BC Greens - On-land Fish Farms Are All Around the Globe

Hi BC Greens/Andrew Weaver

You need to look up from BC and realize that Kuterra, BC is far from the only fish farm in the world on land.

My list now has 194 on-land fish farm systems, comprising almost 20,000 on-land fish farms around the world: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2016/05/152-different-on-land-fish-farm-systems.html.

Despite what the Norwegian companies might say, on-land is common. In fact, Norway grew so fed up with their sewage and damage that it stopped auctioning in-ocean licences in 2014. Now it gives out on-land licences for free, a $9- $12-million subsidy based on the previous in-ocean price.

If fish farms don’t want to come out of the water in BC, then they can go back to their own country and set up on-land there. Norway is fed up, just as we are. We need to do the same thing. Note that if their option is to set up on land in Norway, where there is a scarcity of flat land, point out to them that BC has low priced land everywhere, and it would pay them to do so here rather than move back to Norway. It’s a better deal to be on-land in BC.

When a fish farm says something to you, like ‘on land is not our business plan’ don’t think of it as anything more than spin. And tell them that their boss in Norway, Helge Aarskog agrees with you and next you'll talk to him, lice,escapes and disease can be solved on land.

I receive almost 30 global press fish farm/seafood industry newsletters each week. I am that up on global issues. My blog has more than 370,0000 page views from around the world. See the 2,200 problems in the global press that have come across my desk in the past couple of years: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2017/08/bad-news-bites-salmonseafood-industry.html.

Feel free to run something by me to take the fish farm spin out of it for you. For example, while they will tell you on-land is more expensive, point them to my 194 on-land farm post because I have also put in dozens of studies to start the post that deal with the economics of on-land versus in-water.

Also point out to them that they need to be on land because the new Atlantic Sapphire 150,000 tons on-land plant in Florida is going to put them out of business - it is sustainable, and cheaper to USA markets. You might even tell them they may want to follow their own Marine Harvest executives that have jumped ship to Atlantic Sapphire because they can see the writing on the wall for in-ocean farms. That includes in BC. (AS is item 176 in the 194 post).

Oh, and one more thing, did you know Marine Harvest has committed $100 Million into on-land, closed containment systems. Tell them to spend some of it here rather than in Norway. Do tell them that as the Krone has been allowed to rise in Norway’s monetary policy, that means they’ll be worth more when brought to BC to defray set up costs. What a deal!

Please make sure AW sees the link above.

DC (Dennis) Reid

DFO White Knights or KKK?

As a person who worked for the BC government in the past, I almost threw up when reading the bible-length tome of DFO whitewash regarding what they do on the public's behalf.

You have to scroll through this one to get the throat gagging effect it has, but don't read it all, as you may be nauseated for a very long time.

See: http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/reports-rapports/vicr-virc/vicr-virc2012-eng.htm#dem.

A few snippets? Oh, okay, but only because you asked.

On second thought, here is the Table of Contents. Remember, don't read too much:

Table of contents

• Message from the Deputy Minister
• Application
• PART 1: Our Values in Practice
  • A) Our values
    • 1. Respect for Democracy
    • 2. Respect for People
    • 3. Integrity
    • 4. Stewardship
    • 5. Excellence
  • B) Workplace Leadership
  • C) Examples of Behaviours to Avoid
• PART 2: Guidelines and Expectations of Conduct
  • 1. Care and Use of Government Property
  • 2. Confidentiality and Use of Information
  • 3. Providing Testimony and Information
  • 4. Electronic Networks Access and Use
  • 5. Duty of Loyalty
  • 6. Use of Social Networks
  • 7. Public Comments
  • 8. Respect and Courtesy when Serving and Dealing with Clients
  • 9. Off-Duty Conduct
  • 10.   Fishery Officer Conduct
• PART 3: Conflict of Interest and Post-Employment
  • A)    Definitions
  • B)    Prevention of Conflict of Interest
  • C)    General Responsibilities and Duties
  • D)    Conflict of Interest During Employment
  • 1. Personal Assets
  • 2. Outside Employment or Activities
  • 3. Political Activities
  • 4. Gifts, Hospitality and Other Benefits
  • 5. Solicitation and Fundraising
  • 6. Avoidance of Preferential Treatment
  • 7. Relationship/Partnership with Stakeholders
  • 8. Reporting Relationships
  • E)    Conflict of Interest Before and After Leaving Employment
  • 1. Post-Employment Limitation Period When in Designated Positions
  • 2. Waiver or Reduction of Limitation Period
• PART 4: Resolution of Values and Ethics Issues.
• PART 5: A Word From our Values and Ethics Champions
• PART 6: Resources and Contacts
• PART 7: Reference Documents
• Other Items of Interest

Here is one example:

Integrity:

"3. Integrity

Integrity is the cornerstone of good governance and democracy. By upholding the highest ethical standards, public servants conserve and enhance public confidence in the honesty, fairness and impartiality of the federal public sector.

Public servants shall serve the public interest by:

1. Acting at all times with integrity, and in a manner that will bear the closest public scrutiny, an obligation that may not be fully satisfied by simply acting within the law.
2. Never using their official roles to inappropriately obtain an advantage for themselves or to advantage or disadvantage others.
3. Taking all possible steps to prevent and resolve any real, apparent or potential conflicts of interest between their official responsibilities and their private affairs in favour of the public interest.
4. Acting in such a way as to maintain their employer’s trust.

At Fisheries and Oceans Canada Integrity also means:

1. How we achieve results is as important as the achievements themselves.
2. We prevent and correct situations where there is, or appears to be, favouritism or nepotism.
3. We accept responsibility for our actions and report inappropriate conduct to management in order to build and maintain trust and accountability.
4. We live up to our commitments within the workplace and with stakeholders."

 As we all know, managing one's career is the most important thing in the federal civil service. That is not about integrity.

You can scan the rest.

Phony Fish Farm Stats - CHEK TV Duped by Fish Farms

Just like all the other media out there, CHEK, our local TV station, just uses fish farm/DFO figures as though they are accurate, and does not work to ground proof what they are told.

This is the note I sent to CHEK on a recent story of theirs. The point is that they have to check these things. Note that the actual GDP effect is 3.9% of what fish farms claim it is.

See:

You [CHEK] quoted fish farms saying that the industry is worth $1.6B to the economy and has 6,610 jobs.

The real stats are: $61.9M to GDP from all aquaculture, and job numbers are 1,700 multiplier jobs, and only 820 actual jobs.

See the BC stats figures here: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2017/09/fish-farms-are-small-in-bc-jobs-and.html. I put a table at the end of the article, and searched out the actual number of jobs.

By comparison, there are 140,000 jobs in logging, putting fish farm actual employment at .5% of logging. That is how small they are.

When fish farms or DFO quote you figures, you should also point out that their stats can be far in excess of the real stats.

For example, the real multiplier number is only 25.7% of the fish farm claim of multiplier jobs. And actual jobs are only 12.4% of their claim.

As for GDP effect, it is only 3.9% of what they claim. That is how small they are.

DC Reid

DFO/BCNDP/GREENS Subsidize Fish Farms $9M to $12M Each - Licence Subsidy

I was asked about Norway's licencing of in-ocean fish farms. They ceased to do this in 2014. Here is what I said to the query:

What they [Norway] did was end the auctioning off of in-ocean licences in 2014 Norway was fed up with the sewage and other problems. This article says, at the bottom, 66 million Kroner. Multiply it by the exchange rate .16 and you get $10.56 million: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-economy-construction/hurricanes-harvey-irma-lift-u-s-factory-activity-index-to-13-year-high-idUSKCN1C71RJ. 

You will find the $9- to $12-million figure I use in other articles. 80 million Kroner is $12.8M, for instance. The BC licence cost, by comparison, is a pitiful $5,000 or .04% of the $12M figure. Hence the reason we are subsidizing fish farms to trash our oceans.

You would have to check whether getting a licence [in Norway] is tied to a lease of a particular spot. I don’t think it is. The reason for the high price is that fish farms are a licence to print money, and so, there has been a long-term speculative market, including people who had no intention of farming, just resold the licences. Kjersti Sandvik’s book, Under the Surface, covers this issue in Norway.

The licences Norway gives out for on-land are free, and thus a $9 - $12-Million subsidy. Note that the original licences are still in the water.

Norway does issue some in-ocean licences for concepts that reduce environmental damage, the egg by Marine Harvest, for instance: https://www.google.ca/search?q=Marine+Harvest+-+egg+concept+-+artist+rendering&dcr=0&tbm=isch&imgil=zEYXtZ5QezA_kM%253A%253B4IIbLOaEF_EL2M%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Faquaculturenorthamerica.com%25252Fresearch%25252Fmarine-harvest-tests-closed-egg-shaped-fish-pens%25252F&source=iu&pf=m&fir=zEYXtZ5QezA_kM%253A%252C4IIbLOaEF_EL2M%252C_&usg=__Z4pAEdxo9BPUjuR499EPgI3QEw0%3D&biw=957&bih=419&ved=0ahUKEwjVku_hwtLWAhVP0WMKHbYmD3kQyjcINQ&ei=H3_SWZWHFM-ijwO2zbzIBw#imgdii=DcHvMZQow-i0MM:&imgrc=zEYXtZ5QezA_kM:. Note that the purpose is to save salmon from lice, and there are two pipes off the bottom, one for water in, and the other would have to be for water/sewage/feed flowing out, but that is something MH does not talk about.

Note that the industry is trying now to get off shore, open ocean licences, for much larger farms, presumably to keep them from public scrutiny and thus release far more sewage. See this for Norway and Japan: Offshore Mega Sewage - Norway, Japan, offshore fish farms:  http://www.seafoodnews.com/Story/1077672/Norway%2DJapan%2DBegin%2DOffshore%2DSalmon%2DFarming.

As for fish in a usual size farm, that would be 600,000 to 1,000,000, but you would have to do some research to get a link.

D

Escaped Atlantic Salmon in BC - Volpe 2014 Paper - Updated Oct 10, 2017

John Volpe has published many papers on escaped Atlantic salmon in BC. Here is an earlier post on this site, the original classic paper: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2017/09/atlantic-salmon-breed-in-bc-rivers.html.

Volpe et al, including Fisher, have published many more over the years. A recent paper, 2014, has the scary subject matter that farmed Atlantics are indeed now wild and reproducing in BC: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10530-014-0653-x.

Fish farms say no escapes have occurred in years, DFO does not keep stats, and there is no independent check on the veracity of fish farm claims. In Norway, however, the same companies use fish that the government just needs to DNA check them and the fish farm, usually Marine Harvest, Cermaq and Grieg Seafood is fined for not reporting. 

The Norwegian government started doing DNA testing and fining fish farms because there is a history of failure to report escapes - and other things - by Marine Harvest, Cermaq, Grieg Seafood and others.


So why would Marine Harvest, Cermaq or Grieg Seafood be any more honest in another country than their own country where they are not honest? And soon, unless Marine Harvest gets back to me, I will be posting on what they told the press, but are not willing to back up their communications spin person in BC. In other words, there may be no point believing anything a fish farm company says. I'll let you know in a new post.

The 2014, Volpe/Fisher paper is: Occupancy dynamics of escaped farmed Atlantic salmon in Canadian Pacific coastal salmon streams: implications for sustained invasions.

 The Abstract is:
"Farmed non-native Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) is the largest agriculture export product of British Columbia, Canada. Chronic low-volume escapes of salmon from farms into Pacific waters (“leakage”) are typically undetectable (Britton et al. 2011). Analysis of escape-reporting from farmers indicates that reports greatly underestimate the true number of Atlantic salmon inadvertently released from open-net pen rearing sites (Morton and Volpe 2002). To quantify the spatial extent of escaped Atlantic salmon in Canadian Pacific rivers, we systematically snorkel-surveyed 41 known Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.)-supporting rivers and creeks on Vancouver Island over a span of 3 years. We estimated and accounted for imperfect detections using multi-season occupancy models. We detected Atlantic salmon in 36.6 % of surveyed rivers. After accounting for imperfect detection, occupancy models estimated that over half of surveyed streams across the study area contained Atlantic salmon, and that 97 % of streams with high native salmon diversity were occupied by Atlantic salmon. Even in intensive snorkel surveys, Atlantic salmon are detected in occupied streams only 2/3 the time, suggesting abundance and distribution of non-native salmon is greater than indicated by the only existing data. Further, Atlantic salmon are more likely to occupy streams with high native Pacific salmon diversity—and more likely to maintain occupancy across years—potentially increasing competitive pressure on native salmonids. Understanding local biotic and abiotic predictors of Atlantic salmon occupancy, stream colonization, and local extinction requires more data; the same is true for the effects of escaped Atlantic salmon on local salmon diversity and sustainability. These data for the first time show that Atlantic salmon occupy Pacific coastal rivers for multiple years. The impact of Atlantic salmon occupancy in British Columbia rivers must be factored into policy decisions regarding the future of salmon farming in the provincial waters."

Look at Table 1 for the stats by state/prov on juvenile/adult Atlantics.

Here is what Living Oceans, a BC ENGO has to say on this subject: 

"Farmed Atlantic salmon were estimated to be present in over half of surveyed rivers and streams according to modeling conducted for an article recently published online in the journal Biological Invasions. Living Oceans is calling on Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Gail Shea to stop approving new net-cage salmon farms until she can provide the public with clear evidence that Canada’s rivers are not being colonized by invasive species. 

The study, Occupancy dynamics of escaped farmed Atlantic salmon in Canadian Pacific coastal salmon streams: implications for sustained invasions, cited previous research indicating that the number of escaped fish reported by the B.C. salmon farming industry is greatly underestimated.
“There is simply no way to verify the industry’s data,” said Will Soltau, Salmon Farming Campaign Manager for Living Oceans. “Salmon farmers self-report escapes and at the same time, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) does not publicly share data from the Atlantic Salmon Watch Program it operates to receive reports from fishermen, field researchers and hatchery workers.”

And, in fact, escaped fish are common around the world from fish farms. Earlier posts on this site note that it is roughly, if you can believe it, 4M escapes in Chile per year, 1M in Norway, etc. And in-stream problems have occurred in Scotland, Ireland, and in Atlantic Canada, so if the industry is not forthcoming, and honest, and every river within 300 km of a fish farm in Atlantic Canada has farmed Atlantics in it, why should they be believed in BC? Or anywhere else?

And Living Oceans does report an unreported escape event in Atlantic Canada, again the issue being the fish farms being dishonest, as they are required to report escapes. They can't just rape the ocean. Here is a quote from LO: "The significant number of escapees indicates that a large escape in the Bay of Fundy had gone unreported by the salmon farming industry."

Here is another paper on escapes in BC, WA and AL: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/255978051_A_biological_risk_assessment_for_an_Atlantic_salmon_Salmo_salar_invasion_in_Alaskan_waters.

There are many more papers.

And DFO is part of the problem. This from LO: "“When salmon farming was introduced in Canada, fishermen and environmentalists protested that fish escaping from the net-cages posed a threat to wild stock,” said Soltau. “First DFO said escaped Atlantics couldn’t survive. Then they said they wouldn’t enter river systems. Then they said they wouldn’t spawn, but they found feral juveniles. Since then, DFO has done nothing to ease public concerns about escaped farmed Atlantics’ impact on wild salmon in Canadian rivers.”"

Most Popular Posts of September, 2017

Here are the most popular posts of September.

It has been a big summer with the collapse of the Cooke Aquaculture Cypress fish farm in WA; the diseases trip by the Sea Shepherd/Morton, and its video showing malformed, infected fish swimming in feces clouded water at every place they put a GoPro in a random net; cities now starting to prohibit fish farms in their territory, Tortel, Chile, and Sooke, BC; and, most important, the occupy movement by aboriginals at the Midsummer/Wicklow Point and Swanson fish farms to get them out of the water for good.

This is the link to the MPP of August, 2017, where you can find the post for the MPP of July as well: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2017/09/most-popular-posts-august-2017.html. The most popular post turned out to be me, winning the national Roderick Haig-Brown Award in 2016, my second award for sustained environmental writing on the environmental damage of fish farms around the globe.

1. BAD NEWS BITES, started Sept 1, 2017, it rose to 178 bad news stories in global press against fish farm/seafood industry operations: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2017/08/bad-news-bites-salmonseafood-industry.html. Prior to this 178 in Sept, I had found 2,000 bad news stories in the previous two years. This post was far and away the most popular in September.

2. Aboriginals Against Fish Farms: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2017/08/aboriginals-against-fish-farms-cooke.html. The note is clear that First Nations want fish farms out of the ocean.

3. Fish Farms Are Small in BC - note to Fin Donnelly: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2017/09/fish-farms-are-small-in-bc-jobs-and.html. This one has the stats about how small fish farms are in the BC economy despite what they and DFO say. This post has the BC Stats Report table. 
You need this table when arguing about the size of the sector.

4. More Aboriginals Against Fish Farms:     http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2017/09/more-aboriginals-against-fish-farms.html. This is the occupy movement post.    

5. Most Popular Post, August, 2017: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2017/09/most-popular-posts-august-2017.html.

6. Fisheries Act Recommendations - WCEL: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2017/09/fisheries-act-recommendations-west.html?showComment=1505047907512. This is West Coast Environmental Law's top 10 recommendations. These legal opinions are worth remembering when talking about updates of our weakened laws.

7. Atlantic Salmon Breed in BC Rivers, Tsitika, John Volpe: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2017/09/atlantic-salmon-breed-in-bc-rivers.html. This is the classic paper on Atlantics breeding in BC, the response when fish farms trot out the old stories about Atlantics not taking hold in previous plants early in the 20th century. As in, they are now.

8. Global Fight Against Fish Farms - Tasmania: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2017/09/global-fight-against-fish-farms-tasmania.html.

9. Your Promise to Move Fish Farms Onto Land - Jobs and Revenues Low in Fish Farms:   https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2017/09/your-promise-to-move-fish-farms-onto.html.

10. Tracking the Tassal Disaster - MacQuarie Harbour, Tasmania: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.ca/2017/09/tracking-tassal-disaster-tasmania.html. This post is from ABC News in Tasmania and they have put together all the stories in over 30 years on fish farms in Tasmania, starting when Tassal was in bankruptcy (a common outcome in fish farming) and the person sorting it out convinced the bank to buy some of a competitor and this gave Tassal 60% of leases and a new shot at life. See all the damage they have caused in this World Heritage Site. See item 8 for more information.