By Melissa Renwick, Ha-Shilth-Sa, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Gold River, BC – The first transfer of juvenile Atlantic salmon has been made to Grieg Seafood BC Ltd.’s Expansion Project, which was completed this spring.
Continue reading Grieg Seafood completes land-based hatchery expansion in Gold River
Sometime in the next three weeks, Canada’s Minister of Fisheries, Joyce Murray, will decide whether the licenses for 79 fish farms will be renewed.
“I heard a rumour that the minister laid out her options or her ideas to cabinet and cabinet has the plans right now. They’re figuring out what to do. We can expect an announcement quite shortly on the plan around the transition of farms out of British Columbia and also the licensing decision,” said Stan Proboszcz, senior scientist with the Watershed Watch Salmon Society.
Continue reading Waiting for DFO to decide the fate of open-net pen fish farms
qathet Living, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Sitting outside Powell River Outdoors, owner Sam Sansalone fiddles with a fish hook on the picnic table.
“Look out on the water, and tell me how many boats you see,” Sam says.
On a bright sunny day with calm water, there was a single sailboat that could be seen on the Salish Sea.
Continue reading Powell River’s Big 3 fish debates
Click here for ‘Federal court rules DFO breached salmon farmers rights to procedural fairness’
National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
West Coast environmental groups and First Nations opposed to salmon farming are urging the federal Fisheries Minister Joyce Murray to hold the line after a recent court ruling set aside a decision by her predecessor to phase out salmon farming in the Discovery Islands.
The Federal Court ruling found then-fisheries minister Bernadette Jordan contravened the right of procedural fairness owed to fish farm companies when deciding to shut down 19 operations in the waters near Campbell River on eastern Vancouver Island by the end of June.
Continue reading Court ruling doesn’t sink Ottawa’s decision to close Discovery Islands salmon farms, critics say
As we get closer to June 30, when the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) has to decide whether to reissue the licenses for 79 British Columbian salmon farms, independent biologist Alexandra Morton points to yet more problems.
A recent Global and Mail article revealed the existence of a decade old Department of Fisheries (DFO) report about the ‘transmission of the PRV virus from farmed to wild salmon.’
Morton said the fish farm industry has exceeded the three lice per fish threshold every week since the out-migration season began on March first. Two to five active farms have exceeded that limit every week, for the past five weeks. Morton claims that no sooner had the industry brought the lice on one farm under control, than another exceeds the limit.
Continue reading 47 days until a decision must be made: sea lice and pathogens
