future of On-Land Fish Farms is Now: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2017/03/the-future-of-on-land-fish-farms-is-now.html.

4. The Future of Aquaculture - On-Land Fish Farms - The Future is Now: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2017/02/the-future-of-aquaculture-on-land-fish.html.

5. Fish Farm Companies Make Taxpayer Money from Diseased Fish. No taxpayer in Canada wants to pay a bean to a company dumb enough to kill its own fish with diseases that can be totally avoided by putting farms on land: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2013/11/fish-farm-companies-make-taxpayer-money.html. Note that this is a post from 2013. Looks like a lot of fish farms companies are reading this one, as in perhaps something we taxpayers don't like may be about to happen.

6. Versinia Resembles Bubonic Plague - Brought to you by Fish Farms: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2017/03/versinia-related-to-bubonic-plague.html. 

7. Habitat Protection and Changes to Laws - Righting the Wrongs of the Harper Era: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2017/03/habitat-protection-and-changes-to-laws.html.

8. Scandal of 45 Lochs Trashed by Pollution - from fish farms, Scotland: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2017/02/scandal-of-45-scottish-lochs-trashed-by.html.

9. Fish Farm Diesel Spill in Pristine Ocean: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2017/03/fish-farm-diesel-spill-in-pristine-ocean.html.

10. Key Document - Dr. Kristi Miller - Diseases and Fish Farms: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2017/01/key-document-dr-kristi-miller-diseases.html.

11. ISAV in BC but DFO, the CFIA and BCMAL can't find disease: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2017/01/isav-in-bc-but-dfo-cfia-and-bcmal-cant.html.

12. Environment Ruined by Fish Farms - Chilean rivers: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2017/03/environment-ruined-by-fish-farms.html.

Environment Ruined by Fish Farms - Chilean Rivers

I have mentioned before that Chile is widely considered the dirtiest country with respect to fish farms in the world. I will soon do a post on the false claim by fish farms that they operate under 'the strictest laws' in the world in every country in which they operate. Marine Harvest, Cermaq and Grieg Seafood are the cartels, er, consolidated companies, that operate in most of the world.

The Atlantic Salmon Foundation has done a good study on the subject in BC, NB, NS, NL, Maine USA and Norway. The study is here: http://www.asf.ca/regulatory-review-to-improve-management-of-sea-cage-salmon-.html. It is a lot of reading, but you keeners will dive right in.

New Brunswick comes in at 45% of the ASC standard. NL is 50%. Maine is 59%. NS is 64%. BC is 69%. Norway 82%. When you consider that with more than 1100 fish farms Norway constantly has lice, sewage and disease issues, it suggests that the ASC isn't really a difficult measure, and yet there is an almost 40% difference between bottom and top, and no one is stellar. Please note that I have pointed out that the WWF's ASCs have a pretty significant hole in them; that is they allow in-ocean, open net fish farms as sustainable, something that is patently false.

You will note that Chile doesn't even make it on the ASF study (not the ASCs) list. And it is with great sadness that I have noted the country is so polluted, fish farms are trying to get away from their own sewage and disease by moving into one of the world's most hallowed, pristine areas: Patagonia, something that should not happen. The strong word that applies is: this is a travesty.

Things are so bad in Chile - you will remember the 13,000 people who lost their jobs in the ISA disease crisis of 2008 where $2 billion was lost, and the 5,000 people who lost their jobs in 2016, less than 10 years later, to an algal bloom caused in part by fish farm's own sewage and dumping their own dead fish too close offshore, the El Nino not seen to have raised the ocean temperature, hence not contributing to the algal bloom. In this one, in 2016, Chile lost 38.2 million farmed salmon and helped dent the world supply 8.7% (along with Scotland and Norway whose lice were so bad, they also had large fish losses. You will. of course remember that Scotland calls itself the best organic farmed fish in the world. Sad, but true, and they spent more than $480 on lice chemicals in 2016. Organic? I think not.).

Now there is a paper out on fish farms polluting rivers in Chile - and those rivers flow into the ocean, of course. Fish farm hatcheries are on shore, but use pristine river water that they then dump back into the river full of sewage, chemicals, antibiotics and so on. This is sewage with no sewage treatment.

You can read a several page summary of the Chile sewage article on this site: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/03/170322094520.htm?utm_source=Watershed+Watch+Email+List&utm_campaign=ead2c4cb2a-Salmon_News_Mar23_2017&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_405944b1b5-ead2c4cb2a-166907249&mc_cid=ead2c4cb2a&mc_eid=5777c92bcd.

Here are a few quotes from it:

1. "40 tonnes of dissolved organic substances end up in the rivers for every 50 tonnes of farmed salmon." Yes, you got that right. For every five tonnes of fish, they release four tonnes of sewage. That is what is passing into any lake or river used for fish farm hatchery purposes - in the world - unless, of course, they actively pick up sewage. In BC on Van Isle they are congratulating themselves on picking up the sewage under the Georgie Lake net on Van Isle: http://marineharvest.ca/globalassets/canada/wharfside-newsletters/2014-newsletters/april/mhc-newsletter-april-2014-web.pdf. Golly gosh, I'm almost  shedding sentimental tears. Lovely spin Marine Harvest. On the other hand, there is the vast percentage that pollutes the water, and rivers down stream.

2. "In particular, much higher concentrations of carbohydrates, proteins and their building blocks, and lipids are present downstream of the facilities. The aquacultures therefore provide the low-nutrient rivers with a kind of fertilizer boost." This is a polite way of saying they are polluted with sewage.

3. "Nevertheless, rivers should not be misused as natural sewage treatment plants," emphasises Norbert Kamjunke." Really, who'd a thunk it?

4. "The researchers also draw another conclusion from their study. They do not consider it advisable to install any further aquacultures on Chilean rivers. The authorities have already imposed a moratorium on new salmon farms in the country's lakes. Operators are now considering the option of moving the farming of medium-sized salmon from the lakes to the rivers. "In theory that could work," believes Norbert Kamjunke. "But from an ecological perspective, it would not be a good idea."" You will note the strategy is: if the lakes we use are polluted with our sewage, let's move to pristine rivers and pollute them. Hmm, good strategy.

So, in summary, you can add to Chile being the dirtiest fish farm country in the world, by adding that they are not only killing the world's oceans, they are killing their own rivers, and, of course, estuaries because all rivers flow to the sea. And isn't Patagonia a world treasure for all of humanity? I would say so.

Habitat Protection and Changes to Laws - Righting the Wrongs of the Harper Era - Updated Feb 28, 2018

The West Coast Environmental Law NGO has put together a good document summarizing where we are now with trying to force Trudeau's Liberals to change the Steve Harper rape of our Fisheries Act, environmental assessment legislation and etc. See: http://wcel.org/resources/environmental-law-alert/back-schools-canadas-fish-happy-new-report-look-forward-amended-l?utm_source=LEB.

We should not be having to push Trudeau, but he has come out against wild Pacific salmon, and approved the Kinder Morgan pipeline, a huge fight that will come on the ground in the country, er province, of BC. His DFO minister Dominic Leblanc is against wild Pacific salmon and like the newbie he is refuses to get fish farms out of our - not Ottawa's - water, falling for the jobs and revenue spin, that has never actually happened in any of the more than a dozen countries where there are now fish farms.

After looking at the issues for four decades now, I would say the four major problems with wild salmon in BC are: habitat restoration, DFO, fish farms and climate change.

Habitat restoration is far and away the most important of the four because if there is no place to spawn, salmon are dead in the water. The most useful program is to increase the halibut stamp on sport licences to $24 with all of it going to the Pacific Salmon Foundation (PSF) because they can leverage every dollar between 4 and 7 times with the public and business who are willing to help. The take would be about $7.2 million.

If DFO just left the field, but gave the PSF an annual bump of $7.2 million and the province of BC matched it, the PSF would have $21.6 Million each year to leverage 4 to 7 times, which is a good beginning to real habitat restoration in BC. Just one item, there are more than 250,000 culverts on salmon bearing water in BC, about 70,000 requiring immediate action.

The other thing achieved by the matching funds is that control over habitat restoration would come back to BC where it has always been needed, rather than the far off nation of Ottawa.

In addition, you should know that the federal Parliamentary Committee on Fisheries and Oceans' report reviewed the Fisheries Act to reinstate habitat protection for fish. See:   http://www.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?Language=e&Mode=1&Parl=42&Ses=1&DocId=8783708&File=9.     
 
It made 32 recommendations. You may read them here: http://www.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?Language=e&Mode=1&Parl=42&Ses=1&DocId=8783708&File=156.

Or you may read them here:

[[And please go read an article from Hakai Magazine on these issues, particularly DFO not standing up for fish habitat: https://www.hakaimagazine.com/article-short/fisheries-and-oceans-canada-was-ignoring-its-own-habitat-protection-guidelines?utm_source=Watershed+Watch+Email+List&utm_campaign=d8b20e9fb1-Salmon_News_Apr7_2017&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_405944b1b5-d8b20e9fb1-166907249&mc_cid=d8b20e9fb1&mc_eid=5777c92bcd.]]

Recommendation 1

That section 35(1) of the Fisheries Act return to its wording as of 29 June 2012 which reads: “No person shall carry on any work, undertaking or activity that results in the harmful alteration or disruption, or the destruction, of fish habitat.” Remove the concept of “serious harm” to fish from the Act. 

Recommendation 2

That Fisheries and Oceans Canada take an ecosystem approach to protection and restoration of fish habitats so that the entire food web is preserved for fish by:

1. Adopting key sustainability principles;
2. Protecting the ecological integrity of fish habitat; and
3. Protecting key areas of fish habitat.

Recommendation 3

Any revision of the Fisheries Act should review and refine the previous definition of HADD due to the previous definition’s vulnerability to being applied in an inconsistent manner and the limiting effect it had on government agencies in their management of fisheries and habitats in the interest of fish productivity. 

Recommendation 4

That Fisheries and Oceans Canada emphasize protection for priority habitats that contribute significantly to fish production within the context of section 6 of the Act. 

Recommendation 5

That Fisheries and Oceans Canada fund more research dedicated to ecosystem science. 

Recommendation 6

That protection from harmful alteration or disruption, or the destruction, of fish habitat be extended to all ocean and natural freshwater habitats to ensure healthy biodiversity. 

Recommendation 7

To protect fish habitat from key activities that can damage habitat, such as destructive fishing practices and cumulative effects of multiple activities.

Recommendation 8

That Fisheries and Oceans Canada put sufficient protection provisions into the Fisheries Act that act as safeguards for farmers and agriculturalists, and municipalities. 

Recommendation 9

That Fisheries and Oceans Canada work with the farm community and rural municipalities to provide incentives and expert advice to conserve and enhance fish habitat and populations and utilize the enforcement approach as a last resort. 

Recommendation 10

That permitting be expedited to allow for works that involve the restoration of damaged infrastructure and emergency works to protect people and communities. 

Recommendation 11

That the Fisheries Act should include a clear definition of what constitutes fish habitat. 

Recommendation 12

That Fisheries and Oceans Canada assess and improve communications between fisheries stakeholders and the Department’s upper management and decision makers. 

Recommendation 13

That communication within and between all levels of Fisheries and Oceans Canada be improved. 

Recommendation 14

That Fisheries and Oceans Canada clearly define the parameters of what is considered a violation of the Fisheries Act.

Recommendation 15

That Fisheries and Oceans Canada should create a widely representative advisory committee to provide ongoing recommendation regarding the administration and enforcement of the Fisheries Act. The advisory committee should include but not be limited to, industry groups, project proponents, agricultural groups, municipal government representatives and commercial, recreational and Indigenous fisheries representatives.

Recommendation 16

To broaden the Minister’s mandate to consider long-term conservation and protection of fish and fish habitat when evaluating projects that contravene the Fisheries Act.

Recommendation 17

That Fisheries and Oceans Canada provide the Committee with a report within two years after the revision to the Fisheries Act detailing authorization requests and decisions timelines. 

Recommendation 18

That any changes to habitat protection in the Fisheries Act must be supported by a reduced reliance on project proponent self-assessment. 

Recommendation 19

That Fisheries and Oceans Canada put in place consistent monitoring requirements for proponents, with clear standards and rationale.

Recommendation 20

That Fisheries and Oceans Canada make investments into a public and accessible database system that will identify:

1. The location and status of projects that have been flagged by the Department of having a potential to cause harm to fish and fish habitat (authorizations, monitoring results and convictions) and their cumulative effects;
2. The location of different aquatic species;
3. Up-to-date monitoring of aquatic species at risk and their status; and
4. The status of authorizations.

Recommendation 21

That Fisheries and Oceans Canada ensure that significant investments are made in hiring more field personnel to improve fish habitat enforcement, to assist in fisheries enhancement projects and to establish positive consultative relationships with local communities. 

Recommendation 22

That Fisheries and Oceans Canada meaningfully resource the monitoring, compliance and enforcement components of the Department. 

Recommendation 23

That Fisheries and Oceans Canada increase enforcement staff on the ground by recruiting and retaining habitat monitors, including fishery officers who are dedicated to habitat protection. 

Recommendation 24

That Fisheries and Oceans Canada ensure that habitat protection staff are adequately trained and resourced with long-term funding and empower field staff to do their job to protect fish and fish habitat.

Recommendation 25

That Fisheries and Oceans Canada re-establish the Habitat Protection Branch, adequately resourced to provide advice to proponents of projects that may impact marine and freshwater habitats and to enforce compliance. 

Recommendation 26

Re-examine sections 32, 35 and 36 Fisheries Act authorizations as environmental assessment triggers. 

Recommendation 27

That Fisheries and Oceans Canada continue to fund fisheries conservation and enhancement projects in co-operation with the Indigenous communities, the agricultural communities, and fisheries conservation organizations.

Recommendation 28

That the exercise of ministerial discretion be subject to transparency principles and public disclosure. 

Recommendation 29 

That the Minister, in the exercise of his or her discretionary power over licencing, may specify conditions of licence respecting and in support of social and economic objectives, in addition to the conservation objectives currently identified. 

Recommendation 30

That any revision to the Fisheries Act should include direction for restoration and recovery of fish habitat and stocks. 

Recommendation 31

That the Government of Canada address known regulatory gaps to ensure that Fisheries and Oceans Canada, in collaboration with all fisheries stakeholders, is capable of responding to all activities that are harmful to fish or fish habitat and is able to actually determine effect (e.g. ongoing collection of baseline data that allows determination of changes due to activities). 

Recommendation 32

That Fisheries and Oceans Canada renew its commitment to the “No Net Loss” and “Net Gain” policies with a renewed focus, effort and resources on restoration and enhancement of fish habitat and fish productivity and that the Department allow project proponents flexibility to fulfill this requirement.

*

Update Feb 28, 2018: Ecojustiuces take on the new changes to fisheries laws: https://www.ecojustice.ca/ecojustice-recommendations-helped-contribute-modernized-fisheries-act/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=engagingnetworks&utm_campaign=Impact_2018_02_28&utm_content=2018.02.28+Impact.

Versinia, Related to the Bubonic Plague, Brought to you by Fish Farms

Exhaustive research on fish farm diseases:


"Coincidentally, fish farming has expanded globally with an increase not only in absolute production (kilotonnes/year) but also in the number of fish species being cultured in both freshwater and marine systems. The increase in aquaculture operations world-wide has provided new opportunities for the transmission of aquatic viruses and the occurrence of viral diseases remains a significant limiting factor for aquaculture production and for the sustainability of biodiversity in the natural environment. Here we provide an overview of some of the significant viral pathogens affecting finfish species." 

See:  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3230840/.

Then there is this review:

Several members of the genus Yersinia cause human disease, including Yersinia enterocolitica, Yersinia pseudotuberculosis and, most notably, Yersinia pestis, the cause of bubonic plague. Yersinia ruckeri causes enteric redmouth disease (ERM) of salmonids, which is associated with significant aquaculture losses worldwide ( Austin, Allen-Austin, 1985 ; Tobback et al, 2007). A single human case of infection with Y. ruckeri, of uncertain clinical significance, has been reported ( Farmer et al., 1985). Several other Yersinia spp. have been isolated from both fishes and humans, including Yersinia frederiksenii and Yersinia intermedia ( Sulakvelidze, 2000), but evidence of fish-borne zoonotic infections in this group is lacking." 

See: http://www.sciencedirect.com/.../pii/S1090023314004419

And another:
 
"Yersinia ruckeri is a salmonid pathogen with widespread distribution in cool-temperate waters including Australia and New Zealand, two isolated environments with recently developed salmonid farming industries. Phylogenetic comparison of 58 isolates from Australia, New Zealand, USA, Chile, Finland and China based on non-recombinant core genome SNPs revealed multiple deep-branching lineages, with a most recent common ancestor estimated at 18 500 years BP (12 355–24 757 95% HPD) and evidence of Australasian endemism." ... "Despite the European and North American origins of the Australasian salmonid stocks, the lineages of Y. ruckeri in Australia and New Zealand are distinct from those of the northern hemisphere, suggesting they are pre-existing ancient strains that have emerged and evolved with the introduction of susceptible hosts following European colonization."  

See: http://mgen.microbiologyresearch.org/.../mgen.0.000095

TRAINWRECK - Gray Aqua, NL, Fish Farm Company, Updated Mar 14, 2017

Here is an article from June 1, 2016 on the Gray Aqua, NL debacle, by Owen Meyers in the Overcast  news outlet. The article illustrates many things that are root problems with in-ocean fish farms around the world: they are a boom/bust industry, workers get fired, no net employment gain, catastrophic busts, the public paying for fish farms to destroy our public oceans, conflict with government, no net revenue, diseases, lice and so on. 

There Are Two Sides to the Debate on Salmon Farming in Newfoundland

Owen Meyers

"On one side are independent scientists, salmon anglers, and conservation groups like the Atlantic Salmon Federation who point to the detrimental effects on wild salmon populations because of disease, escaped genetically modified fish, and the creating of parasitic populations of sea lice that can wipe out millions of fish."

"On the other side are the industry boosters like Mark Lane, executive director of the Newfoundland Aquaculture Industry Association, who in his May 2^nd  2016 letter to The Telegram, rolled out all the old platitudes about how aquaculture is the wave of the future. His submission is laden with words like “conservation” and “science” and phrases like “catalyst for rural revitalization from coast to coast” and “sustainable production practices.” It goes on and on."

Comment: The issue here is the on-going spin created by fish farms that they use around the world to first suck people and government in, saying they bring revenues and jobs, but then ultimately crash. The cycle happens all over the world because governments don't do their homework, realize what a bad industry this is, and simply say no. Now, the in-ocean farms are in trouble because on-land is taking over around the world. Don't let fish farms tell you anything different. The Atlantic Sapphire 90,000 mt plan in Florida will wipe out the Canadian industry, dragging Chile with it. It is only one of the almost 20,000 actual on-land farms I have found around the world. See my list in May of 2016: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2016/05/152-different-on-land-fish-farm-systems.html.

"The truth of growing salmon is available in documents out of the Court of Queen’s Bench of New Brunswick, where Gray Aqua Group of Companies (one of the biggest salmon farming companies in the Province) went into receivership on April 25th 2016. The affidavit of James W. Hall, vice president of the main creditor Callidus Capital Corporation, details all the things that have gone wrong with Gray Aqua’s operation on the South Coast.

"Gray Aqua are $55 million in debt and this is their second receivership in two years. At paragraph 10 of his affidavit Hall describes how millions of salmon had to be destroyed in 2013 because they were infected with Infectious Salmon Anemia. That triggered the first receivership. Gray Aqua received $33 million in compensation from the Federal Government."

Comment: So millions of fish lost to disease, the public pays millions to save the company - they should have insurance, but most firms will not offer it, because they have done their homework and know that fish farms always crash. The Dr. Fred Kibenge Powerpoint presentation states that one third to one half of all aquaculture product is lost to disease, algal blooms, sewage and etc. See: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2012/05/fish-farms-infect-wild-bc-salmon-may-13.html for the link. Kibenge was the western hemisphere scientist tasked with finding disease in fish farm samples, for the OIE. The CFIA had him fired because they didn't like his Cohen Commission testimony.

"Then there was a massive sea lice infestation that killed off another $11.5 – $14.5M worth of salmon, and which crashed the company again."

Comment: fish farms have lice problems all around the world. Scotland paid $487 million last year on lice chemicals. Norway also lost fish to lice, Added to the 38.2 million salmon lost in Chile to an algal bloom, world production dropped 8.7% last year.

"Finally there was the loss of 380,000 smolt which had to be destroyed due to an outbreak of bacterial kidney disease."

Comment: yes, another disease. There are several dozen diseases of fish farms. If farms are on land, the disease problem is eliminated.

"As for the employees, Hall states in his affidavit that Gray Aqua has approximately 64 employees, none of which are unionized or have a pension plan. Gray Aqua are not the first salmon growing operation to go bankrupt. It is a high risk business and has a record of being a vector for disease to wild fish stocks."

Comment: my way of putting this is that fish farms don't add jobs, they replace jobs that they elimininate with their environmental problems. In BC, the commercial sector has fallen fifty percent, the same number of multiplier jobs in aquaculture: 1700. This does not include the sport industry, tourism, eco-tourism and so on. And they leave a sewage load larger than the entire human population in the jurisdiction in which they operate, $10.4 billion in BC, for instance, the equivalent of 4.8 million people. There are only 4.6 million people in BC.

"Far from being an ecologically sustainable industry providing well-paying jobs for rural residents, aquaculture is a government-subsidized trainwreck resplendent with a comfortable and well paid cheerleading government aquaculture bureaucracy.The politicians from the rural ridings are desperate to be able to point at anything positive in their impoverished rural ridings"

Comment: this is the conflict of interest that government has, in every country fish farms move into, one of the most important problems with fish farms. Fish farms intentionally sucker govenrnments in with their spin on jobs. They have been doing the same thing in Norway since the late 1970s, and all around the world. Read Kjersti Sandvik's book Beneath the Surface to understand the history of the communications spin. It's just spin. They use it because they know it works.
"In reality the taxpayers of the province are paying out millions in grants and subsidies to an industry that has the potential to destroy wild salmon stocks before it goes down in flames like the infamous Sprung Greenhouse cucumber failure of the late 1980’s that cost us taxpayers $17.5 million and was sold to investors for $1. 
To see the dark side of salmon farming  Google “Chile salmon disease.”"

Comment: and, now, Marine Harvest is moving in, picking up the Gray Aqua holdings that we paid for for peanuts. This is another boom, and less than 10 years down the road, there will be another bust. Oh, and those from NL, know well that the Grieg Seafood Placentia Bay plan is an even bigger boom, at least for the moment.

You will recall the recent Cooke Aqua, NS comment to the effect that it is unfortunate that they have to keep telling people about dead/escaped fish that is just normal fish farm business. See the BAD NEWS BITES post for several Cooke articles around item 224 in the list: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2017/01/bad-news-bites.html.

The point on this one is it is just part of the fish farm spin that the industry is transparent. In Cooke's case, they are complaining about being transparent. This is common. Don't believe the spin, just Google international fish farm news and you will find the many on-going, through time spin cycles that they use. Another is that they operate under the strictest laws in the world, all around the world at the same time, even though no two countries have the same laws. And so on....

Fish Farm Diesel Spill in Pristine Ocean, Updated March 27, 2017

In addition to all the other problems, fish farms also spill oil-well products like diesel on pristine oceans, here in BC, this time.

If fish farms were on land, oil-well products, like diesel, would not be spilled on pristine waters with untouched runs of salmonids. Here is a list of images that show the diesel on the water: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1975189089376309&set=a.1383950068500217.1073741827.100006557106337&type=3&theater.

See: https://www.facebook.com/alexandra.morton.1671/posts/1972933566268528.

Here is a video of the problem: https://www.facebook.com/fishfarmsgetout/.

 Here is a second article: http://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/b-c-fish-farm-fuel-spill-still-spreading-and-theres-no-way-to-clean-it-up-fisheries?utm_source=Watershed+Watch+Email+List&utm_campaign=745ae398d0-Salmon_News_Mar10_2017&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_405944b1b5-745ae398d0-166907249&mc_cid=745ae398d0&mc_eid=5777c92bcd.

Press, please contact: Bob Chamberlin, Elected Chief, Kwikwasut'inuxw Haxwa'mis; phone: 1-778-988-9282; email: bob@ubcic.bc.ca.

Then send a note to Justin Trudeau and Dominic LeBlanc. Federal email structure is: firstname.lastname@parl.gc.ca.

Thanks

The Future of On-land Fish Farms is Now, Updated Mar 9, 2017

Hi Justin/Dominic/Elizabeth/Finn/Todd/Chek/CBC/Van Sun/et al:

The fish farm industry has just been changed completely, and on-land farms are the future. There is no looking back, and BC and Atlantic farms need to come out of the water asap, to avoid being left behind.

Atlantic Sapphire is building a 90,000 tonne on-land fish farm in Florida: https://www.undercurrentnews.com/2017/03/03/atlantic-sapphire-thinks-big-after-approval-for-florida-salmon-farm/?utm_source=Undercurrent+News+Alerts&utm_campaign=977f05fcef-Americas_briefing_Mar_03_2017&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_feb55e2e23-977f05fcef-92426209.

This gives the Norwegian firm a strangle hold on the NA continental market, and the ailing BC market is in deep trouble. The one Atlantic Sapphire on-land farm will be larger than the entire BC industry of 85,000 tonnes annual product. And BC, like Chile, has already been hit hard in the USA market. The USA rescinded a 26% tariff on Norwegian salmon two years ago, giving Marine Harvest, Cermaq and Grieg Seafood in Norway a huge competitive margin against their own operations in Canada and Chile.

Add Atlantic Sapphire on top of the current situation and BC is toast, as 85% of its product goes into the USA because Canadians will not buy in-ocean farmed salmon. Lots of jobs are going to be lost in Canada until fish farms are on-land and thus competitive in the USA.

I have pointed out previously that in-ocean fish farms make no environmental or economic sense. You can find numerous posts on my: www.fishfarmnews.blogspot.com that detail the figures.

You need to wake up and take action or watch the Canadian industry go down the tubes. In BC you are struggling badly because of your Kinder Morgan decision. You can get an offsetting lift by getting fish farms out of the water of wild Pacific salmon, which are as important to BC as French is to Quebec:  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/bc-residents-consider-salmon-a-cultural-touchstone-survey-finds/article1998476. 

Even your own BC MPs voted against party lines on Fin Donnelly’s Bill C-228, that would have gotten fish farms out of the water and put on land. 70% of BC Liberals voted against you. They know they will never be re-elected if they do not stand with wild Pacific salmon.

My list of on-land fish farms is now 175 different on-land systems, comprising almost 20,000 actual on-land fish farms around the world. Denmark has 50% of its fish farms on land; Finland has 100% on land, and forbids them in its ocean. Here is the list: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2016/05/152-different-on-land-fish-farm-systems.html.

You need to take action.

DC (Dennis) Reid

Update Mar 9, 2017:

Global Fish Farm Newsletters brings the news, that on-land, RAS to reach 150,000 mt by 2020:  https://www.undercurrentnews.com/2017/03/09/dnb-estimates-ras-farming-will-produce-150000t-by-2020/?utm_source=Undercurrent+News+Alerts&utm_campaign=5396d44906-Americas_briefing_Mar_09_2017&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_feb55e2e23-5396d44906-92426209. This is twice the size of the BC industry, in three years.