Poll - 75% of BC Residents Against In-ocean Fish Farms

Insights West, the Pacific Salmon Foundation and Wild Fish have done a poll of environmentall issues in BC and found uniformly high response to all of them.

See: https://www.insightswest.com/news/pacific-salmon-july2021/.

Of the five major environmental issues facing the province that we asked BC residents about, British Columbians are most concerned about declining salmon stocks and endangered species, even more so than climate change and single-use plastics. The level of concern about declining salmon stocks (86%) and endangered species and at-risk ecosystems (82%) are the top two concerns, concern for climate change (76%) and single-use plastics (75%) rate 10 points below. The negative impact of logging on nature and climate (72%) also rates highly but below the others.

And: "Recently, the Canadian government mandated all open-net fish farms be transitioned to closed containment pens by 2025, and the vast majority (75%) of BC residents support this decision."

And: Steve Mossop, President of Insights West [says] “Our polling results show that perceptions of open-net pen fish farms are very negative, and the vast majority would like to see the transition to land-based fish farming in BC.”

Added to this Tony Allard, chair of Wild First, says: “Concern for declining salmon stocks is 10 points higher than other well known environmental issues in BC at 86%. Importantly, British Columbians express very high support, at 75%, for transitioning away from open net pen fish farms now. I couldn’t agree more.”

This survey agrees with a past one, that 75% of BC residents want fish farms out of the water.

It is in a major post on fish farms, and is reference 8 in that post: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2019/07/dfos-public-consultation-on-framework.html.
************
Here is another article on the recent Insite poll: https://www.insightswest.com/news/pacific-salmon-july2021/.

Here is their lead stats: "BC Residents Are Extremely Concerned (86%) About Declining Salmon Stocks As Well As Climate Change (76%) and Single Use Plastics (75%), and Most British Columbians (75%) Believe That Open-Net Salmon Pens Need to Be Transitioned to Land-Based Pens.

Fish Farms out of Discovery, Cohen Recommendation, Deadline September 30, 2020

I sent the following post to the ENGOs in BC to help them in their response to the rapidly approaching September 30 Cohen deadline to get fish farms out of the water. Please feel free to use the two lists in shaping your letter to the Liberal govt about it's promise to meet all of Cohen's recommendations.
Hi Everyone

I pass on two lists regarding on-land fish farms in advance of the Sept 30, 2020 Cohen deadline about getting fish farms out of Discovery Passage. Use them in addressing Trudeau and Jordan.

They should help you with two things: on-land is now mainstream and if the BC industry doesn’t come on-land it will likely be wiped out as 85% of its product goes to the USA, but the on-land movement there is aimed at quadruple the metric tonnes, Atlantic Sapphire, alone, aiming for 160,000 to begin with, and 250,000 in its plans, triple BC.

I started noticing a steady stream of articles/papers/analyses about on-land in the global seafood press about 18 months ago, and started a post to put them together in one place. In that short period, I have found an avalanche of interest, exceeding 500 items. On-land is mainstream, despite what fish farms might say.

This link lists the first 500 articles/papers I have found about on-land: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2018/11/good-news-post-links-to-on-land-closed.html.

This link lists the 326 on-land fish farms I have found: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2016/05/152-different-on-land-fish-farm-systems.html. The list starts halfway down the post, so scroll down to it.

And the third thing is low employment: fish farms always say they bring employment to ‘down on their luck, remote’ communities. This post thoroughly addresses that employment has been in decline for decades, and that Norwegian automation suggests that in Canada we could face an additonal 80% cut in jobs, when it is brought here. We don’t need to destroy our wild areas.

This post is dense, so if you are pressed for time, find the Inga Milewski article link on employment and read it. It is the best paper I have ever read on the subject: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2019/07/fish-farm-problems-on-global-scale-inka.html. The link to the BC Stats Report is in this post, the best stats on the BC ‘fishing sectors.’
DC (Dennis) Reid

Habitat Restoration Wild Salmon, Updated Nov 26, 2020

I will use this post to put up habitat restoration projects for wild BC salmon, and other jurisdictions. These small projects, many funded by the Pacific Salmon Foundation, should be the backbone of restoration and bringing back wild salmon:
I will put in some related news as well.

19.

18. $24,000 for Habitat Restoration Projects - Parksvile, Qualicum: https://www.pqbnews.com/community/24000-granted-to-parksville-qualicum-beach-projects-via-pacific-salmon-foundation/?mc_cid=3cada652f8&mc_eid=5777c92bcd.

17. Two Dams to be Pulled - US, for salmon: .

16. Sturgeon Bank Restoration Projects - group asks for council money: .

15. Habitat Restoration Funding - Haida Gwaii, 12 projects, $162K funding, PSF: .

14. New Channel - Penticton, for sockeye and chinook: https://www.castanet.net/news/Penticton/309153/More-work-to-restore-salmon-habitat-in-Penticton-to-begin?mc_cid=b0bb6c9d6c&mc_eid=5777c92bcd.

13. A List of Habitat Conservation Trust Fund Projects - BC, : https://hctf.ca/hctf-announces-2020-21-list-of-approved-conservation-projects-across-bc/.

12. Habitat Conservation Trust Fund - funds a great number of grassroots projects in BC: https://www.vancouverislandfreedaily.com/news/conservation-projects-in-b-c-receive-9-2m-in-funds-from-victoria-based-foundation/.

11. Departure Creek, Nanaimo - a good example of getting in the stream and fixing it, and the groups that come together, for years, to make it happen: https://www.vancouverislandfreedaily.com/news/nanaimo-creek-restoration-meant-to-make-habitat-more-fish-friendly/?mc_cid=b0bb6c9d6c&mc_eid=5777c92bcd .

10. DFO Should Enforce Fish Farm Regs, Not Pay for Cleanups - : https://www.bclocalnews.com/opinion/column-dfo-should-enforce-regulations-not-pay-for-cleanup/?mc_cid=5dcc17bb46&mc_eid=5777c92bcd.

9. Salmon Runs Worst Ever - Alaska and BC: http://www.digitaljournal.com/business/alaska-and-b-c-s-salmon-runs-expected-to-be-worst-ever-recorded/article/576244?mc_cid=5dcc17bb46&mc_eid=5777c92bcd.

8. Four Reasons Salmon in the Tank - Narwhal, Greg Taylor: https://thenarwhal.ca/low-fraser-river-sockeye-salmon-bc/?mc_cid=5dcc17bb46&mc_eid=5777c92bcd.

7. Pilchuk Dam to Come Down - freeing up 37 miles of habitat for spawning, US: https://phys.org/news/2020-08-washington-miles-salmon-habitat.html?mc_cid=0f1f93dac2&mc_eid=5777c92bcd .

6. Nooksack Restoration Underway - WA: https://kgmi.com/news/007700-fish-habitat-improvements-underway-in-birch-bay/?mc_cid=0f1f93dac2&mc_eid=5777c92bcd.

5. Projects in the Saanich Peninsula for Salmon - : https://peninsulastreams.ca/.

4. Fish Ladder on Alouette Dam: https://www.mapleridgenews.com/opinion/along-the-fraser-fish-ladder-for-alouette-dam-would-boost-threatened-wild-sockeye/?mc_cid=0f1f93dac2&mc_eid=5777c92bcd.

3. Worst Salmon Numbers Ever - 285,000 sockeye for Fraser when it was 100 million at the beginning of the 20th century: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/2020-fraser-river-sockeye-record-1.5682765?mc_cid=0f1f93dac2&mc_eid=5777c92bcd. This is why we need tons of habitat restoration, because DFO has managed salmon into extinction.

2. Tillamook Wetland Purchase to aid Habitat Restoration - WA: https://www.tillamookheadlightherald.com/news/tillamook-river-wetlands-restoration-will-improve-salmon-habitat/article_93c71ad6-d2bd-11ea-8fb1-177b774fa4c2.html?mc_cid=c036c27217&mc_eid=5777c92bcd.

1. Project Funds for Vancouver Island Projects - Pacific Salmon Foundation: https://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/salmon-foundation-provides-funding-for-habitat-rehab-1.24180612?mc_cid=c036c27217&mc_eid=5777c92bcd.

Salmon Habitat Restoration - Raincoast Conservation Foundaton

HI Chris Genovali et al

I have just read your article in the TC, Nov 10, 2019 on grizzly bears and salmon.

Salmon are now in a crisis situation after 50 years of mismanagement by DFO. We need to move on from them. Watershed Watch’s current stats include a 35M catch in 1995, while in 2019 it was 1M. That is how bad it is. The lice counts in Clayoquot Sound and Nootka Sound are so high, it is likely that all fry will be killed before leaving their home water.

Here is my approach, to which you might give some thought. In a nutshell it is: 12 netpens per year in Georgia and Juan de Fuca straits, each containing 2M triploided chinook fry, using Robertson Creek, Cowichan and Nitinat stock. These are sterilized so they don’t spawn, and return to the site of the pen, rather than rivers. It would put chinook numbers into the water immediately for SRKWs, and should be carried on for at least a decade, while habitat restoration work is being undertaken. See: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2018/05/dfo-salmon-and-killer-whales.html.

My read is that the most important things to address are: freshwater habitat restoration, DFO, fish farms and climate change.

I worked through the new habitat restoration program from DFO, and it has some problems of such size as to be almost useless. See this link: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2019/05/dfo-srkws-and-funding-yet-again-yes-yet.html. My suggestion is opening up the lower end of oxbows and old channels to allow fry to grow, particularly coho. This approach has wide usefulness and would work anywhere in the province that rivers have flat sections, and thus old channels. I put together a list of 18 old channels on the Nitinat River, and contacted the program.

After talking to them, I had to add an Indigenous component, apply for permits and licences for the in-river work, get logging company buy-in, get hatchery buy-in and put together a lengthy workplan, get insurance and register for workers compensation and so on. This made the project completely unworkable because it changed it from a simple equipment opening channels to a multi-year project costing multiple millions. So this very good idea, that DFO told me was highly desirable, and had cross province application, I had to give up. Perhaps the Ditidaht might be able to take on such a huge project. I don’t know.

What is the good news? That BC has instituted the Wild Salmon Advisory Council. This represents a structure with staff, and thus a long lived organization arguing on behalf of wild salmon, and with a budget making it able to do work that British Columbians want, without having to work with DFO. The PSF is the natural BC choice for partnership because it leverages money 4 to 7 times.

Another front of the overall problem is fish farms. Here are my criticisms of DFO’s program for fish farms, with the disappointing acronym FARM – if you can believe it: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2019/07/dfos-public-consultation-on-framework.html. It comes with 60 references to look into the issues.

On the climate side, I have also begun assembling a bibliography of links toward my writing a paper on climate change, effects on salmon and solutions to the problems: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2019/10/ckunate-change-effects-on-salmon.html. Do look into Peltier Tiles. You will immediately be able to think up uses for these fascinating electricity producing items.

DC Reid

Tough Limits set on Catching Chinook Salmon - 4/17/19 TC, Updated April 19, 2019

 Here is the image I sent to the Times Colonist:

 Hi Lindsay

Thanks for the article.

The real problem is that DFO has allowed salmon and SRKWs to move to extinction for the past 50 years. Now, when they are both on the edge, DFO closes sport fishing, and still salmon and SRKWs plummet toward extinction, without big funding for the solutions: freshwater habitat restoration and selective, epigenetic enhancement.

My solution is here: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2018/05/dfo-salmon-and-killer-whales.html.

My figure is far higher than the one quoted by DFO, at $2.52B revenue for the sport sector salt- and fresh-water. Here is how I calculated it: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2015/05/salmonfishing-revenue-towers-over.html. It is public as it was published by the Pacific Salmon Foundation (PSF). Many small communities are in trouble.

And the new $142M does not have as its main aim that most important item: freshwater habitat restoration (FHR). See my post: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2019/04/salmon-restoration-and-innovation-fund.html.

But the two important things now are: 1. The PSF is a credible structure to deliver FHR, leveraging money 4- to 7-times, and, 2. The BC Wild Salmon Advisory Council - so, the province has authority to fund and undertake freshwater habitat restoration - the most important thing to do. WSAC is also a structure, and has salmon as its long term focus, from us, not DFO/Ottawa.

The TC’s shots of chinook salmon in the past couple of weeks have been a tad scruffy. Attached is a nice shot of a chinook you might use in future. I have hundreds more, and have a higher res image of the one attached, should you need it.

Dennis

Also sent to:

John Horgan

Andrew Weaver

Adam Olsen

Lana Popham

I sent a followup note:

I forgot to mention that my next project is to set out climate change problems along with what we can do about them.

There are many novel things we can do, and Peltier Tiles will be used in many of them.

D