Getting Fish Farms Out of the Ocean and set up On Land in BC

Hi Bernadette/Justin

I want to confirm for you that the vast majority of British Columbians want fish farms taken out of the ocean and we expect you to do this, not just come up with a plan in five years.

The latest survey puts it at 75% want fish farms out.

Wild BC salmon are in crisis. I say this after writing about fisheries polity and salmon for almost 50 years.

There just is no more ten years to go.

Jobs are minimal at 1800 and have actually declined 5.3% in the past two decades. So says the BC Govt’s BC Stats report.

In addition, the sewage cost in BC is conservatively estimated at $10.4 B. That is vastly more than GDP from these major polluters – even added up over decades. Most of the money goes back to Norway to shareholders.

Similarly in eastern Canada, fish farm employment has declined a very large 32%. So says a recent paper by Inka Milewski.

Furthermore, Norway produces ten times more farmed salmon than Canada but with ten percent of the employees in Canada. When that automation is brought here, the Canadian jobs number will drop a further 80%.

Fish farms are about pollution, and all the other problems, as the ocean is free for them, until you match Norway’s licences of $32- to $40-million for staying in the water, and offer the same free licences for on-land offered now in Norway. They are not about jobs and revenue as their communications’ spin tries to persuade you politicians. And they came to Canada because our laws are weaker than in Norway, and their margins typically run from 20- to 80-%. They wanted more.

Take fish farms out of the water ASAP. My list of on-land farms has 308 on-land farms around the world, despite fish farms saying on-land is not possible. They know all of what I am telling you, and are ‘fibbing’ with you.

And my list of good news press about on-land around the world, now has more than 325 articles in it about the new wave of on-land. If your staff supports in-ocean, they are out of date by a decade. They need to educate themselves, or get out of the way.

You can verify all these figures on my www.fishfarmnews.blogspot.com  site, or simply ask me to give you the links to read the science yourself.

DC (Dennis) Reid

Justin Trudeau: <Justin.Trudeau@parl.gc.ca>
Bernadette Jordan: Bernadette.Jordan@parl.gc.ca

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For those who read my site: Let me know your query of any comment or number used above, and I'll post the link. I never say anything that does not have a reference. And, when I calculate a figure, I do so having worked at Treasury Board Staff in the Ministry of Finance, BC. We were expected to be the best analyzers in government.

Why the Public Doesn't Like Fish Farms - Grieg Seafood Canne't Figger Tit Owt

Per Grieg

You wonder what can be done to make people like fish farms.

You say it here: https://www.intrafish.com/sustainability/grieg-chairman-salmon-farmers-have-to-work-harder-to-change-public-perceptions/2-1-741515?utm_source=IntraFish%20Aquaculture%20Newsletter&utm_campaign=d7a7057730-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_01_29_07_00&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ec4b681694-d7a7057730-244877629.

The reason is: the gross environmental carnage caused by in-ocean fish farms.

But you don’t see what is staring you in the face. You see the problem as: ‘Salmon farmers have to work harder to change public perceptions.’

This is a variation on the old communication’s spin that you have to solve the misinformation by educating the public so they understand how wonderful in-ocean fish farms really are. You have been doing the same thing for 50 years and expecting a different outcome.

And that is the problem: instead of making changes, like putting fish farms on land and using their sewage for aquaponics, your perception is that there is something wrong with the public who don’t like in-ocean fish farms. You will keep on getting the same answer because you keep on saying the public is the problem.

If you want to solve this issue, here is the answer: put all of your fish farms on-land, sequester sewage and reuse it, avoid the use of antibiotics, lice chemicals, all in-ocean diseases and so on. And eliminate using ocean forage fish for feed. Make it from another source so that you are not killing protein to make protein, and taking food from the mouths of hundreds of millions of 3^rd World people. See the Sea Around Us document. (1)

Don’t change consumers, change the industry, and the public will change their attitude. You are behind the 8-ball on this one. Right now, my list of 308 on-land fish farm companies are making the changes the public wants. (2)

And here is my list of 300 good news articles on on-land advantages in the past year. (3) .

And companies like Atlantic Sapphire, on-land in Florida USA, are on the brink of wiping you out. You don’t have much choice. So make the choice for on-land and people will like you.

DC Reid

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1. The Sea Around Us Document can be found here:  http://www.seaaroundus.org/.

2. 308 On-Land Fish Farms: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2016/05/152-different-on-land-fish-farm-systems.html.

3.  Good News Stories - about on-land fish farms:
https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2018/11/good-news-post-links-to-on-land-closed.html

DFO Does Not Use 'Evidence and Science' That Doesn't Agree with It's Fabricated Story - Updated Jan 28, 2020

Hi Jonathan Wilkinson et al

It is time to stop saying that DFO uses ‘evidence and science.’ When DFO deals with fish farms, it is decidedly not true. DFO uses the story it wants to serve the narrative it has, and ignores science and evidence, or won't test, say for PRV, so it has no evidence against fish farms. Hmm.

Read this post, and the dozen other examples in another post, just below this: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2019/05/cermaq-lice-peroxide-slice-paramove-50.html.

In my opinion, as bad as this is, the worst case was when DFO and the CFIA conspired to find a lab that would give you/them a ‘no disease response’ for fish farms diseases, and chose the Gary Marty one in BC, after its own, DFO, lab found disease in BC fish farms. After reading all the FOI material culled from your and the other agency, I would call this fraud. Any reasonable person calls it fraud.

DC Reid

Here is a post on DFO not using science:  https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2019/02/transparency-in-fish-farming-well-no.html.

This is the post that has almost a dozen cases of DFO not using evidence and/or science: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2019/02/evidence-and-science-based-decisions-at.html.

This is the post I mention that should be DFO/CFIA fraud: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2016/09/canadian-food-inspection-agency.html.  Jonathan Wilkinson, I want the Attorney General to investigate your ministry for fraud. And then send me the letter on the case.

Yet, another long case of refusing to use 'evidence and science' is DFO's pulling out of planned research two days before it was set to begin, by refusing Dr. John Volpe a source of Atlantic salmon from BC fish farms. 

Fortunately, Volpe found another source of fish farm salmon, and went on to research the escapes/leakage from BC fish farms, and the presence of Atlantic salmon and progeny, meaning adult fish spawned, fry were produced and both fry and adult were present in many BC rivers in following years, even though DFO maintains it couldn't/can't happen.

Here is one of the posts I did on this subject: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2017/10/escaped-atlantic-salmon-in-bc-volpe.html. I did several on Volpe's work.

Note that the shocking 'evidence and science' that DFO ignored was that Volpe found adults and progeny in 40 Vancouver Island rivers that his team swam, that had multiple BC salmonid populations, that is 97% of the rivers that he studied. This is shocking, yet DFO claims there is no 'evidence and science': https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2017/12/atlantic-salmon-in-bc-rivers-bad-news.html. This is just one of the posts I wrote, but it leads to the conclusion that at the lowest 'escape/leakage' rate of .003% (meaning a third of 1 percent) that 153,000 farmed Atlantics escape per crop in BC.

And, Google this for a long list of websites that discuss the Volpe research and escaped Atlantic salmon in BC: https://www.bing.com/search?q=fishfarmnews.blogspot.com+-+John+Volpe+Atlantic+salmon+escape+research&pc=MOZD&form=MOZLBR.

Stop making DFO look foolish, and stop using the 'evidence and science' defense, because DFO does not use science that does not agree with what it wants to do, which is put more fish farms in BC waters, even though the BC population lost patience with you a very long time ago over fish farms. I would add that anywhere in the world where citizens have to live with in-ocean fish farms, they come to hate them, because their elected governments won't take them out and put them on land.

If you like them so much, put them in the Rideau Canal in Ottawa and see how long you like them.

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And another case of evidence being evaded:  https://globalnews.ca/video/5305357/documents-indicate-federal-fisheries-officials-cant-control-fish-farms?fbclid=IwAR2uUxPQebS1iP9MNPtAktFZ_5PSpUr7EBjEbsGpiDC7h6Xo4_YSiP1Pkbc. All that fish farms need is a plan for lice. Doesn't matter whether they use it, Jonathan. This one is DFO employees complaining about the DFO non-action to save wild salmon. AM comments.

And, yet another case: read this one for DFO four times refusing to use science and evidence over PRV:  https://alexandramorton.typepad.com/alexandra_morton/2020/01/the-virus-prv-brings-out-the-worst-in-dfo.html?fbclid=IwAR1RVl5HttXekuttvJChNOwu51SufY3oxLT3uc7hZ_TScKjBL5nyr0siMuE.