“Last week, the Minister of Fisheries, Joyce Murray, went on the road and she traveled the length of Vancouver Island talking to people, First Nations environmental organizations, scientists, about the transition of salmon farms in British Columbia. This is incredible. I’ve never seen a minister go on the road before, and I have so much respect for her for doing this,” said independent biologist Alexandra Morton.

A BC Salmon Farmers Association spokesperson emailed a list of facilities Murray visited:

• Cermaq Canada’s Millar Channel farm and semi-closed containment site in Clayoquot Sound. 
• One of Creative Salmon’s Chinook farms and their processing plant in Tofino. 
• MOWI’s Shelter Pass farm in Port Hardy and their Big Tree Creek Hatchery in Sayward. 

Murray is said to have met with industry and expressed an interest in co-developing a Transition Plan.

According to the industry spokesperson, “The Minister is focused on a range of metrics driving the ongoing transition to reduce or eliminate risk to wild salmon rather than push a specific type of technology. Innovations achieved to meet specific metrics will depend on the preference of each Nation whose territories we operate in.” 

Ruth Salmon, Interim Executive Director of the BC Salmon Farmers Association, issued a press release stating, “Salmon farming is continuously evolving, improving, and innovating, which can come as a surprise to those outside of the farming community. It was a pleasure to meet with the Minister and her team to not only discuss these improvements but showcase them, as she visited several farm sites and a hatchery.”

Morton was concerned about the degree of industry influence:

“The meetings were run by the Director of Aquaculture Management, and this person was reprimanded twice this year by her superiors for failing to include the science that DFO is doing that is showing significant impact of salmon farms on Pacific Salmon.”

“She left this information out of a briefing to the Minister before she went in front of the standing committee on Fisheries and Oceans. She left it out of the report to the Committee of the Whole on DFOs 2022/ 2023 main estimates, basically the funding that DFO needs going forward. These are really high level government document that did not include important information about the salmon farming industry – that it is impacting, that it is harming, that it is spreading pathogens to wild salmon. One of these emails to this Director says, ‘This is a glaring omission that needs to be patched rapidly.’ Has it been patched? I don’t know.”

“This person is now out on the road with the Minister. Is she filtering the information that is coming in from all of these people who are worried about the state of wild salmon and want these salmon farms removed from the ocean and put into tanks? We don’t know, but even more disturbingly Minister Joyce Murray is using this phrase that is absolutely meaningless.”

“Did some bureaucrat get some some points for coming up with this phrase ‘progressive minimalization.’ What is that? Come on. You can’t just throw out a word. That DFO is suddenly, magically going to progressively minimalize the impact of this industry that is releasing millions of viral and bacterial and parasite particles and larvae into our water, along with tons of waste daily.”

“Let me just give you an example of what has gone on and what it may be progressive minimalization really is. On March 2nd, a DFO veterinarian did a count of sea lice at the Cermaq farm called Bawden Point in Clayoquot Sound. She reported an average of 14.22 sea lice. It’s almost five times over the limit.She says in her email, ‘This looks like a breach of the license of this farm.’ Uh, yes indeed. So what did DFO. They never laid a charge and they awarded Cermaq the right to put in twice as many fish. Is this what ‘Progressive  Minimalization’ is?” 

“Because Cermaq desperately needed to be awarded this increase in production because they’ve been chased out of every other First Nation territory on this coast.All they have left is Clayoquot Sound, and if they can’t double or triple their production there, they’re out. They can’t make a profit now.”

“Now, the situation in Norway is super interesting because the Norwegian government has decided they want to up the tax on the salmon farming industry by 40% and Cermaq, MOWI and Grieg, three companies that are here, are freaking out. And Norwegian reporters are saying that the politicians who are now trying to protect the salmon farming industry from this tax in Norway, all own stocks in the companies.” 

“Okay, so I want to know what is going on in Canada. The Prime Minister said the salmon farming industry would transition from the water by 2025.

The Minister Fisheries in June of this year gave the salmon farming industry two year licenses, which basically says, ‘Grow your fish and get out.’ Now suddenly she’s going on the road and indicating that there are going to progressively minimalize the impact of the industry and let them stay in the water.”

“What kind of hold does this industry have on our government? If you want to be part of rescuing wild salmon from this impact, you want to see the kinds of increases that we’re seeing in the Broughton Archipelago, write to the minister. Give her a piece of your mind.”

The BC Farmers Association also expressed concerns. 

“The short time frame set for consultations on the farmed salmon production areas in the territories of the Laich-kwil-tach, which has been referred to in the past as the Discovery Islands region, are of particular concern.” 

This area is also of interest to some of Cortes Currents Discovery Island listeners. The Brent Island, Venture Point and Barnes Bay farm sites are in the Okisollo Channel, which runs between Quadra and Sonora Island. Cermaq Canada reoccupied its Raza Island site, off the northern tip of Cortes Island, six months ago. At that time, a Cermaq spokesperson emailed Cortes Currents, “We will not be entering smolts in our Raza Island site this Spring and we are awaiting the Federal Government and DFO’s decisions on license reissuance, including the Discovery Islands region.”  

Ruth Salmon spoke about the situation throughout the Discovery Islands, “The farms in these areas are critical to the future of the sector, as well as to those First Nations who view salmon farming as a means to socio-economic stability for their communities. Given the importance of the production areas within the Laich-kwil-tach territories, our sector stresses the importance of those First Nations to be integrated into the larger discussion of the Transition Plan, instead of being addressed as a separate region.”

Her press release ends with the statement, “BC Salmon Farmers look forward to additional dialogue with the Minister around these important issues, as well as the opportunity to host more farming and processing tours in the future.”

Cortes Currents reached out to the DFO for comment about the Minister’s trip, but has not yet received a reply.

Top image credit: Cermaq Canada’s Millar Channel farm and semi-closed containment site in Clayoquot Sound – Courtesy Clayoquot Action.

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