Howdy,
Thanks to Granville Airton for forwarding Alexandra's letter to me.
This should help with clarification if necessary.
To simplify things I have copy/pasted the Abstracts of the attachments from her letter.
Please try and donate to her 'Adopt-a-Fry' campaign to help her with her legal fees.
All who truly care about Wild Pacific Salmon - owe Alexandra Morton a debt of gratitude!
Standing for Wild Salmon,
Terry Anderson
Dear John Macdonald:
It is good to hear from you via Granville. The Pacific Salmon Foundation
should review the salmon farming situation as I believe it to be far more
serious than many are taking it. The sea louse infection rates in the
Broughton remain persistent despite use of the drug Slice and the infection
rate on sockeye, very juvenile herring and the other salmon species around
Campbell River is even higher at times than in the Broughton. There is also
evidence that Megin River Chinook are exposed to high sea lice numbers as
soon as they enter sea water. And these are just the places where I have
looked, there is no reason sea lice are not threatening wild salmon wherever
they occur. I examined the sockeye age-class that did not return in 2007,
when they went to sea as smolts in 2005 and they were heavily infested with
sea lice around the fish farms off Campbell River (see attached). This
summer we found even higher infection rates in this area.
I am also beginning work on the antibiotic resistance patterns associated
with salmon farms, as well there have been widespread viral outbreaks on
fish farms spread by the industry from Bella Bella to eastern Johnstone
Strait via their smolt transporters (see attached). The IHN epidemic in the
Broughton occurred as the Kingcome Inlet herring were staging in the area of
the farms and that population has plummeted to the point DFO no longer
assesses their spawn.
Regarding my upcoming challenge in BC Supreme Court. Most fish farm leases
in the Broughton have expired, some 5 years ago. The fish farmers have
applied to increase the number of fish they can hold at these sites. This in
spite of the work by my colleagues and I showing population scale impact of
these operations at their current size. The local First Nations have done
what they can to prevent these lease renewals, but they do not have the
capacity to continue this indefinitely. I was interested in seeking an
injunction against the renewal of the leases until the pink salmon returned
to pre-lice levels. However in the process the lawyer I am working with
(Greg McDade) found that regulation of fish farms was transferred from
Federal to Provincial jurisdiction in a 1988 MOU that he feels was not
legal.
This MOU transferred fish farms to the Province based on the premise that
fish farms cause no impact on any Federal jurisdiction. The transfer may not
have been legal and furthermore there is now ample evidence that there is
substantial impact of fish farms on the marine environment (a federal
responsibility). DFO is now in a precarious position. If they admit to
impact of fish farms on the marine environment or wild salmon, the
regulatory framework collapses as the premise of the MOU is found invalid,
but in fact the premise is invalid.
So my legal challenge is a petition to the BC Supreme Court to investigate
the legality of the MOU. If we win (I am joined in this by the Wilderness
Tourism Association and the Vessel Owners Association) all fish farm leases
become invalid, unconstitutional and unlawful and fish farm regulation falls
entirely under DFO. At that point we could begin to clean up this mess as
DFO could not point to the Province and Province point back at DFO, stalling
all progress. The Federal government must tread carefully here because if
they give up jurisdiction of the marine environment in BC their claim on
Artic waters is weakened.
There is only one solution; we must abide by the natural laws fundamental to
wild salmon - the youngest salmon cannot meet large populations of the older
salmon. Nature is so fastidious, killing all spawners and the lice in fresh
water. Most pink and chum salmon are encountering multiple schools of
600,000 Atlantic salmon before they have even developed the scales required
to protect them from sea lice. The farms attract the fry with a sheen of
fish chow dust, night lights and highly inappropriate siting. Coho smolts
prefer young salmon with lice because they are weaker and the lice transfer
to the smolts. We also see steelhead and Chinook with lice. The lice now act
as a biological tag indicating exposure to farm effluent including bacteria
and viruses. I have studied this as the industry attempts response and
nothing they have done to date has been sufficient. The fish farms must be
removed from long narrow channels where wild salmon weigh less than a few
grams, there is no other way. My colleagues in Norway are aghast that the
same companies they deal with in Norway are reacting with denial. However,
see the attached quote from the Hansard.
The fish farmers and government always respond by asking where the farms can
go. Well there are two places, closed containment and into the boundaries of
communities that want the farms and have agreed to risk their wild salmon.
All the Best
Alexandra Morton
"My colleagues in Norway are aghast that the
same companies they deal with in Norway are reacting with denial. However,
see the attached (below) quote from the Hansard. "
Alexandra Morton
John Lilletun: Norwegian Parliamentary Committee on Environment:
Infectious haematopoietic necrosis epidemic
(2001 to 2003) in farmed Atlantic salmon Salmo
salar in British Columbia
S. M. Saksida*
Centre for Aquatic Health Sciences, Box 277, Campbell River, British Columbia V9W 5B1, Canada
ABSTRACT: I investigated a recent infectious haematopoietic necrosis disease (IHN) epidemic in
farmed Atlantic salmon Salmo salar in British Columbia (BC), Canada. All companies with infected
farms (n = 36) participated in the study. Over 12 million Atlantic salmon on infected farms died or
were culled during the epidemic with cumulative mortality on the farms averaging 58%. The first
reported case of IHN occurred in August 2001 and the last outbreak in June 2003. Outbreaks on the
farms lasted between 20 and 22 wk. Genetic sequencing by other researchers, revealed that 2 different
IHN isolates contributed to this epidemic, one linked to all cases in 4 areas, the other associated
with all cases in a fifth area. Spatial and temporal patterns of the farm outbreaks were examined to
determine possible methods of spread between the farms. Evidence presented herein appears to
show that farming practices themselves contributed significantly to the spread between farms both
within and between areas. Natural waterborne transmission may have played a role in the spread of
the virus between farms located in close proximity to each other. The data collected from this epidemic
are compared with reports which examined the first reported epidemic in Atlantic salmon in
BC (1992 to 1996). Evidence is presented for the hypothesis that wild fish species may have been the
source of introduction of the virus into the farmed Atlantic salmon population.
KEY WORDS: Infectious haematopoietic necrosis · IHN · Atlantic salmon · Risk factors
North American Journal of Fisheries Management 28:523–532, 2008
Copyright by the American Fisheries Society 2008
DOI: 10.1577/M07-042
Sea Louse Infestation in Wild Juvenile Salmon and
Pacific Herring Associated with Fish Farms off the
East-Central Coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia
ALEXANDRA MORTON
Raincoast Research Society, Simoom Sound, British Columbia V0P 1S0, Canada
RICK ROUTLEDGE
Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, Simon Fraser University,
8888 University Drive, Burnaby, British Columbia V5A 1S6, Canada
MARTIN KRKOS#711; EK
Centre for Mathematical Biology, Department of Biological Sciences, 632 Central Academic Building,
University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2G1, Canada
Abstract.—Reports of infestations of sea lice Lepeophtheirus salmonis and Caligus clemensi in juvenile
salmonids in Pacific Canada have been restricted to pink salmon Oncorhynchus gorbuscha and chum salmon
O. keta from one salmon-farming region, the Broughton Archipelago of British Columbia. Here, we report on
2 years of sea louse field surveys of wild juvenile pink and chum salmon, as well as wild sockeye salmon O.
nerka and larval Pacific herring Clupea pallasii, in another salmon farming region, the Discovery Islands
region of British Columbia. For pink and chum salmon we tested for the dependency of sea louse abundance
on temperature, salinity, sampling period, host species, and farm exposure category. For both louse species,
farm exposure was the only consistently significant predictor of sea lice abundance. Fish exposed to salmon
farms were infected with more sea lice than those in the peripheral category. Sea louse abundance on sockeye
salmon and Pacific herring followed the same trends, but sample sizes were too low to support formal
statistical analysis. The Pacific herring were translucent and lacked scales, and they were primarily
parasitized by C. clemensi. These results suggest that the association of salmon farms with sea lice
infestations of wild juvenile fish in Pacific Canada now extends beyond juvenile pink and chum salmon in
the Broughton Archipelago. Canada’s most abundant and economically valuable salmon populations, as well
as British Columbia’s most valuable Pacific herring stock, migrate through the Discovery Islands; hence,
parasite transmission from farm to wild fish in this region may have important economic and ecological
implications.
Salmon farming has been associated with infestations
of sea lice Lepeophtheirus salmonis and Caligus
spp. in wild juvenile salmonids in Norway (Bjorn and
Finstad 2002), Scotland (MacKenzie et al. 1998),
Ireland (Tully et al. 1999), and Canada (Morton et al.
2004). In Pacific Canada, farmed salmon have been
identified as a primary determinant of sea louse
infection patterns on wild juvenile pink salmon
Oncorhynchus gorbuscha and chum salmon O. keta
(Morton et al. 2004; Krkos#711;ek et al. 2005a), with farmed
salmon initiating the spread of the parasites in wild
juvenile salmon populations (Krkos#711;ek et al. 2005a).
Physical factors such as temperature and salinity may
also be important (Brooks 2005; Brooks and Stucchi
2006) but may not be significant predictors of sea louse
abundance (Morton et al. 2004; Krkos#711;ek et al. 2005b).
Even low abundances of L. salmonis are lethal to
juvenile pink and chum salmon (Morton and Routledge
2005). The transmission of sea lice from farmed
salmon can cause high mortality in wild juvenile
salmon (Krkos#711;ek et al. 2006a, 2006b), and pink salmon
populations have collapsed following infestations
(PFRCC 2002; Morton and Williams 2003; Krkos#711;ek
et al. 2007a). Fallowing (removal of farm fish) a
migration route in 1 year reduced sea louse abundances
(Morton et al. 2005), and those salmon cohorts
experienced high marine survival (Beamish et al.
2006). These types of associations have long been
controversial (McVicar 1997; McVicar 2004; Hilborn
2006), and it remains unknown whether increased
abundances of sea lice on wild juvenile salmon are
associated with salmon farms in regions outside the
Broughton Archipelago in Pacific Canada.
The migratory paths of many of the most abundant
and economically important Canadian salmon populations
pass through a region of intensive salmon
* Corresponding author:
wildorca@island.net
Received March 5, 2007; accepted August 13, 2007
Published online March 31, 2008
523
North American Journal of Fisheries Management 28:523–532, 2008
Copyright by the American Fisheries Society 2008
DOI: 10.1577/M07-042.1
[Article]
