IHN from fish farm in Clayoquot Sound to Port

[cuttlefish]

It would be hard to design a better way to spread viral pathogens to Somass sockeye.
Mainstream gone viral.
http://alexandramorton.typepad.com/

 

[Foxsea]

It would be hard to design a better way to spread viral pathogens to Somass sockeye.
Mainstream gone viral.
http://alexandramorton.typepad.com/

The lengths "our" government is going to in order to protect salmon farms is unbelievable! Why do they care so much about a relatively small industry? Enacting legislation that equals the repression of Marshall Law only further piques my interest. Why are they so desperate to hide the facts. What the hell do we have behind the Liberal Iron Curtain? We need to challenge this criminal nonsense - legislated or not. This chit is beginning to **** me off!

 

[Hindsight]

The lengths "our" government is going to in order to protect salmon farms is unbelievable! Why do they care so much about a relatively small industry? Enacting legislation that equals the repression of Marshall Law only further piques my interest. Why are they so desperate to hide the facts. What the hell do we have behind the Liberal Iron Curtain? We need to challenge this criminal nonsense - legislated or not. This chit is beginning to **** me off!

Just remember election coming up we need to know how the NDP stand on Fish farms

 

[reelfast]

http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Washington-fish-farm-kills-stock-after-virus-found-3587570.php

 

[Foxsea]

http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Washington-fish-farm-kills-stock-after-virus-found-3587570.php

The Canadian Government and the Province of B.C. have been aware of this virus and at least 3 others for years. The 3 exotic viruses are infecting several fish farms in B.C. and at least 3 farms have now “depopulated”. To date, our governments have done nothing but refute evidence of viral infection, in many cases that evidence coming from their own Department of Fisheries and Oceans scientists. The B.C. government has pending legislation that will actually punish whistleblowers that dare to expose fish farm disease outbreaks. Fish farms amplify naturally occurring disease and they also introduce exotic diseases to wild Pacific salmon.

Canada may be exposing the fishery in Washington State to billions of dollars in long-term losses. I speculate the only reason that Canada would do something so incredibly negligent and outrageous is because the Norwegian shareholders are also big investors in the Alberta tar sands – a pet project of the Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper. Wild fish populations have been extinguished on the Fraser River and others, due to fish farm diseases. Is Canada now exporting these diseases to our American neighbours?

 

[Sculpin]

Is Canada now exporting these diseases to our American neighbours?

We have been for years. There own FDA doesn't allow anything treated with Slice but we still export it to them. Hmmm. Problems on both sides of the border big time in regards to government regulations. This is not a shot at reelfast and not an us or them post. I'm done with that and hope others are too. More important fish to fry.

Cheers,
John

 

[reelfast]

no worries sculpin, i just wanted to let folks know these diseases are also down this way. i think a lot of this is the political tennis game of trade between our two governments. that was the major arguement being put forth regarding the XL pipeline. at the end of the day, we need politicians who can look at a situation and do the right thing. it used to work pretty much that way but now we have the idealogues driving the bus right off the cliff on both sides of the border.

 

[Foxsea]

... at the end of the day, we need politicians who can look at a situation and do the right thing. It used to work pretty much that way but now we have the idealogues driving the bus right off the cliff on both sides of the border.

The earlier posting was sent to the Globe, hoping that it could stir the pot and arouse some awareness. It frosts me that our narcissistic politicians are driven to talk around the right course of action and then do the opposite. Even more disturbing is our societal distraction away from important events, to focus on the trivia of tweets, E.T., celebrity infamy and other vacuous drivel, meanwhile while our world crumbles.

 

[Jencourt]

The lengths "our" government is going to in order to protect salmon farms is unbelievable! Why do they care so much about a relatively small industry?

One answer in my opinion.

 

[wstcoaster]

maybe the disease is not what govt says it is perhaps isa virus lethal to all salmon no one is permitted to sample farm fish so no one really knows what they have govt is really corrupt fed and provincial

 

[Dave]

Foxsea, what wild stocks have been extinguished on the Fraser River and others, due to farm diseases?

 

[Theb55]

Doing research on extinguished runs? Hello! You can only do research on living fish and the government will not permit that. They will only permit research of extinguished runs.

 

[Foxsea]

Foxsea, what wild stocks have been extinguished on the Fraser River and others, due to farm diseases?

October 03, 2011 18:06 ET

More Fraser Sockeye Populations in Trouble Than Previously Thought - New Fisheries and Oceans Report Identifies Serious State of Salmon but Offers No Solutions

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - Oct. 3, 2011) - Fraser River sockeye salmon are in worse trouble than previously thought, according to a lengthy draft report by federal fisheries scientists recently entered into evidence at the Cohen Commission of Inquiry. The report examined the current status of 32 genetically distinct populations of Fraser sockeye, also known as "conservation units". The scientists found that eight populations are already extinct or nearly extinct. Of the 24 remaining populations, at least 7 appear to be below their lower benchmarks for abundance, or in the "red zone", meaning they may be at risk of extinction, and only 4 were clearly in the "green zone". The scientists were not able to fully assess four of the stocks due to a lack of data.

Despite the ominous findings in the 181-page report, necessary measures to protect the salmon are not being put in place, according to the David Suzuki Foundation, Watershed Watch Salmon Society, SkeenaWild Conservation Trust, and Raincoast Conservation Foundation. The groups are calling on Fisheries Minister Keith Ashfield to initiate recovery plans for the stocks at risk, as required under the federal government's Wild Salmon Policy.

"This report is very sobering," said Watershed Watch biologist Aaron Hill. "For reasons that are still not clear, we were blessed with a banner sockeye return in 2010. But the overall trend is down, and we can't let healthy returns to just a few Fraser tributaries distract us from the plight that most Fraser sockeye populations are now facing."

Conservationists are criticizing the report for failing to assign definitive status to the various sockeye populations, even though it shows the sockeye populations to be extinct or deep into the "red zone". Pacific salmon populations, or "conservation units", are supposed to be categorized as being in red, yellow or green zones under the Wild Salmon Policy, depending on the health of the stocks. Yet, even though the policy has been public since 2005, not one conservation unit has been categorized.

"The government must get on with developing recovery plans for populations at risk, immediately addressing threats such as overfishing, habitat destruction and open net-cage aquaculture," said David Suzuki Foundation biologist Jeffery Young. "Fortunately there are workable solutions to these problems, but implementing them will require strong recommendations for the Cohen Commission, and leadership from Ottawa."

"Maintaining salmon biodiversity by protecting all of these distinct populations is critical to ensuring the long-term viability and productivity of Pacific salmon, as well as reducing the year-to-year variability in returns," said SkeenaWild executive director Greg Knox, adding, "We must recover salmon populations at risk if we are to improve the sustainability and productivity of salmon fisheries."

Backgrounder available at: http://www.watershed-watch.org/medi...pulations-in-trouble-than-previously-thought/.

I'm connecting the dots - Dr. Morton and Dr. Miller have determined that viral disease has drastically weakened the stocks. 8 populations are extinct or nearly so (see above). Of course as B55 rightly notes, we cannot determine the precise cause of extinction after the fact. I believe connnecting viral amplification, the high levels of viral infection in other stocks and the extinctions is not a great leap, although in scientific or political terms, still a unproven "assumption" on my part.

 

[Charlie]

Article published May 28, 2012
Virus forces Peninsula company to destroy salmon stock
By Arwyn Rice
Peninsula Daily News

PORT ANGELES — A deadly fish virus known to affect wildsalmon has hit a Peninsula fish farm, forcing American Gold Seafoods to killthe entire stock of Atlantic salmon it had at its Bainbridge Island site, and triggering concerns of a possiblespread of the disease among fish in the Salish Sea.

Tests earlier this month confirmed the presence of aninfluenza-like virus called infectious hematopoietic necrosis, or IHN, in thefish contained in 2 acres of nets near the shores of Bainbridge Island.

The virus does not affect humans but occurs in wildsockeye salmon and can be carried by other fish, such as herring, thatsometimes pass through fish net pens, affecting the farmed fish.

It first appeared in two British Columbia fish farms,forcing the destruction of almost 600,000 fish, the Kitsap Sun reported.

Tests on the Bainbridge fish came back positive for thevirus this month, after fish farm employees noticed a higher than usual die-offin April.

American Gold Seafoods, affiliated with Icicle Seafoodsof Seattle, operates two hatcheries near Rochester, and has 120 pens off PortAngeles, Bainbridge Island, Cypress Island and Hope Island in Puget Sound.

The company's Port Angeles pens are on Ediz Hook, nearthe Coast Guard Air Station/Sector Field Office Port Angeles.

No company representatives answered phones at the PortAngeles hatchery Sunday, but the company website www.americangoldseafoods.comlists the pens at Port Angeles as being “juvenile pens.”

John Kerwin, fishhealth supervisor for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, said thevirus is a big concern.

“Any first timeit occurs, you don't fully understand the impact to wild fish,” Kerwin said.

“We know it can impact (farm) fish. If we move fast, wecan try to minimize the amplification.”

American Gold Seafoods plans to remove more than amillion pounds of Atlantic salmon from infected net pens in Rich Passage offthe southern tip of Bainbridge Island.

“It's a very, very big loss for us,” Alan Cook, Icicle'svice president of aquaculture said. “We'll clean up and start again.”

The company plans to remove all dead or dying fish by theend of June. Nets from 2 acres' worth of pens will be removed and disinfected.The fish farm could be running again in four months.

Cook said the company has increased monitoring of netpens in Clam Bay near Manchester in Puget Sound, which is about a half-milefrom the infected pens.

The recent outbreaks have prompted Washington-based WildFish Conservancy to call for tougher testing rules and limits on net pen salmonaquaculture.

Even though thevirus occurs naturally in Northwest salmon, the group worries that denselypacked fish farms can amplify the virus' spread, foster its mutation and infectwild fish that pass in or near the pens.

Cook said his company is taking the virus seriously. Itsplan to remove all the farm's fish is not required by law, he said.

“It's good husbandry to limit the risk to other fish,” hesaid. “We're not letting the situation sit and fester and then explode.”

Adding anotherdisease outbreak to the list of threats to wild salmon concerns localfishermen.

“They have enough problems right now,” said Curtis Reed,manager of the Waters West Fly Fishing Outfitters in Port Angeles.

Local fishermen are more concerned with the sea liceproblem in salmon, which is concentrated by the salmon in pens and then caninfect young wild salmon as they pass by the pens on their way out to sea, Reedsaid.

“Wild fish are unique and pretty special,” he said.

Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext.5070, or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.

The Associated Press and the Kitsap Sun contributed tothis report.
All materials Copyright © 2012 Black Press Ltd./SoundPublishing Inc.

http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/a...ces-peninsula-company-to-destroy-salmon-stock

 

[reelfast]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2018296338_viruslady27m.html?cmpid=2628

she is even getting press down in seattle, great news!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[lorneparker1]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2018296338_viruslady27m.html?cmpid=2628

she is even getting press down in seattle, great news!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Good for her.

The headline should have read "meet wild salmons best friend"