Well, we read that in Clayoquot Sound lice have been out of control for the past three years, at levels far beyond the level that kills wild salmon fry: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2019/08/dfo-likes-lice-more-than-wild-salmon.html.
Chinook adults had dropped to 501 in 2012, before the current problem occurred, meaning, fish farms kill killer whales, among other things like wild salmon.
And now, in Nootka Sound, the next sound north of Clayoquot, Grieg is asking for a new licence for Esperanza Inlet, when the other three licences it has have lice levels that are also lethal to wild salmon fry: https://www.watershed-watch.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Lutes-Creek-Comments1.pdf.
From Watershed's June 17, 2019 letter to DFO, Bernie Taekema, here is an opening salvo:
"We are opposed to the granting of another licence in Hecate Channel, where three farms currently operate with a history of problems with sea lice control, including drug resistance. We find the application at best premature, for the reasons elaborated below. This applicant has failed utterly to demonstrate the ability to control lice at its existing farms and has, so far as we can determine, no new plan, equipment or treatment regime to offer."
They go on to say: "We note at the outset your advice by telephone that you are considering issuing the licence but without increasing the total biomass licensed in Hecate Channel."
This plays right into one of the strategies of fish farms like the multi-national, multi-billion dollar Grieg, Cermaq and Mowi Harvest - that operate in BC. What they do is get the farm in the water at a lower biomass, knowing full well that once its in the water, it ain't coming out ever again. Second, fish farms in short order, say a couple of years, start applying for larger biomass. This is standard practice, bait and switch, fish farm tactics - all around the world. There is not one place in the world where they don't start asking for more biomass. They know this in advance and it is only the people of the province and DFO that don't know.
But, let's get back the letter, which is about sea lice. And DFO here has bought into the fish farm tactic about lower bio-mass, as in they are as dumb as anyone who knows nothing about fish farms, like say the average British Columbian, but, working at DFO, should know a whole lot more.
Sorry, back to the letter: WSS et al point out that biomass is about sewage on the bottom of the ocean, not lice, so it won't do anything about that problem, then go on to point out:
"In fact, it will likely make those issues worse, as Lutes is not currently licensed to use Paramove: [this is a fancy, brand name for peroxide] an outbreak of resistant lice will be impossible to treat and will serve as a source of re-infection for the other farms."
Just how bad were the lice? Well in Hecate Channel:
"The Hecate tenure was stocked in October 2017 and by July 2018 was reporting lice numbers averaging 7.37. In-feed treatment was apparently not undertaken until August, when the lice count reached an average of 32.86; and it apparently failed, as the September and October counts remained at 20.63 and 24.31, respectively. A hydrogen peroxide bath treatment administered in October was temporarily effective; but by December, lice were again at 5.79 and a further in-feed treatment was administered."
Even one or two lice can kill a wild salmon fry.
At the Steamer Point fish farms things were even worse with lice climbing to 34.49 lice per farmed salmon, and, after treatment in 2018, fell to only 24.62 after using SLICE, as in marginally effective and levels many times what it takes to kill a wild salmon fry.
Here is the killer:
"It is noteworthy that, in its previous production cycle (October 2015 through June, 2017), Steamer Point’s lice counts rose to five times the management threshold by September, 2016 and unaccountably, were allowed to continue to rise without any management action disclosed in the public record from that time until harvest was completed in June, 2017. Throughout the 2017 out migration, lice levels remained at 5 to 10 times the management threshold."
This, of course, is outrageous. Do remember that fish farms tell the story of how much they care for the environment and their fish and are subjugated the strictest laws in the world, and etc.
I recall when I first heard this fiction. It was followed up in several other countries, so, while the laws of every country are different, according to Marine Harvest, Cermaq, Grieg and so on, they have the strictest laws in Chile, Norway, Scotland and Canada all at the same time.
So why are the lice over 30 per farmed fish in the summer when fry are going by?
And Esperanza Inlet, a scant mile or two from Steamer Point, the situation is just as dire:
"The situation is presently worse at Esperanza, where in July, 2018, counts averaged 17.3 and SLICE treatment was deferred until August, by which time lice levels were at 53.37. That treatment failed; though a regime of alternating in-feed and bath treatments administered between August and November brought the lice count down. It was rising again by December; also vulnerable to the lice load created by the Hecate farm. Lice were apparently left untreated from November through March, with the result that this farm entered the 2019 wild juvenile migration period with lice levels more than double the treatment threshold (7.74). The public record stops in March, with a note that “management action is planned”. Both harvest and bath treatments are referenced, giving rise to concern that Grieg intends leaving heavily infested fish in the water throughout an extended harvest, despite the migration window."
So lice are far in excess of what they should be, and farms are so close to one another that the lice from one affects the next farm. Take a look at Gillam Channel and Esperanza Inlet on a chart to see how close these are. And they are affecting a small town as pristine as they come, Zeballos. It is hard to believe that DFO wants these in the water.
And even some in DFO know the situation is not good. Here: "Dr. Ian Keith of DFO noted that Grieg’s own husbandry was aggravating the growing drug resistance. On October 12, 2017 he wrote to DFO’s Zac Waddington...
The signees to this letter, Living Oceans, Georgia Strait Alliance, David Suzuki Foundation, Watershed Watch Salmon Society and Pacific Coast Salmon Society, then point out that DFO has not put into place 'area-based management', so there is no coordination on farms in the same area. You probably remember that DFO minister Wilkinson spouts how pleased he is with his area-based management scheme... even though the only scheme seems to be him saying so.
So Grieg isn't doing a good job with its current farms, and wants another licence for Lutes-Creek, when it is only 1km away from its Esperanza lease, with lice floating between them, and the different age classes of fish receiving different amounts of SLICE, adding to the lice problem. Hmm.
And they all have lice problems out of control, as they are too close and the lice have become resistant to SLICE. Incidentally, in case you did not know, lice become resistant to all chemicals used to kill them. It's quite simple, the ones that don't die are resistant and by reproducing produce a whole generation that don't die, as in are resistant. That is what resistance is. They don't die.
And each female produces a thousand progeny at each generation. And each fish farm has on average 600,000 farmed fish, and so, if a farm is at 30 female lice per fish, that means 30 X 600,000 X 1000 = 1.6 Billion lice per farm. And that is every time the female sheds eggs, which can be many times per year.
The several graphs on page 4 show the same pattern of lice excess at the same time of the summer in all these farms. Go look at it as the image cannot be brought into another document, like this one: https://www.watershed-watch.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Lutes-Creek-Comments1.pdf.
As lice loads are the same, this means the farms are close enough to pass disease as well.
And what are the local river impacts? Well, pretty high:
"Both the Zeballos and Little Zeballos Rivers support five species of salmon, at such low numbers that stock rebuilding may be jeopardized for all but chum. Espinosa Creek [the same] but the most recent counts found no sockeye, coho or Chinook and only 6 chum. Pink salmon survival in the area is tenuous, with observed spawning numbers in the single digits in some years; in2016, no pinks were observed. Sockeye, coho and Chinook number in the hundreds each; the chum in the low thousands but we note that these are hatchery-enhanced numbers. There are probably additional rivers and streams that support wild salmon in the Inlet, but these were the only relevant rivers for which spawning surveys could be located.6""
I would add that the Conuma River puts out mostly chinook salmon. The Gold, Burman and Leiner rivers, among others empty into Nootka Sound. All would have fry killed by fish farm lice, and the Gold steelhead run, the largest wild run on the island, has crashed.
"Any impact on wild salmon returning at such low numbers as cited above would have to be considered a population-level impact. If the impacts are similar to those observed in areas of Clayoquot during the outbreak of lice in 2018(40-96%)7 and in 2019(100%), or in the Broughton earlier in the year(90%)8, the consequences for survival of the runs in this area could be dire."
The population-level impact is the phrase DFO uses to distinguish taking action to protect the fish and not protect the fish. Do recall the Cohen recommendations for Fraser Sockeye, and that this summer the Fraser has had the lowest return in a century.
And regarding the 'pesticide use permit' for the area, the letter has this to say:
"The PUP for the use of hydrogen peroxide [Paramove 50] treatments in Hecate Channel explicitly covers only three farms. Unless Grieg intends to surrender the licence for one of its existing farms, this means they will not be able to treat Lutes Creek with bath treatments in the event that SLICE proves ineffective. With one farm of four left with no effective treatment options and the other three in such close proximity, bath treatments on the farms permitted to use it will be effective only in the short term, as lice generated at Lutes will resettle on treated fish in Hecate, Esperanza and Steamer."
The result of climate change and increased salinity in the past five years shortens the time for lice generations to be produced. And has been used as an excuse by the fish farmers for higher lice numbers. We don't really care about farmed fish, but it means a whole new practice is needed, like say, being on land when lice brood times shorten from 45 days to 8.
"The Department’s response to both changing environmental conditions and drug resistance that have led to the recent outbreaks has been unacceptable. We have heard DFO staff say that the conditions of licence offer DFO no enforcement capability and yet we have also heard DFO state the conditions are unalterable."
So Grieg has no plan that works to kill lice, and DFO has no plan to prevent lice and the Miller/Di Cicco work on disease is not complete, and the BC minister's committee says unless there is First Nation buy in, no new farms, and the new DFO fish farm plan is too far out to be effective now.
So, let's put fish farms on land. The solution is so simple.
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A post from Alex Morton on lice, and DFO issues with having a plan, post current on Aug 30, 2019: https://alexandramorton.typepad.com/alexandra_morton/.
