Wild Pink Salmon Crash Blamed on BC Fish Farm Lice p2 of 2

Whatever choice is made, the council urged that consensus be reached as soon as possible, and that government should take action by mid-January 2003, as the next batch of new pinks will hatch and leave their rivers five months from now, and begin their journey through the Broughton Archipelago.

The BC Salmon Farmers Association and two of its members with farming operations in the area, Stolt Sea Farm and Heritage Salmon, have told PFRCC chair Fraser that they are committed to working with the council and other stakeholders
to research the causes of the low return of pinks.

Dale Blackburn, vice president of Stolt's west coast
operations, and Odd Grydeland, Heritage's
strategic development manager, say their firms
have committed to active monitoring of farm
stocks for sea lice during the period of out-migration
of pink salmon smolts.

Fish farm net cages (Photo courtesy BC Salmon Farmers Association)

Stressing that sea lice occur naturally in the wild, Blackburn and Grydeland said their companies will ensure that levels of sea lice on their individual farm sites are as low as possible by establishing a standardized program and treatment prototcols for their farms in the Broughton.

"We genuinely believe that our farms and the wild population of salmon are compatible and environmentally sustainable," said Blackburn. "At the same time, we want to be part of any solution. So, we're committed to working with government, the PFRCC, First Nations and local communities to ensure the health and future of our wild salmon population."

The First Nations who have fished the Broughton Archipelago for centuries are fed up with the fish farms. In April, the Musgamagw Tsawataineuk Tribal Council rallied community members from throughout Northern Vancouver Island to serve a symbolic eviction notice to fish farms operating in their traditional territory.

A flotilla of boats led by five war canoes gathered at the edge of the Broughton Archipelago, a previously pristine group of islands that is both a B.C. Marine Park and a home to 26 fish farms. "This protest is our way of saying 'we've tried everything else - enough is enough,'" said Yvon Gesinghaus of the Musgamagw Tsawataineuk Tribal Council. "They can take their friggin fish farms and put them somewhere else."
"We've spent 14 years going through all the government processes to file objections to these fish farms in our territories, and have yet to receive any response from the Ministers in charge," said Gesinghaus. "The Broughton Archipelago is our grocery store; it's where all our foods come from. These fish farms are polluting our waters by breaking their own restrictions because they've been left to police themselves."

Dr. David Suzuki, known for his television series "The Nature of Things," and numerous books, founded the environmental group that bears his name.

The Vancouver based David Suzuki Foundation, a longtime critic of
open net pens, said today that the council's report supports their position.
"All salmon farms that are located in prime wild salmon habitat,
including their migratory routes from freshwater to the ocean,
must be immediately moved," given the evidence of the council's report
the foundation said in a statement.

(Photo courtesy BC Government)

Lynn Hunter, the foundation’s aquaculture specialist, said, “This report vindicates what the David Suzuki Foundation, other conservation groups and independent scientists have been saying about this outbreak of sea lice, and we call for the immediate fallowing of all salmon farms in the Broughton Archipelago."

“Dire warnings regarding the developing sea-lice catastrophe in the Broughton Archipelago were first voiced two years ago,” says Dr. John Volpe of the University of Alberta. “This report not only validates these warnings but exposes DFO's [Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans] gross misconduct when in December 2001 senior scientists at the Pacific Biological Station attempted to quash debate on the issue with shoddy science.”

While funded by the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans, the PFRCC's mandate is to be "an independent body that will provide strategic advice to Ministers and the public on the conservation and long term sustainable use of Pacific salmon stocks and their freshwater and ocean habitat in British Columbia."

The Pacific Fisheries Resource Conservation Council is online at: http://www.fish.bc.ca/