A new UBC study suggests that Global warming could significantly reduce the extent that salmon can be farmed off the West Coast of British Columbia. The study’s lead author, Muhammed Oyinlola said that up to 84% of the area currently suitable for fish farming could be lost. We need to act now: either move fish farms on land or further out to sea. Cermaq Canada responds to this and some related issues.
Continue reading Cermaq Canada responds to study about climate change threat to salmon farmsTag Archives: Climate change #1 threat to salmon
Climate Change may push farmed salmon out of the market
National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
B.C. farmed salmon may be pushed off people’s plates by climate change in the coming decades.
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Forcing EPA To Protect Salmon
By Roy L Hales
There have been salmon die-offs since the mid-1990s. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was on the verge of addressing this issue more than a decade ago. Vested interests objected. The idea was shelved until last year’s drought. After water temperatures rose 4 degrees above the lethal ceiling (68 degrees F), 96% of the returning adult sockeye died before they could pass beyond the Lower Granite dam. Now a coalition of environmental groups is forcing EPA to protect salmon in the Columbia and Snake rivers.
Mega-Sized Drought Coming To BC
By Roy L Hales
Though British Columbia’s hydrologists have fifty years of stream flow data to formulate its’ responses to climate change, a recent study from the University of Victoria shows this is not enough. Tree ring data shows that, since 1658 AD, there have been 16 droughts exceeding anything evidenced in the instrumental record. The most recent and severest of these events took place in 1958. According to one of the study co-authors, Bethany Coulthard, “It was a cool time and yet we still saw these extreme natural droughts.” Add problems like urbanization, deforestation and rising Global temperatures into the equation and we can expect a mega-sized drought coming to BC.
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Cortes Streamkeepers in Basil & Hanson Creeks: What happened to the salmon?
Six to eight hundred adult Chum Salmon used to come up Hansen’s Creek. Now there are 30 in a good year and as few as 3 in poor ones. Though we were talking about Cortes Island, this is a common phenomenon along the West Coast of British Columbia. What happened to the salmon?
Continue reading Cortes Streamkeepers in Basil & Hanson Creeks: What happened to the salmon?