Wild Salmon Secretariat – Make Your Case for Bringing Back Wild Salmon, Updated Dec 11, 2018

The Wild Salmon Secretariat spearheaded by Green MLA Adam Olsen is now at the stage where it is collecting public comment on their work so far – their salmon document – in the process of bringing back wild salmon. Please go and make your thoughts known on their website and consider attending their meeting in Victoria, slated for January 2019.

Note that at the meetings, speakers may be limited to five minutes, so come with your thoughts on paper, drop them off, and, also, send the secretariat the same e-document attached to an email.

Here is their report: https://engage.gov.bc.ca/app/uploads/sites/426/2018/11/Wild-Salmon-Strategy-Options-Paper.pdf. At 53 pages it is not unduly long to read. Note that pages 3 and 4 summarize all strategies for change, and you can click on each to go directly to the text. 

This is their summary document: https://engage.gov.bc.ca/app/uploads/sites/426/2018/11/Wild-Salmon-Strategy-Summary-Document.pdf. At two pages, you should read it to get the options they have put together.

This is their website, noting several meetings before the end of December 2018: https://engage.gov.bc.ca/bcwildsalmonstrategy/community-meetings/. 

At the bottom of the page is a link to an online form to make your comments; that takes you to this page: https://feedback.engage.gov.bc.ca/253769?lang=en. So, you can make comments right now. 

This option ends on December 28, so please make a point to make some comments and record them on their site.

Their email address is: wildsalmonsecretariat@gov.bc.ca. Local members of the Secretariat that most will know are: Ward Bond, Mike Hicks, Martin Paish and Adam Olsen, Saanich MLA.

For a meeting I had with Adam Olsen and others on Friday, I put together a plan for dealing with the major problems facing wild salmon. From it I excise the following portion, along with some links you may want to follow up: 

Wild BC Salmon Plan – Adam Olsen Meeting, Dec 7, 2018 – DC Reid

The Four Big Problems

1.     Freshwater Habitat Restoration: The BC Government should put $150 Million over ten years, at $15M each year into the Pacific Salmon Foundation to fund freshwater salmon habitat restoration. The PSF leverages money 4 to 7 times, making the annual amount into $60M to $105M, and the total amount into $600M to $1050M, the biggest infusion ever for wild salmon.

2.     DFO (in Ottawa): Has been and is managing salmon into extinction. Work around them on all fronts. 1. Come up with a wide-ranging made in BC Wild Salmon Plan. See below. 2. BC has jurisdiction for both freshwater habitat and for ending fish farm licences. 3. Ask DFO to provide another $15M a year for ten years, to the PSF, for freshwater habitat restoration – another billion-dollar effect for wild salmon.

3.     Fish Farms: The BC NDP won’t take fish farms out of the water, without pressure. Fish farms need to be on land, or they are going to be put out of business by the vastly growing global on-land industry. In the USA, Atlantic Sapphire, Whole Oceans, Nordic Aquafarms and Aquabanc are moving toward 218,000mt salmon on land, almost 250% higher than BC, and taking BC’s main market, the USA. Pure Salmon is aiming at an additional 260,000mt around the globe, taking the rest of BC’s market. Globally there are even more: 255 on-land RAS systems.

4.     Climate Change: Is negative to salmon. I am working on a document that addresses the problems and solutions.

The Solution

BC Wild Salmon Plan

       The government of BC has the following plan for bringing back wild Pacific salmon: 

1.     We are moving forward to save BC’s iconic Wild Pacific Salmon, threatened now on several fronts. We will fund the Pacific Salmon Foundation $150 million over ten years to undertake freshwater habitat restoration. We are asking the federal government to add the same amount of funding for the same purpose, making this the biggest positive plan for wild salmon ever undertaken in BC! More than $2 Billion in total.

2.     We will set up 12 net-pen operations for the next ten years, with 2 million sterilized chinook fry each to feed southern resident killer whales.

3.     We will set up net-pen operations in coastal First Nations to raise their own, local, sterilized salmon.

4.     We will provide funding for our aboriginal brothers to remove Atlantic salmon and their fry from BC rivers.

5.     We propose that DFO curtail the herring roe fishery for the next decade.

6.     Yes, there is science on the problems with fish farms, but there are other issues: wild salmon are declining, climate change is getting worse, British Columbians by and large don’t like fish farms, our aboriginal brothers want their wild salmon back and farmed salmon out of the ocean. We are acting in accordance with British Columbian wishes and using the precautionary principle, as well as court decisions on Indigenous rights.

7.     In accordance with our plans, fish farms will be moved to land. Globally, the industry has been moving onto land for many years, including in Norway, where BC farms are from, and it is now time to do the same here. 

Norway stopped auctioning in-ocean licences in 2014 and then granted, for free, on-land licences; this was a $9- to $12-million subsidy to set up on land. We will offer the same subsidy in BC, a free licence. The most recent in-ocean licences went for $32- $40-million in Norway, making a free on-land licence an enormous subsidy to set up on land. BC will match that huge on-land subsidy. That is how much we value investment in BC’s economy.

Marine Harvest is investing $100 Million in closed containment, and the other companies also have their plans. It makes sense for Norwegian companies to invest some in BC, on our much cheaper land, with cheaper labour than Norway, with their monetary policy inflated Krone that will buy more in BC, rather than go back to Norway and set up on land there.

8.     We will retrain workers to work on fish farms on land. 

9.     We will set up a 30,000mt on-land fish farm, working with industry leaders Atlantic Sapphire, Aqua Maof, PE Fund and our aboriginal brothers at Kuterra. 

10. We will retire 33% of current leases each June for the next three years. We’re here to help in the transition to land. And with our lower costs, you’ll be contributing to the BC economy, without the damaging externalities of the old way of doing things.

Here is related information and some useful links if you wish to follow up on some of the topics:

Other Notes:

*Use the precautionary principle, and Indigenous rights to make your argument.

*Update the BC Stats Report: https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn%3Aaaid%3Ascds%3AUS%3A7d5d3605-f6fe-468f-8962-6a8a21bbf374. Fish Farm/DFO figures are false.

Current BC Stats Report:

*255 On-land Fish Farm List: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2016/05/152-different-on-land-fish-farm-systems.html. 

*Drug Resistance – Slice – pesticides resistance is not new. Rachel Carson wrote about the 1940s to 1960s use of pesticides, herbicides and fungicides, which lead to the banning of chlorine- and phosphorous-based chemicals such as DDT, PCBs and so on, after millions of birds and animals died. This is exactly what is happening now, 50 years after she called her book Silent Spring, for all the collateral killing that chemicals do in the world. SLICE etc. should be banned. Antibiotic use should be banned.

Useful links: 

1.     BC Wild Salmon Plan, Contact Your MLA: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2018/02/wild-bc-salmon-plan-contact-your-mla.html. 

2.     Increase In-Ocean Licence Fees to $32m to $40M, Make On-land Licence $0: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2018/08/increase-license-fees-to-32-to-40.html. Also: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2018/07/raise-bc-fish-farm-license-to-32.html. 

3.     Wild Salmon Secretariat summary document: https://engage.gov.bc.ca/app/uploads/sites/426/2018/11/Wild-Salmon-Strategy-Summary-Document.pdf. 

4.     Secretariat report, Options for a made-in-BC Salmon Strategy: https://engage.gov.bc.ca/app/uploads/sites/426/2018/11/Wild-Salmon-Strategy-Options-Paper.pdf. 

5.     John Horgan What Are you Thinking: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2018/07/john-horgan-what-are-you-thinking-four.html. Lots of references.

6.     Precautionary Principle: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2018/10/precautionary-principle-has-defined.html. 

7.     DFO is the 40 year problem with wild salmon: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2018/06/dfo-salmon-and-killer-whales-take-two.html. See the Nahmint photo.

8.     Minister of Agriculture’s Advisory Council on Finfish Aquaculture Final Report (MAACFA): https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/farming-natural-resources-and-industry/agriculture-and-seafood/fisheries-and-aquaculture/minister-or-agriculture-s-advisory-council-on-finfish-aquaculture/maacfa-2017-docs/minister_of_agricultures_advisory_council_on_finfish_aquaculture_final_report_and_appendices.pdf.

9.     Criticisms of MAACFA report: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2018/04/the-bc-government-wants-fish-farms-in.html. 

10.  Retiring Broughton Salmon Licences: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2018/06/retiring-broughton-archipelago-fish.html. 

11.  BC doesn’t want fish farms, a long list: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2018/05/john-horgan-remember-to-cancel-those.html.

12.  Sewage Cost $10.4B: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2018/03/calculation-for-sewage-from-salmon-farms.html. And, the calculation: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2017/02/fish-farm-sewage-huge-cost-to-bc.html. 

13.  DFO Fibs on Salmon Escapes: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2018/03/dfo-fibs-on-farmed-salmon-escapes-bc.html. This calculates the current escape/leakage figure of 153,000 Atlantic salmon per crop in BC.

14.  From the fibbing article: “8. And why did Norwegian companies, Marine Harvest, Cermaq and Grieg Seafood come to Canada in the first place? They came to Canada/Chile/Etc. because of weaker laws:  http://www.farmedanddangerous.org/salmon-farming-problems/environmental-impacts/escapes-alien-species/. "The report Fishy Business: The Economics of Salmon Farming In BC notes that in the late 1980s, Norwegian companies were faced with strict environmental regulations and farm size restrictions in their own country, so they decided to expand in countries where regulations were less strict (i.e. Canada, Chile)."”

15.  PFRCC: Salmon Stronghold Concept: https://www.wildsalmoncenter.org/content/uploads/2016/02/Applying-the-Salmon-Stronghold-Concept-in-Canada.pdf. Exec Summary: “This approach to salmon habitat conservation was initially conceived by Canadian researchers and fisheries specialists and explained in the 1990’s Living Blueprint for B.C. Salmon Habitat report. It was not adopted then, primarily because of Canada’s attention to the Wild Salmon Policy’s development and the preoccupation of governments with recovery for a series of crisis conditions that included fish population crashes and immediate threats to salmon diversity in several areas.” The Blueprint is discussed on page 6.

And, finally some recent news/videos about chinook and other salmon species being in decline:

 1. https://www.cbc.ca/listen/shows/the-early-edition/episode/15643462?utm_source=Watershed+Watch+Email+List&utm_campaign=8ad2b23f0f-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_12_05_09_46&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_405944b1b5-8ad2b23f0f-166907249&mc_cid=8ad2b23f0f&mc_eid=5777c92bcd.

2. https://www.cheknews.ca/scientists-call-for-chinook-salmon-to-be-federally-protected-514293/?utm_source=Watershed+Watch+Email+List&utm_campaign=8ad2b23f0f-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_12_05_09_46&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_405944b1b5-8ad2b23f0f-166907249&mc_cid=8ad2b23f0f&mc_eid=5777c92bcd.

3. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/dec/05/canada-chinook-salmon-endangered?utm_source=Watershed+Watch+Email+List&utm_campaign=8ad2b23f0f-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_12_05_09_46&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_405944b1b5-8ad2b23f0f-166907249&mc_cid=8ad2b23f0f&mc_eid=5777c92bcd.

4. https://globalnews.ca/news/4729325/chinook-salmon-populations-decline-bc/?utm_source=Watershed+Watch+Email+List&utm_campaign=8ad2b23f0f-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_12_05_09_46&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_405944b1b5-8ad2b23f0f-166907249&mc_cid=8ad2b23f0f&mc_eid=5777c92bcd.

5. https://www.vancourier.com/13-british-columbia-chinook-salmon-populations-in-decline-scientists-1.23518267?utm_medium=email&mc_eid=5777c92bcd&utm_source=Watershed+Watch+Email+List&utm_campaign=8ad2b23f0f-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_12_05_09_46&utm_term=0_405944b1b5-8ad2b23f0f-166907249&mc_cid=8ad2b23f0f.

6. https://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/news/local-news/report-calls-for-nechako-chinook-hatchery-1.23518430?utm_source=Watershed+Watch+Email+List&utm_campaign=8ad2b23f0f-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_12_05_09_46&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_405944b1b5-8ad2b23f0f-166907249&mc_cid=8ad2b23f0f&mc_eid=5777c92bcd.

ISA Testing Ruse in Canada

We know from the Morton/Kibenge paper that there is Atlantic strain ISA (means it had to come from out of province, typically out of country eggs) in BC. See; https://virologyj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12985-015-0459-1.

But did you know that the CFIA has a list of ISA cases in Atlantic Canada in 2018 as long as your arm? See: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2018/10/isa-in.html. I made the point that the list was going to get longer as it was only September, and it has.

But did you know that through skulduggery in testing that most of the fish ended up in grocery stores, bought by unsuspecting Canadian customers (as the US won't take IsA fish, they have ended up being sold to Canadians. The question is why, are Canadians suckers?)

From Atlantic Canada, Bill Bryden has done the sleuthing to show how the testing is conducted in a way to mask the ISA until fish hit market size and are sold to us, and the ISA washes down drains all over the country to pollute local fish stocks.

Here is what Bryden has do say. It will make you distrust DFO, CFIA and provincial level governments:

"We have an industry wide collapse bigger than the 2012-2014 industry wide meltdown when >70% of the fish died!

Nine sites have been condemned or otherwise have been shown to be amplifying ISAv during the last stocking cycle. 

At an average of 750,000 fish per site that is 6, 750, 000 sick contagious salmon. Even if only 10% at each site are shedding the virus that is 675, 000 sick salmon!

For scale, we have an estimated 22,000 wild salmon in 58 rivers in the DU4 area (south coast). All ARE COSEWIC LISTED AS THREATENED - AND OPEN NET PEN AQUACULTURE IN THE REGION IS LISTED AS A THREAT BY BOTH DFO AND COSEWIC! Why even pretend to care Premier? BTW, ISAv will be carried by herring that school with the next generation of salmon migrating along our coast. ALL our salmon FROM EVERY RIVER!

This time around, there is no CFIA disease compensation (after spending $250M trying to contain the deadly virus), so the CFIA allows them to sell the fish to an unsuspecting public. This virus withstands freezing and thawing 5 times (-80C to +20) with NO effect on the virus infectivity (see peer reviewed literature NOT funded by industry). This gets washed down 1000s of drains daily all over Atlantic Canada. No studies have been done to monitor the effects. In fact, no wild fish health monitor near the cage is done by anyone! This, despite the Auditor General's recommendations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2JZev5oYZ4

Gelfand most gaps NO ONE IS MONITORING THE HEALTH OF WILD FISH The Auditor General Julie Gelfand on what DFO is not doing, from her new report April 24th, and speaking at Meeting No. 109 ENVI - Standing Committee on Envi... www.youtube.com

This is ecocidal and provides NO measure of containment nor is it sensible animal rearing....but who cares, the feed is mainly chicken and pig scraps not fit to put in a sausage (Cooke) or wild fish they buy for $0.10 a pound mixed with corn and soy (all human food - LOST) as used by Marine Harvest to make expensive antibiotic and pesticide dumping fake salmon. Most of the antibiotics pass right through the fish intact and trigger all sorts of antimicrobial resistance in the marine environment.

The list SO FAR (not that the disease is not found until the fish reach market size in all but one case!)

The List to Date (I am told MORE site have it but they refuse to diagnose it as the plant can't handle them all):

Note that the St. Alban's plant could only process 2.6M fish if it ran at near maximum capacity for 52 weeks and didn't even stop for Xmas. At least 4.5 M fish have been condemned for ISAv so far during this outbreak in NL alone. Untold wild fish would have been infected, but no monitoring of these numbers is done....or will be done.

BTW, HPR0 aka "non'deletion" strains still trigger an immunological response in the fish - it makes them sick (see Kibenge and Morton paper), but industry only cares about $ so the CFIA ignores this strain. 

The hatchery in Stephenville also had ISAv in 2018 but like the Spyglass cove outbreak the CFIA is not listing this for an unknown reason (now, how did a MARINE VIRUS, get in supposedly clean EGGS SHIPPED IN FROM OUT OF THE PROVINCE WITH A VET CERTIFICATION SLIP????) 

2017 October 31 CFIA listing - Cooke non-pathogenic. HPR 0 (HPR 0 found in January 2017 as well)

2017 November 28 CFIA listing but happened in October - Cooke (diagnosed but now at market size!, note that ISAv HPR 0 was found as far back as January in 2017 but no fish were culled all winter spring and summer, Five of 35 fish tested in one of six open-pen cages had the infection ). Site culled and sold to public.

2018 February 13 Cooke (market size! Again!) Convenient eh?

2018 March 2018 Spyglass Cove Northern Harvest (2-3 pounds), 15 cages, Dartek Fish, transfer permit signed by Eliz Barlow, not listed on CFIA website as of August 2018)

2018 June 2018 NW Cove Site (5-6 pounds, from St.Alban's Hatchery that also got Dartek and Little Hbr fish)

2018 July 2018 Tilt Point Site (5+ pounds, less than 2000m from Spyglass Cove, 15 cages).

2018 Aug 24th non delete (McGraths Cove)

2018 Sept 11th Unknown site in NL

2018 Nov 9th Unknown site (Cinq Island ?)"

Go look at this long list of ISA in Atlantic Canada:  http://inspection.gc.ca/animals/aquatic-animals/diseases/reportable/2018/infectious-salmon-anaemia-2018-/eng/1520361142560/1520361212232?fbclid=IwAR0EtheINXtchZ7JRztAQJn0tr3koe4mwYCqlaYJhjUjZe9jTSAIBlXKoR0.

Now, you can only expect this to get worse, with our government bodies that we are supposed to trust act against the wishes and interests of the public. Shame.

Ministers Against Environment - Popham, Wilkinson, Horgan, Trudeau

Email addresses;

John Horgan: john.horgan.mla@leg.bc.ca

Andrew Weaver: andrew.weaver.mla@leg.bc.ca

Lana Popham: lana.popham.MLA@leg.bc.ca

Carole James: carole.james.MLA@leg.bc.ca

Adam Olsen: adam.olsen.MLA@leg.bc.ca

Ellis Ross: ellis.ross.MLA@leg.bc.ca

Melanie Mark: melanie.mark.mla@leg.bc.ca
Jonathan Wilkinson: Jonathan Wilkinson <min@dfo-mpo.gc.ca>
Justin Trudeau:  Justin Trudeau <Justin.Trudeau@parl.gc.ca>

Now the Note:
 

Ministers

I want you to know that you have completely alienated the public on both the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of Canada by expressing support for a new Aquaculture Act, that leaves the environmentally-damaging fish farm industry in the ocean. We have been telling you for years we want fish farms on land. You are out of date by a decade.

In-ocean is an old tech dinosaur, being rapidly put out of business by the move to land around the world. In the USA, Atlantic Sapphire, Whole Oceans, Nordic Aquafarms and Aquabanc are aiming for 218,000MT of salmon on land, almost 250% the size of BC’s old tech sector. Around the world the PE Fund is aiming at even more: 260,000mt of on-land salmon. Globally the push is even larger: there are 255 on-land RAS systems, comprising some 20,000 actual farms. Ask CEO Andreasson from Atlantic Sapphire, and the Marine Harvest execs who have jumped to on land, to update you.

Atlantic Canada And Pacific Canada will not forget this egregious stand by your parties in the next elections.

You need to wake up.

DC Reid

Ministers Against Environment - Canada, agriculture ministers, Aquaculture Act: https://www.undercurrentnews.com/2018/12/06/winning-fishery-ministers-support-big-step-for-canadian-aquaculture-act/?utm_source=Undercurrent+News+Alerts&utm_campaign=f557b2eb84-Americas_briefing_Dec_06_2018&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_feb55e2e23-f557b2eb84-92426209.

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

Most Popular Posts - November, 2018

Look for an updated list of the most popular posts on this site for a calendar month, on the first day of the next month (or close to it).

These are the most popular posts for November, 2018:

1. 142 On-Land Fish Farm Systems. A perennial post that readers go to after scanning the updated, 255 systems post: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2012/01/key-document-142-mostly-on-land-closed.html.

2. 255 On-Land Fish Farm Systems. Another perennial favourite, that adds to the 142 list, posted earlier on this site. Remember to scroll down about half way for the list of on-land systems, because the first half of the post is studies, links and cost comparison reports: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2016/05/152-different-on-land-fish-farm-systems.html.

3. The Silent Spring Syndrome. Lice out of control in Clayoquot Sound, and chemicals: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2018/11/the-silent-spring-syndrome-clayoquot.html.

4. Pure Salmon - 8F Asset Management, aiming at 260,0000 mt on land. That is 250% higher than all of BC's in-ocean fish farms: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2018/11/pure-salmon-8f-asset-management-260000mt.html.

5. Let's Take A Global Look at the SRKW Problem. This was one of the big numbers of views: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2018/10/lets-take-global-look-at-srkw-problem.html.

6. BAD NEWS BITES, May 5, 2017. I am now at my tenth post, and nearing 4,000 problems in the aquaculture/seafood industry in three years: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2017/05/bad-news-bites-fifth-post.html.

7. Stinging Indictment of Farmed Salmon as Food - Dr. Mercola: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2018/04/stinging-indictment-of-farmed-salmon-as.html. You won't be willing to buy farmed salmon after reading this one.

8. ISA in Canada, the CFIA list, a dozen in 2018: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2018/10/isa-in.html.

9. Fake Science by DFO - Riddell Response - while DFO scientists are busily figuring out the PRV/HSMI disease science in BC, the other side of DFO is busily trying to discredit its own work: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2018/11/fake-science-by-dfo-riddell-response.html.