More disturbing fish farm related news

[stones93]

METRO VANCOUVER - A virus linked to the death of farmed salmon has for the first time been found in B.C. freshwater fish — cutthroat trout in Cultus Lake — a research team reported Thursday.

Researchers say the finding should spur the B.C. government, which is responsible for management of freshwater fish, to launch a thorough study to determine how widespread piscine reovirus (PRV) is and whether it is fatal to native fish.

"This concerns me greatly," said professor Rick Routledge, a Simon Fraser University fish-population statistician. "The province needs to pay attention to this because we have evidence it is found within freshwater fish."

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency announced this week it would be testing B.C. wild salmon to determine the status of three salmon diseases: infectious haematopoietic necrosis, infectious pancreatic necrosis, and infectious salmon anaemia.

"PRV is not on their list," Routledge noted in an interview.

Evidence of PRV was found in 13 of 15 sampled fish. Follow-up analyses further confirmed the virus' presence in these fish and identified their genetic sequencing as 99 per cent identical to Norwegian strains, casting doubt on the virus being native to B.C.

The virus has been linked to heart and skeletal muscle inflammation, a disease that has reportedly become widespread in Norwegian salmon farms and can lead to fish mortality.

Also involved in the research discovery were Fred Kibenge, a virology professor at the Atlantic Veterinary College in Prince Edward Island, and Stan Proboszcz, a fisheries biologist with B.C.'s Watershed Watch Salmon Society.

In an interview, Routledge said it is possible that endangered Cultus Lake sockeye introduced the virus to the freshwater trout when they came upstream to spawn. PRV has also been found in B.C. in farmed salmon and wild salmon.

Another possibility is that someone introduced it to the lake on a boat, trailer, or on fishing gear.

"It's there, that's the concern," Routledge said. "And we know it can infect several different species (of Atlantic and Pacific salmon). It could be getting into all sorts of other fish populations, as well."

Cultus Lake is also home to rainbow trout, kokanee and Dolly Varden.

Independent fish researcher Alexandra Morton, a vocal opponent of salmon farming, announced in April that supermarket-purchased farmed salmon had tested positive for PRV.

"We have to think carefully about we're doing, putting fish farms in the middle of salmon migration routes, where they are an ideal places for these viruses to thrive." Routledge said.

lpynn@vancouversun.com


Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/Discover...#ixzz215iayg7q

[high tide]

Just the Start of BAD things to come ......... Our Federal and Provincial will not listen to any one but their own (HIRED BIO"S).

Our wild Salmon are on the WAY OUT !

I'll call it now, years down the road the First Nations will call for a class action Lawsuit against the FED'S for FISH FARMS that have RUINED other WILD STOCKS WORLD WIDE !!

Next the USA, will NAIL CANADA FED'S to the wall for SPREADING WHAT EVER DECEASE it is and spreading it to USA FISH.

Alexandra Morten ......... has been calling it for years and it falls on deaf ears for the ALL MIGHTY GREEDY DOLLAR for CANADA !

WAY TO Federal GOV of CANADA and Prov Gov. for standing by and DOING NOTHING !

You were told long ago, and turned the cheek.

HT

Catch em and eat em while ya can guys ......... it's only a matter of time.

[outback]

The Yanks have a steallar fisheries management... if it weren't for them we would have no fishing in sooke. Canada should really take a page out of there book.

from a family thats very involved with fish management, the feds are out to screw the sports fishing industry.

look at the halibut for instance - while the stocks are healthy everywhere and growing, they cut the limit to 1 a day, 2 possession - and close the season for almost half the year, and give the quota to the commercials... which bring less money in for the province

fun fact - did you know your fishing license purchase goes towards "general revenue"? only the salmon stamp goes towards salmon habitat improvement.

this sort of stuff makes me ashamed to say im a Canadian.

[Little Hawk]

Good points Outback!

The key to the end of the net-pen business is to get the Yanks to stop eating the stuff! They eat about 9 out of 10 fish the industry grows here.

YANKS STOP EATING FARMED SALMON = "BYE-BYE FISHFARMERS!"

Regardless if, by some miracle, the Cohen Inquiry implicates the fishfarmers (and hopefully Campbell & Harper for their complicity) in this mess, it may still not be enough on its own to vanquish this toxic-menace from our waterways. Remember the Leggatt Inquiry?

[wstcoaster]

halibut are not in such good shape the allowable catch has been going down for last few years sportys muth comserve allong with commerrcial fleets

[Englishman]

Harper comes at this from a fundamentalist conservative dogma. That is, that most government is “administrative overhead” and “rules and regulations” just frustrate unfettered development. The smaller the government the better.
Environmental, fish and habitat management are highly complex and from the conservative “quasi-religious” perspective, expensive. They just do not want to manage the complex ecological, scientific, jurisdictional and stakeholder issues surrounding fish habitat and fish harvest management. Again, in their view, they would need too many staff and research programs to fund to make this all work properly.
Better, in their view, that they “privatise” the whole thing and let the “owners” manage it themselves, including ocean fisheries. That way they can get rid of DFO entirely and eventually other departments too, including Environment!
And the appalling thing about all this is they can take this record to the voters and say “look what we did to reduce government bureaucracy and therefore your taxes”.
They are selling out our heritage and our future generations environment, health and well-being, in order to make a buck now. It is all about spending environmental capital now and mortgaging the future and the hell with the generations to follow!!
We have to make our voices heard to turn this around………

[GLG]

Virus trackers

This summer I have been traveling throughout BC with a small dedicated group sampling salmon and other fish to map out where the European farm salmon viruses are showing up.

http://alexandramorton.typepad.com/a...-trackers.html

[chris73]

The Englishman got it figured out. High Tide - why don't you send exactly these words to your MP and the governments in power? I think that would make a nice letter to them.

[Lewis485]

Canadian food inspection recently announced that it would be testing B.C. wild salmon due to the status finding of three salmon diseases, infectious hematopoietic necrosis, infectious pancreatic necrosis and infectionous salmon anaemia.