One of the worst things about fish farms is that when they have a problem it is usually a catastrophe. And, over time, the catastrophes get worse. Intrafish has put together a list of major escapes from fish farms around the world. Losses of less than 100,000 are not reported in these stats. And that means that a lot of escape catastrophes are not on this list of the largest catastrophes.
These fish carry diseases to other fish, interbreed with their own species, and marginalize salmonids in their own territory all around the world. Chinook are wild in Argentina now, for example, which is its own catastrophe, but a different kind. Pacific salmon in the Atlantic is a catastrophe, for the first time having wild but exotic salmonids from a different ocean in the Atlantic. Shouldn't happen.
Here is the Intrafish post: https://www.intrafish.com/aquaculture/here-are-the-largest-recorded-farmed-atlantic-salmon-escapes-in-history/2-1-388082.
Here are their numbers:
AquaChile 2013 787,929 Damaged cages, wind
Marine Harvest, Chile 2018 680,000 Wind
Marine Harvest 2005 496,000 Wind, electricity
Cypress Island, WA 1997 369,000 Unknown
Meridian 2011 336,470 Tides
Sjolaks, Norway 2008 307,336 Unknown
Scottish Sea Farm 2000 258,000 Weather
Grieg Seafood, Shetlands 2002 238,420 Unknown
Australis, Chile 2016 173,156 Water currents
SalMar, Norway 2011 173,156 Unknown
Cooke Aquaculture, US 2017 150,000 Weather
Admiral Fish Farms, CDN 2010 138,800 Net Failure
Frida Sjofarming, Naroway 2013 122,914 Unknown
Huon Aqua, Tasmania 2018 120,000 Weather
Frida Sjofarming, Naroway 2014 119,942 Unknown
Cermaq, Chile 2017 115,703 Net Failure, Wind
Brilliant, Norway 2009 115,000 Unknown
Cypress, USA 1999 115,000 Unknown
Bakkafrost, Faroes 2017 109,515 Weather
ScanAm (Cypresse) 1996 100,000 Weather
Scottish Sea Farm 1999 100,000 Weather
Sjohall Havbruk, Norway 2008 100,000 Unknown
(Country of origin not always identified).
The total of escapes over 100,000 is a massive 4.73M. Yes, 4.73M. Intrafish says: 5.3M but does not explain the inconsistency.
What are the main points?
First: What about all the escapes less than 100,000? An example is the 21,000 from Mowi in BC in 2019. See links at bottom. Cermaq (Owned by Mitsubishi - we should stop buying their cars until their fish farms are on land) lost 130,000 fish to death, perhaps the result of using a Thermolicer to kill lice, or to warm water. Either case shows that fish farms need to be on land.
Second: Notice that all losses are due to weather, 'unknown' (whatever that means) and net failure. This is direct evidence that fish farms should not be in the world's oceans, because they can't take the environment. And, of course, if on land, these millions of fish would not be lost, and causing problems in the environment. Also, warm water losses, something that will only increase in future, can be eliminated on land.
And note that Cypress, aka Cooke, lost 263,000 in 2017, so the above number above is way low, 110,000 low. It got dinged $410,000 for the WA escape. Read this article on its negligence: http://www.southcoasttoday.ca/content/cooke-aqua-troubles-usa-grow-huge-fine-salmon-escape-disaster. How many other numbers above are way low?
Oh, and third: note that this farm, owned by Cooke now, has had three escape events exceeding 100,000 over the years.
Fourth: there are more escapes: Cermaq has lost 134,000 farmed salmon in Clayoquot Sound, BC in 2019 (see link below). And right now it has ISA problems in Chile. Mowi just lost 2.6 million farmed fish to, implausibly, warm water, in NL a couple of months ago, and has ISA in Norway, right now, too. So escapes, mortality and disease happen at the same time all around the world.
Fifth: the escapes are even worse than the numbers above. John Volpe's work on escapes in BC and breeding in Van Isle rivers found that of the 40 rivers swum that have multiple species of wild salmonids, 97% have 'wild' Atlantic salmon, meaning spawned fry and former farmed salmon, and now their progeny.
While I have done a half dozen posts on Volpe's work, here is one post: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2018/03/otto-langer-on-farmed-fish-escapes.html. Among other things, the post shows how to calculate the passive escape/leakage number of fish, outside of reported escapes.
Note that 'leakage/passive' escapes are 153,000 per crop in BC, but are not reported, and they are not put into the Intrafish stats. So, add that for the lowest country and then only higher around the globe. In other words, 'escapes'/leakage/unaccounted/spawning are far higher in fish farm countries. And the stats are not calculated or kept. So, it is far worse than Intrafish notes, as in catastrophes that are unreported, and denied by fish farms, though the scientists say yes.
Sixth, the Intrafish post above also points out that companies aren't about being public about the catastrophe of large, exotic fish escapes: "Tasmanian salmon farmer Huon Aquaculture refused to confirm if an escape
reported earlier this year was above or below 100,000 Atlantic salmon" The refusal to be public is one reason citizens don't want fish farms: it's their problems and refusal to be honest about their problems. And fish farms also claim their problems are not their fault, in this case, Huon said waves were 11 metres high that went through their site. What this doesn't say, is that fish farms should not be in an ocean where they can we wiped out. They should be on land, so no catastrophe will happen. It's very simple.
And this lack of transparency also makes the public hate fish farms: "“The numbers quoted by media and in our local parliament were greatly
exaggerated, and had no factual basis. Huon has no intention of
providing a running commentary on false claims."" Nor is it making public the numbers of fish escaped. Not Good.
Seventh: Did you notice that almost half of the catastrophic escapes - 9 of 22 - are from unknown causes. So, if fish farms can't even name what caused the catastrophe, why are they in the ocean? This doesn't make sense.
***
And, just in, 2019, 130,000 dead fish, Cermaq, Clayoquot Sound: https://seashepherd.org/2019/11/21/massive-salmon-farm-die-off-pollutes-canadas-clayoquot-sound/. That is likely the low end figure as the Sea Shepherd stated it could go into the millions.
Now, the fish loss figure is penned at 205,000 dead fish, Cermaq, Clayoquot Sound, algae the cause: https://www.undercurrentnews.com/2019/12/13/ngo-claims-cermaq-has-lost-thousands-of-salmon-off-canada-2/?utm_source=Undercurrent+News+Alerts&utm_campaign=a79863a1b0-Americas_briefing_Dec_13_2019&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_feb55e2e23-a79863a1b0-92426209.
And, just in, 2019: escape in Chile: Marine Farm: https://salmonbusiness.com/chilean-authorities-report-salmon-escape/. No number as of December 2019.
And, just in, Dec 2019, Mowi, BC, 21,000 escape: https://globalnews.ca/news/6328416/bc-fish-farm-fire-salmon/?fbclid=IwAR22JxvN_pVUfV_7z2rny3KnMUAY3S8TZuIU5YMnipoiJL6SK79BHlFPcIA. This article has many good links in it about the problems with farmed salmon, for example, PRV.
And, just in, Jan 2020, Cermaq loses 23,000 fish: https://www.intrafish.com/aquaculture/23-000-salmon-escape-from-cermaq-chile/2-1-731267?utm_source=IntraFish%20Aquaculture%20Newsletter&utm_campaign=1b8e87e7cc-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_01_06_07_00&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ec4b681694-1b8e87e7cc-244877629. And these were coho salmon, not Atlantics.
Now, 7000 have been recaptured from 23,000 fish escape: https://www.intrafish.com/aquaculture/cermaq-chile-recaptures-nearly-a-third-of-escaped-coho-salmon/2-1-733620?utm_source=IntraFish%20Aquaculture%20Newsletter&utm_campaign=77c291c0ed-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_01_10_07_00&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ec4b681694-77c291c0ed-244877629.
And, yet another: Jan 8, just in: Escape - Scotland, Mowi, 24,000 salmon: https://www.fishfarmingexpert.com/article/second-big-escape-in-a-year-at-mowi-high-energy-site/?utm_campaign=newsletter__08_01_2020&utm_source=netflex&utm_medium=email. "It was the second incident at the site in under a year, following the
escape of 24,572 fish with an average weight of 1.1kg during storms in
November 2018." The loss was 500,000 Euros.
And, yet another - Salmar, Norway: https://www.intrafish.com/aquaculture/salmar-reports-escape-at-damaged-salmon-farming-site/2-1-720114?utm_source=IntraFish%20Salmon%20Newsletter&utm_campaign=dfb52154ab-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_12_16_07_00&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_5c825a4a64-dfb52154ab-245113141.
And, yet another: Mowi, Norway, 2500 fish: https://www.intrafish.com/aquaculture/mowi-confirms-salmon-escape-in-northern-norway/2-1-734515?utm_source=IntraFish%20Aquaculture%20Newsletter&utm_campaign=77c291c0ed-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_01_10_07_00&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ec4b681694-77c291c0ed-244877629.
And, yet another: Escape - Norway, Salmar, number not yet known: https://www.intrafish.com/aquaculture/salmar-reports-escape-at-damaged-salmon-farming-site/2-1-720114?utm_source=IntraFish%20Salmon%20Newsletter&utm_campaign=e1fa7ed92c-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_12_13_07_00&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_5c825a4a64-e1fa7ed92c-245113141.
And, yet another: Escape, Chile, Tornagaleones: https://www.intrafish.com/aquaculture/chiles-tornagaleones-loses-harvest-sized-salmon-in-escape/2-1-712848?utm_source=IntraFish%20Salmon%20Newsletter&utm_campaign=0961630456-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_12_06_07_00&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_5c825a4a64-0961630456-245113141.
And, yet another: Escapes - Norway, 287,000 salmon in 2019: https://www.intrafish.com/analysis/the-biggest-farmed-salmon-escapes-of-2019/2-1-734544?utm_source=IntraFish%20Aquaculture%20Newsletter&utm_campaign=f2ab71ce3a-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_01_13_07_00&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ec4b681694-f2ab71ce3a-244877629.
And, yet another: Escape - Scotland, Mowi, 74,000, Jan 2020: https://www.undercurrentnews.com/2020/01/21/mowi-loses-74000-fish-from-exposed-scottish-site/?utm_source=Undercurrent+News+Alerts&utm_campaign=9120b002e5-Europe_briefing_Jan_21_2020&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_feb55e2e23-9120b002e5-92426209. And another article on this issue: https://www.fis.com/fis/worldnews/worldnews.asp?monthyear=&day=21&id=106088&l=e&special=&ndb=1%20target=.
And, yet another: historical Escapes, Mowi Scotland: https://www.fishfarmingexpert.com/article/73600-fish-escape-from-mowi-site-after-storm-rips-net/?utm_campaign=newsletter__22_01_2020&utm_source=netflex&utm_medium=email. These are historical escapes: "Earlier this month Fish Farming Expert reported that nearly 24,000
salmon with an average weight of 4.5kg escaped from Mowi Scotland’s
high-energy site at Hellisay, Isle of Barra in October. It was the second incident at the site in under a year, following the
escape of 24,572 fish with an average weight of 1.1kg during storms in
November 2018."
And, yet another: Huge Escapes in 2019 Prompts Norway to Review Escapes - the 287,000 fish: https://www.intrafish.com/salmon/after-year-of-record-farmed-salmon-escapes-norway-rethinks-strategy/2-1-742166.
And, yet another, Jan 29, 2020: huge escapes, Norway: https://www.fishfarmingexpert.com/article/norway-290000-salmon-escaped-in-2019/?utm_campaign=newsletter__29_01_2020&utm_source=netflex&utm_medium=email. " Figures from the Fisheries Directorate show that 290,000 salmon
escaped in 2019, along with 2,000 rainbow trout, and that fish farmers
reported 49 escape events. The last year that escape numbers were similarly high was 2014, when 286,000 salmon escaped. In 2018, by comparison, 160,000 salmon and 3,000 rainbow trout escaped in 44 reported incidents."
And yet another, science article: Tens of Millions of Salmon Have Escaped - globally, over the decades: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/faf.12214.
And, yet another, March 2020: trout, Cermaq, Chile, Magallanes, 40- to 50-thousand fish: https://www.undercurrentnews.com/2020/03/13/trout-escape-cermaq-magallanes-site-company-confirms-norway-plant-still-operating/?utm_source=Undercurrent+News+Alerts&utm_campaign=bdc1e4bce3-Americas_briefing_Mar_13_2020&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_feb55e2e23-bdc1e4bce3-92426209.
And, yet another: Bakkafrost Can't Find 200,000 Escaped Fish - Iceland, of 1M lost due to storm: https://www.intrafish.com/aquaculture/bakkafrost-still-hunting-for-200-000-escaped-salmon/2-1-773115?utm_source=IntraFish%20Salmon%20Newsletter&utm_campaign=ce9fa102e9-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_03_16_12_26&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_5c825a4a64-ce9fa102e9-245113141.
And yet another:
Monday, 6 January 2020
Wednesday, 1 January 2020
Most Popoular Posts - December 2019
Here are the most popular posts on this site in December 2019. This
site puts the post at the end of the month or the first day of the
following month, or so I say. This means that it is very easy to find
the most popular posts back to Sept 1, 2016.
This site has a global audience, and on Dec 1, for example, the largest audience is from Russia. Other countries occupy this position on other days, such as Canada, USA, Denmark, Norway, Great Britain, Ukraine, Australia, China, India, France, Netherlands and so on.
These are the posts:
1. 305 On-land Fish Farms Systems Around the World: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2016/05/152-different-on-land-fish-farm-systems.html. Yes there really are more than 300 on-land fish farms systems around the world. When there is this many, why are there any left to pollute the ocean? And, this post is a perennial most-viewed post. So, take a look.
2. Atlantic Salmon Breed in BC Rivers - Tsitika, John Volpe - Economic Stats - https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2017/09/atlantic-salmon-breed-in-bc-rivers.html. Industry and DFO say it can't happen but the scientist showed that is has happened. And note, DFO tried to stifle his work by pulling out at the last second and refusing to give him Atlantic Salmon to work with. This is unacceptable. And, yes, this means DFO is not about evidence and science, as they keep claiming.
This site has a global audience, and on Dec 1, for example, the largest audience is from Russia. Other countries occupy this position on other days, such as Canada, USA, Denmark, Norway, Great Britain, Ukraine, Australia, China, India, France, Netherlands and so on.
These are the posts:
1. 305 On-land Fish Farms Systems Around the World: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2016/05/152-different-on-land-fish-farm-systems.html. Yes there really are more than 300 on-land fish farms systems around the world. When there is this many, why are there any left to pollute the ocean? And, this post is a perennial most-viewed post. So, take a look.
2. Atlantic Salmon Breed in BC Rivers - Tsitika, John Volpe - Economic Stats - https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2017/09/atlantic-salmon-breed-in-bc-rivers.html. Industry and DFO say it can't happen but the scientist showed that is has happened. And note, DFO tried to stifle his work by pulling out at the last second and refusing to give him Atlantic Salmon to work with. This is unacceptable. And, yes, this means DFO is not about evidence and science, as they keep claiming.
3. Climate Change Effects on Salmon: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2019/10/ckunate-change-effects-on-salmon.html. A lot of links in this one for you to read.
4. Fish Farms Kill Wild Salmonids - here is the proof from Norway, and check John Volpe for BC: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2019/04/fish-farms-kill-wild-salmonids-says.html.
5. Trudeau Will Put Fish Farms On Land? Why Yes, What Makes you Ask? https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2019/11/trudeau-will-put-fish-farms-on-land-why.html. I almost fell off my chair, but he has put it in DFO marching orders for Bernadette Jorden.
6. Is Mowi Harvest Lying? Why, er, Yes: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2019/10/is-mowi-harvest-lying-well-er-yes.html. This post documents all of fish farming's problems, as written by Mowi in an offering to buy Cermaq shares.
7. Scientists Harassed by Fish Farms, Norwegian Government: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2017/06/scientists-harassed-by-fish-farms.html. Fish farm companies abuse their powers by squashing and bullying and destroying the careers of scientists and government employees, in Norway. This is a list of 20 actual scientists who have been harassed in Norway.
8. Cooke, A Litany of Complaint Against this Fish Farm Company: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2016/04/cooke-aquaculture-typical.html. A list of the problems Cooke has caused, which could be eliminated if they were on land, and honest.
9. Salmon Habitat Restoration - Raincoast Conservation Foundation: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2019/11/salmon-habitat-restoration-raincoast.html. A good summary piece from me, that gives you a full perspective in a page or two. Good to read, and it was well read in November.
10. PRV - First Nation Sues DFO... Yes, Again, After Winning Twice Before. Yes, for a Third Time: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2019/11/prv-first-nation-sues-dfo-yes-again.html. This is an example that while DFO says it uses science and evidence, that it refuses to use science and evidence and it also refuses to do what the court says it has to do - two times. Now in court for a third time on the same issue they have lost twice. Unacceptable.
11. Brett Bundale, 2.6 Million Salmon Die. Fish Farms are Not About Jobs and Revenue: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2019/11/brett-bundale-26-million-salmon-die.html.
12. Jobs and Revenue - Hasta La Vista Fish Farms: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2019/12/jobs-and-revenue-hasta-la-vista-fish.html. A response to Intrafish, Drew Cherry, on the jobs and revenue spin that fish farms do to look far bigger than they actually are in BC and elsewhere.
13. Escape of Non-native Salmon - Farm Phase-Out Plan: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2019/12/escape-of-non-native-salmon-farm-phase.html. Pointing out that the escapes of fish farm fish are far, far larger than fish farms and DFO admit.
50 Years Later: The Usual Bullshit, er, Communication's Spin, Updated Jan 2, 2020
Fish farms have been spouting the same BS for the past 50 years about the Blue Revolution, and homilies to Jacques Cousteau, and haven't changed it at all. This is the case even though wherever fish farms go, the citizens come to overwhelmingly reject them once their problems take over and the usual catastrophes start occurring.
One of the places is Scotland, where, right now, the Island of Eigg, has overwhelmingly rejected Mowi's application to start a farm in a vote. 87% of islanders voted against Mowi.
See The Herald for the news: https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/18127447.isle-eigg-casts-vote-arrival-fish-farm/.
Mowi said if it wasn't wanted, when they started wooing the islanders, they wouldn't start a farm. But now, after the vote, they spout the same old BS:
Quote: "MOWI says on its website that aquaculture is “transforming” the seafood industry and Mowi is playing an important role in that change - “leading the way with sustainability, innovation and responsibility.”
Answer: This is a 50 year old quote. Now every country where they set up hates them: Scotland, Norway, Canada East, Canada West, Chile, Tasmania, Australia, USA and the list goes on.
Sustainability, fish farms have decimated 19 out of 20 global forage fish stocks for fish feed, with Norway being fingered for destroying Jack Mackerel off Chile and west further into the Pacific Ocean.
Here is the graph from the Sea Around Us, work done by Tim Cashion and Daniel Pauly at UBC. It graphically shows the collapse of Jack Mackerel done by Norway off Chile:
And no crop that eats protein to create protein will ever be sustainable. Cows eat grass instead, and so on. Not farmed salmon. They eat fish.
See the Sea Around Us document: http://www.seaaroundus.org/doc/publications/books-and-reports/2016/End_Use_Reconstruction_Report.pdf.
Innovation: I don't think so: Mowi, Cermaq, and Grieg Seafood have resisted moving their operations out of the ocean onto land for the past 30 years.
Answer: My list shows more than 300 on-land fish farms around the world: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2016/05/152-different-on-land-fish-farm-systems.html.
Responsibility: ?
Answer: The biggest problem with fish farms is sewage. In BC, the most conservative estimate of sewage is $10.4B. Putting fish farms on land and growing aquaponic vegetables with their sewage is responsibility. How is eutrophying the world's oceans responsible?
See this post for the full story on how to calculate the sewage cost of in-ocean fish farms: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2017/02/fish-farm-sewage-huge-cost-to-bc.html.
Quote: "We grow our salmon in the remote and pristine waters of the Western Highlands and Islands of Scotland. We provide jobs and support fragile rural economies in some of the most remote communities in the country,” it says.
Answer: Remote and pristine waters are sought by fish farms, as they don't like being in the same place as other polluting fish farms. In a sad example of this, fish farms are moving into the Magallanes region of Chile because of the remote and pristine waters. Also sad because it is right next to Patagonia, one of the most beautiful, remote places left on Earth.
Answer: jobs and revenue. See this post on how meager the jobs and revenue are in BC, and the fake stats from fish farmers. The same analysis can be done anywhere fish farms set up. And with the automation of Norway coming to places like Scotland, 80% of jobs will likely be lost. See this cut-to-the-chase post: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2019/12/jobs-and-revenue-hasta-la-vista-fish.html.
And GDP is small compared with revenue, which is being taken back to Norway for shareholders.
Also, Eigg doesn't want its tourist economy, based on having a beautiful, green place, being destroyed by fish farms. This is the same around the world, most typified in BC by Clayoquot Sound a UN World Biosphere.
Quote: “Scotland’s salmon farmers have some of the strongest credentials of all the farming sectors, particularly with regards to sustainability with a lower carbon footprint than chicken, beef or pig farming. We’re also amongst the most highly regulated of all salmon farming countries in terms of both fish welfare and the environment, and invest millions year-on-year to find ever better ways of doing things.”
Answer: 'carbon footprint', fish farms completely ignore their sewage and eutrophication costs, while allowing the poop of land animals to be counted. Note that the other end of 'conservative' in my BC calculation is triple the above figure, or $31.2B. This is huge, and is more than the sewage of the entire human population in BC, and other places, like Scotland and Norway. Sewage from fish farms also exceeds the human sewage in those countries.
Answer: 'most highly regulated' of all salmon countries. As I have previously pointed out: this is a false assertion. That is because they make the same, communications spin, assertion all around the world, for example, Norway, Scotland, Chile and Canada - at the same time. The spin is false because all countries have different laws, and Canada, for example, uses the DFO wild salmon laws, and is only now considering coming up with an aquaculture law.
Answer: 'invest millions to lead to better ways of doing things.' This is false because Scotland is well known for AGD, amoebic gill disease in its fish, And loses millions of dead fish every year to all causes. See this post for the millions of fish fish farms in Scotlant lose every year: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2019/10/millions-of-dead-fish-nl-scotland.html?m=1.
You'll note from that post that with the additional mortalities at its egg to smolt plants, that some years the total mortality can be the hard to believe 70%. How would they stay in business unless they tried very hard to come up with better ways of doing things? Or, from the opposite point of view, they are not doing much to find better ways of doing things.
Quote: "MOWI also say there is a lot of “misleading” misinformation about the environmental impacts of salmon farming “which have the potential to jeopardize much-needed jobs, reduce business for local suppliers, and diminish the sector’s significant contribution to the economy in terms of salaries, tax and export value.”
Answer: this one made me laugh out loud. You see, if you disagree with fish farms they say you are spreading misinformation. Then they follow this up by saying the solution is to educate you to the real figures and answers. Yes, this is as Orwellian as it sounds.
The second side is that your misinformation kills needed jobs, revenue and indeed the value of the most important farming 'crop' to the entire nation they exist in. Phew. I'm scared that if I utter one more word that fish farms will collapse as well as in BC and all the countries in which fish farms exist. SCARY.
Not to mention, that all those benefits their communications spin says occur would also be able to be said occur, and much more likely, if all the farms were on land.
And remember that in a recent post, I pointed out that with the automation now in place in Norway, and soon to be in a country near to you, 80% of jobs have been lost. In BC that would mean the BC Stats figure of 1800 jobs, would drop to 360. Who wants an industry that is so low in the chief thing it continues claiming: jobs, jobs, jobs, is not now true, nor in the foreseeable future, as those Norway job losses come to Canada et al?
See: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2019/12/jobs-and-revenue-hasta-la-vista-fish.html.
Quote: "Eigg is also said to be the most eco-conscious isle in the country with a range of green projects and businesses."
Answer: I'd say that Clayoquot Sound is the place in BC most like Eigg in its rugged beauty, and protected status that needs protection from fish farms. Clayoquot Action is attempting this protection.
See: https://clayoquotaction.org/what-is-clayoquot/.
*****
Finally: fish farms need communications spin because they employ, wait for it, the same spin doctors, Hill and Knowlton, that the tobacco lobby employed so that their CEOs wouldn't know tobacco killed people 30 years after all the rest of us on the planet knew. Hmm.
See: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2018/02/big-toobacco-big-fish-farms-pretty-much.html.
Read the Sarah K. Cox paper for her work on this subject.
And even more finally, here is some more of the same drivel, that if you don't believe the spin you utter misinformation and need re-education: https://www.fishfarmingexpert.com/article/looking-back-thinking-ahead-mike-forbes/. "My hope for 2020 is that the industry can find ways to better educate consumers on the positive impact salmon farmers' have.
Wasn't it Einstein who said: if you utter the same old drivel, you'll keep on getting the same old outcome, that everyone in the world hates fish farms? Maybe fish farms need education.
And a comment on this post from Facebook:
Russ Thomas Jacobson I can’t believe we are still putting up with this 50 years later. I started gill netting 39 years ago I remember catching these farmed fish that escaped back then. I started making a great living as a 15 year old kid. I have watched and felt the decline of wild salmon as these dreaded farms grew and diseased our coast with sea lice and various other viruses. What a disgrace that we have allowed this gross misconduct to ruin our salmon industry and livelihoods
One of the places is Scotland, where, right now, the Island of Eigg, has overwhelmingly rejected Mowi's application to start a farm in a vote. 87% of islanders voted against Mowi.
See The Herald for the news: https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/18127447.isle-eigg-casts-vote-arrival-fish-farm/.
Mowi said if it wasn't wanted, when they started wooing the islanders, they wouldn't start a farm. But now, after the vote, they spout the same old BS:
Quote: "MOWI says on its website that aquaculture is “transforming” the seafood industry and Mowi is playing an important role in that change - “leading the way with sustainability, innovation and responsibility.”
Answer: This is a 50 year old quote. Now every country where they set up hates them: Scotland, Norway, Canada East, Canada West, Chile, Tasmania, Australia, USA and the list goes on.
Sustainability, fish farms have decimated 19 out of 20 global forage fish stocks for fish feed, with Norway being fingered for destroying Jack Mackerel off Chile and west further into the Pacific Ocean.
Here is the graph from the Sea Around Us, work done by Tim Cashion and Daniel Pauly at UBC. It graphically shows the collapse of Jack Mackerel done by Norway off Chile:
And no crop that eats protein to create protein will ever be sustainable. Cows eat grass instead, and so on. Not farmed salmon. They eat fish.
See the Sea Around Us document: http://www.seaaroundus.org/doc/publications/books-and-reports/2016/End_Use_Reconstruction_Report.pdf.
Innovation: I don't think so: Mowi, Cermaq, and Grieg Seafood have resisted moving their operations out of the ocean onto land for the past 30 years.
Answer: My list shows more than 300 on-land fish farms around the world: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2016/05/152-different-on-land-fish-farm-systems.html.
Responsibility: ?
Answer: The biggest problem with fish farms is sewage. In BC, the most conservative estimate of sewage is $10.4B. Putting fish farms on land and growing aquaponic vegetables with their sewage is responsibility. How is eutrophying the world's oceans responsible?
See this post for the full story on how to calculate the sewage cost of in-ocean fish farms: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2017/02/fish-farm-sewage-huge-cost-to-bc.html.
Quote: "We grow our salmon in the remote and pristine waters of the Western Highlands and Islands of Scotland. We provide jobs and support fragile rural economies in some of the most remote communities in the country,” it says.
Answer: Remote and pristine waters are sought by fish farms, as they don't like being in the same place as other polluting fish farms. In a sad example of this, fish farms are moving into the Magallanes region of Chile because of the remote and pristine waters. Also sad because it is right next to Patagonia, one of the most beautiful, remote places left on Earth.
Answer: jobs and revenue. See this post on how meager the jobs and revenue are in BC, and the fake stats from fish farmers. The same analysis can be done anywhere fish farms set up. And with the automation of Norway coming to places like Scotland, 80% of jobs will likely be lost. See this cut-to-the-chase post: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2019/12/jobs-and-revenue-hasta-la-vista-fish.html.
And GDP is small compared with revenue, which is being taken back to Norway for shareholders.
Also, Eigg doesn't want its tourist economy, based on having a beautiful, green place, being destroyed by fish farms. This is the same around the world, most typified in BC by Clayoquot Sound a UN World Biosphere.
Quote: “Scotland’s salmon farmers have some of the strongest credentials of all the farming sectors, particularly with regards to sustainability with a lower carbon footprint than chicken, beef or pig farming. We’re also amongst the most highly regulated of all salmon farming countries in terms of both fish welfare and the environment, and invest millions year-on-year to find ever better ways of doing things.”
Answer: 'carbon footprint', fish farms completely ignore their sewage and eutrophication costs, while allowing the poop of land animals to be counted. Note that the other end of 'conservative' in my BC calculation is triple the above figure, or $31.2B. This is huge, and is more than the sewage of the entire human population in BC, and other places, like Scotland and Norway. Sewage from fish farms also exceeds the human sewage in those countries.
Answer: 'most highly regulated' of all salmon countries. As I have previously pointed out: this is a false assertion. That is because they make the same, communications spin, assertion all around the world, for example, Norway, Scotland, Chile and Canada - at the same time. The spin is false because all countries have different laws, and Canada, for example, uses the DFO wild salmon laws, and is only now considering coming up with an aquaculture law.
Answer: 'invest millions to lead to better ways of doing things.' This is false because Scotland is well known for AGD, amoebic gill disease in its fish, And loses millions of dead fish every year to all causes. See this post for the millions of fish fish farms in Scotlant lose every year: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2019/10/millions-of-dead-fish-nl-scotland.html?m=1.
You'll note from that post that with the additional mortalities at its egg to smolt plants, that some years the total mortality can be the hard to believe 70%. How would they stay in business unless they tried very hard to come up with better ways of doing things? Or, from the opposite point of view, they are not doing much to find better ways of doing things.
Quote: "MOWI also say there is a lot of “misleading” misinformation about the environmental impacts of salmon farming “which have the potential to jeopardize much-needed jobs, reduce business for local suppliers, and diminish the sector’s significant contribution to the economy in terms of salaries, tax and export value.”
Answer: this one made me laugh out loud. You see, if you disagree with fish farms they say you are spreading misinformation. Then they follow this up by saying the solution is to educate you to the real figures and answers. Yes, this is as Orwellian as it sounds.
The second side is that your misinformation kills needed jobs, revenue and indeed the value of the most important farming 'crop' to the entire nation they exist in. Phew. I'm scared that if I utter one more word that fish farms will collapse as well as in BC and all the countries in which fish farms exist. SCARY.
Not to mention, that all those benefits their communications spin says occur would also be able to be said occur, and much more likely, if all the farms were on land.
And remember that in a recent post, I pointed out that with the automation now in place in Norway, and soon to be in a country near to you, 80% of jobs have been lost. In BC that would mean the BC Stats figure of 1800 jobs, would drop to 360. Who wants an industry that is so low in the chief thing it continues claiming: jobs, jobs, jobs, is not now true, nor in the foreseeable future, as those Norway job losses come to Canada et al?
See: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2019/12/jobs-and-revenue-hasta-la-vista-fish.html.
Quote: "Eigg is also said to be the most eco-conscious isle in the country with a range of green projects and businesses."
Answer: I'd say that Clayoquot Sound is the place in BC most like Eigg in its rugged beauty, and protected status that needs protection from fish farms. Clayoquot Action is attempting this protection.
See: https://clayoquotaction.org/what-is-clayoquot/.
*****
Finally: fish farms need communications spin because they employ, wait for it, the same spin doctors, Hill and Knowlton, that the tobacco lobby employed so that their CEOs wouldn't know tobacco killed people 30 years after all the rest of us on the planet knew. Hmm.
See: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2018/02/big-toobacco-big-fish-farms-pretty-much.html.
Read the Sarah K. Cox paper for her work on this subject.
And even more finally, here is some more of the same drivel, that if you don't believe the spin you utter misinformation and need re-education: https://www.fishfarmingexpert.com/article/looking-back-thinking-ahead-mike-forbes/. "My hope for 2020 is that the industry can find ways to better educate consumers on the positive impact salmon farmers' have.
Wasn't it Einstein who said: if you utter the same old drivel, you'll keep on getting the same old outcome, that everyone in the world hates fish farms? Maybe fish farms need education.
And a comment on this post from Facebook:
Russ Thomas Jacobson I can’t believe we are still putting up with this 50 years later. I started gill netting 39 years ago I remember catching these farmed fish that escaped back then. I started making a great living as a 15 year old kid. I have watched and felt the decline of wild salmon as these dreaded farms grew and diseased our coast with sea lice and various other viruses. What a disgrace that we have allowed this gross misconduct to ruin our salmon industry and livelihoods
Sunday, 29 December 2019
Escape of Non-native Salmon - Farm Phase-Out Plan
Hi Amy
A couple of comments on your Dec 29 article on farmed
salmon: https://www.timescolonist.com/escape-of-non-native-salmon-on-b-c-coast-puts-farm-phase-out-plan-in-spotlight-1.24041570.
First: Google this to get the links on the John Volpe
posts I have done: ‘fishfarmnews.blogspot.com - John Volpe, 97%’. I did about
half a dozen. In addition, the overall story is best told by a post on David
Suzuki’s site, which you can also find.
Volpe found that of the rivers he swam on Van Isle that of
those with multiple species of wild salmonids, they had adult and progeny of farmed
salmon in 97% of the cases, a shocking level.
DFO and as you note, fish farms claim the opposite: that
farmed fish can’t survive escaping. Worse, DFO attempted to kill Volpe’s work
by, at the last minute, refusing to give him Atlantic Salmon for his work and
refusing to authorize him to do in-river work they had already agreed to. You
can find this in my posts.
It is also the case that on the Atlantic coast, that any river
within, I believe, 50KM of a farm, has farmed salmon. This is a worse result as
the only species of salmon in the east are Atlantic Salmon.
Second: the escape work that Volpe and others have
done suggests an escape/leakage rate of .3% to 5%. Using the absolute lowest
rate, one can calculate the per crop escape/leakage number of fish: .003 X 85 farms
X 600,000 fish/farm = 153,000 fish. None of these fish are reported to DFO, so
when Mowi reports 20,000, the overall picture is far worse than you quote: ‘demonstrates
the urgent need to’ get fish farms out of the water because 153,000 fish
escape/leak each crop, and no one reports this reality.
The escape/leakage rate is calculated in this post: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2018/03/otto-langer-on-farmed-fish-escapes.html.
This post gives you the Van Isle rivers that Volpe et al have
swum: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2017/12/atlantic-salmon-in-van-isle-rivers.html.
DC Reid
Friday, 27 December 2019
Jobs and Revenue? - Hasta La Vista Fish Farms, Updated Dec 31, 2019
Hi Drew Cherry [from Intrafish, news outlet]:
On your article: https://www.intrafish.com/commentary/will-salmon-farmers-abandon-british-columbia-/2-1-727477?utm_source=IntraFish%20Salmon%20Newsletter&utm_campaign=9db4d3f04c-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_12_25_07_00&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_5c825a4a64-9db4d3f04c-245113141,
a few comments.
See my post on the BC Stats Report: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2019/03/mar-21-2019-bc-stats-report-2016.html.
Fish farms promise politicians jobs and revenue and they don’t
hear anything else and put them in the ocean. Right now, the biggest fight is
in NL. BC is beyond that fight. The main reason is that BC residents value wild
salmon at the same rate – 75% - that Quebec values French. And, we have 99.8%
of all the wild salmon in Canada.
I used to write reports like the BC Stats one when I worked
for government, so my comments are sound.
And you make the following jobs and revenue comment: “According
to the BC Salmon Farmers Association, the industry accounts for CDN$1.5 billion
($1.1 billion/€1 billion) in revenue and 7,000 jobs, many on Vancouver Island,
where employment can be scarce. In addition, many of the jobs are held by
people of First Nations descent.”
On revenue: BC Stats says: $777.3M, only 50% of the
fish farmers’ claim. And, given that contribution to GDP is only $194.4M, that
means only 25% is ‘invested’ in BC. 75% of the money goes back to Norway, to
shareholders.
On jobs: BC Stats says only 1800 jobs, or only 25.7%
of the fish farmers’ claim – and job numbers have been declining for the past
20 years. Furthermore, I have determined that the actual job number is only
825, and if 20% (the industry claim) are Indigenous, that means only 165 jobs.
All three numbers are peanuts. And, on the other side is a solid, deep-seated desire
to save wild salmon, that BC residents see DFO/Ottawa having managed into
extinction for the past 50 years.
And the Milewski article at the bottom points out that
fish farm employment in Atlantic Canada has dropped 32% over a recent past
decade. Furthermore, as jobs have dropped 80% in Norway, due to automation, it
can be inferred that the same will happen in Canada when the automation is
brought here. That means, in BC, that employment will drop to 360 jobs in the
entire industry. Who bases economic figures on such a small number of jobs? No
one.
As well, fish farms are in trouble in BC because 85% of
their market of 85,000mt is to the USA, and the USA is moving to vastly out size
the BC industry in on-land farms. Atlantic Sapphire has growth plans to
160,000mt, and then higher, along with Whole Oceans, Nordic Aquafarms, Aquabanc
and many others.
Here is a short list of on-land projects by another news
outlet: https://salmonbusiness.com/these-are-the-leading-land-based-salmon-farms-in-the-world-right-now/.
My list is far longer, exceeding 300 on-land fish farms around
the world: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2016/05/152-different-on-land-fish-farm-systems.html.
In ocean in BC is toast. The jobs and revenue numbers do not
work. And we haven’t yet talked about algae, sewage, disease, lice, wild salmon, the list
goes on…
And the tax to the BC govt is so low it is not a compelling
argument.
DC (Dennis) Reid
****
And, Whole Oceans listed above has just made a deal with the on-land, Indigenous in BC to run Kuterra for 15 years: https://www.undercurrentnews.com/2019/12/20/canadian-ras-company-kuterra-signs-15-year-deal-to-produce-salmon-for-whole-oceans-parent/. Note that Emergent Holdings owns Whole Oceans.
And, Vancouver island is almost triple the size of Wales where Intrafish is from, the UK, so employment is far more secure than fish farms would have Don Cherry believe, who is not from BC, or even Canada.
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