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Wild, farmed fish can co-exist: Report
Proper management can minimize impact on salmon stocks
By Robert Barron, Daily News - February 9, 2009
If "rigorously managed," salmon farming and wild salmon can successfully coexist in the same areas, a long-anticipated report has concluded.
The B.C. Pacific Salmon Forum, appointed by Premier Gordon Campbell four years ago to study fish farming in the province and come up with recommendations to deal with the many environmental concerns raised about the industry, submitted its report to the government on Thursday.
The report comes a day after a class-action lawsuit was filed by the Guilford Island First Nation over the impacts of fish farms in the Broughton Archipelago.
Ron Cantelon, B.C.'s new minister of agriculture, said "it's significant" that the BCPSF has concluded that salmon farming and wild salmon can coexist.
Marine biologist Alexandra Morton, a longtime opponent of open net fish farming, said she sees a "glimmer of hope" that impacts of fish farming on wild salmon and the environment could be mitigated, if the industry and government abide by the report's recommendations.
"We're not the government and all we can do is stress to the government and the public that major changes are needed to make the fish farming industry more environmentally friendly and hope that our recommendations are followed," said John Fraser, the chairman of the BCPSF, said on Thursday.
Among many concerns, critics of open-net fish farming have long claimed the sea lice that they say proliferate in the province's salmon farms, particularly in the Broughton Archipelago, where 29 open-net fish farms are authorized by the province to operate, are transferred to wild salmon as they pass by the pens, and has caused dramatic declines in their populations.
The Guilford Island First Nation and others opposed to the open-net farming have long advocated for closed containment systems away from the open ocean to farm the salmon but the industry and government claim that the expertise is still not in place to make closed containment systems commercially viable.
They also dispute the claim that the farms are totally responsible for the dwindling wild salmon populations in the archipelago and point to other issues, like environmental causes, as contributing factors.
The United Nations's food and agriculture organization has reported that 43% of all the world's fish and seafood currently comes from aquaculture operations and projections are for it to surpass the catch fisheries in the near future.
B.C. is the world's fourth-largest farmed salmon producer, an industry worth almost $405 million in 2007 and employing about 3,000 workers.
The BCPSF's 95-page report includes 16 recommendations for the province and industry to consider implementing over the next four years to help achieve Campbell's goal of having "the best managed fisheries, bar none."
Key among the recommendations are the implementation of a management plan to provide migratory routes away from farms for young wild salmon heading out to sea, independent monitoring of sea lice levels on wild salmon in fish farm areas, limiting the annual amount of farmed salmon in the Broughton Archipelago to 18,500 tonnes and the establishment of a commercial scale pilot project to test closed containment salmon farming.
"Unless this report is read and thoroughly understood by the public, I'm afraid it won't receive the support it needs for the political action to take place to implement the recommendations," Fraser said.
"We were appointed by the premier to write this report and he knows what's in it. We've done our duty to write and present it and we'll continue to do our duty to explain it to the public."
Cantelon, the MLA for Nanaimo-Parksville, said the report is clear that climate change and its impacts on the ocean and watershed is the number one risk to wild salmon, followed by human encroachment on their habitat.
He said he's pleased with the report's conclusion that fish farms and wild salmon can coexist.
"It's a fact that sea lice levels among wild salmon near fish farms is being managed more successfully than in the past and their numbers are way down," Cantelon said.
"Government and the industry can continue to bring the sea lice numbers down with a few changes to the way the farms are currently managed, including changing harvesting times."
Cantelon said government and industry will look to science to determine if closed containment fish farming will be commercially viable in the future.
Morton said she's pleased that the report recommends the formation of local councils which will be overseen by DFO to monitor sea lice on wild salmon populations.
"I'm also happy that information regarding the fish farms will be released to the public for the first time," she said.
"There's lots of drugs and pathogens used in the farms and the public needs to know that. There's a glimmer of hope here if all the recommendations are implemented, but I hope there's fast action because the salmon runs in the Broughton Archipelago this year are the worst I've ever seen."
RBarron@nanaimodailynews.com
250-729-4234
© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service
Jim's Fishing Charters
www.JimsFishing.com
http://ca.youtube.com/user/Sushihunter250
Wild, farmed fish can co-exist: Report
Proper management can minimize impact on salmon stocks
By Robert Barron, Daily News - February 9, 2009
If "rigorously managed," salmon farming and wild salmon can successfully coexist in the same areas, a long-anticipated report has concluded.
The B.C. Pacific Salmon Forum, appointed by Premier Gordon Campbell four years ago to study fish farming in the province and come up with recommendations to deal with the many environmental concerns raised about the industry, submitted its report to the government on Thursday.
The report comes a day after a class-action lawsuit was filed by the Guilford Island First Nation over the impacts of fish farms in the Broughton Archipelago.
Ron Cantelon, B.C.'s new minister of agriculture, said "it's significant" that the BCPSF has concluded that salmon farming and wild salmon can coexist.
Marine biologist Alexandra Morton, a longtime opponent of open net fish farming, said she sees a "glimmer of hope" that impacts of fish farming on wild salmon and the environment could be mitigated, if the industry and government abide by the report's recommendations.
"We're not the government and all we can do is stress to the government and the public that major changes are needed to make the fish farming industry more environmentally friendly and hope that our recommendations are followed," said John Fraser, the chairman of the BCPSF, said on Thursday.
Among many concerns, critics of open-net fish farming have long claimed the sea lice that they say proliferate in the province's salmon farms, particularly in the Broughton Archipelago, where 29 open-net fish farms are authorized by the province to operate, are transferred to wild salmon as they pass by the pens, and has caused dramatic declines in their populations.
The Guilford Island First Nation and others opposed to the open-net farming have long advocated for closed containment systems away from the open ocean to farm the salmon but the industry and government claim that the expertise is still not in place to make closed containment systems commercially viable.
They also dispute the claim that the farms are totally responsible for the dwindling wild salmon populations in the archipelago and point to other issues, like environmental causes, as contributing factors.
The United Nations's food and agriculture organization has reported that 43% of all the world's fish and seafood currently comes from aquaculture operations and projections are for it to surpass the catch fisheries in the near future.
B.C. is the world's fourth-largest farmed salmon producer, an industry worth almost $405 million in 2007 and employing about 3,000 workers.
The BCPSF's 95-page report includes 16 recommendations for the province and industry to consider implementing over the next four years to help achieve Campbell's goal of having "the best managed fisheries, bar none."
Key among the recommendations are the implementation of a management plan to provide migratory routes away from farms for young wild salmon heading out to sea, independent monitoring of sea lice levels on wild salmon in fish farm areas, limiting the annual amount of farmed salmon in the Broughton Archipelago to 18,500 tonnes and the establishment of a commercial scale pilot project to test closed containment salmon farming.
"Unless this report is read and thoroughly understood by the public, I'm afraid it won't receive the support it needs for the political action to take place to implement the recommendations," Fraser said.
"We were appointed by the premier to write this report and he knows what's in it. We've done our duty to write and present it and we'll continue to do our duty to explain it to the public."
Cantelon, the MLA for Nanaimo-Parksville, said the report is clear that climate change and its impacts on the ocean and watershed is the number one risk to wild salmon, followed by human encroachment on their habitat.
He said he's pleased with the report's conclusion that fish farms and wild salmon can coexist.
"It's a fact that sea lice levels among wild salmon near fish farms is being managed more successfully than in the past and their numbers are way down," Cantelon said.
"Government and the industry can continue to bring the sea lice numbers down with a few changes to the way the farms are currently managed, including changing harvesting times."
Cantelon said government and industry will look to science to determine if closed containment fish farming will be commercially viable in the future.
Morton said she's pleased that the report recommends the formation of local councils which will be overseen by DFO to monitor sea lice on wild salmon populations.
"I'm also happy that information regarding the fish farms will be released to the public for the first time," she said.
"There's lots of drugs and pathogens used in the farms and the public needs to know that. There's a glimmer of hope here if all the recommendations are implemented, but I hope there's fast action because the salmon runs in the Broughton Archipelago this year are the worst I've ever seen."
RBarron@nanaimodailynews.com
250-729-4234
© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service
Jim's Fishing Charters
www.JimsFishing.com
http://ca.youtube.com/user/Sushihunter250
