“Our findings show that salmon farms are, indeed, a source of infection for wild fish. Viruses leave a genetic fingerprint. The genetic fingerprint shows that the same viruses that are on the farms are in the wild fish. All the evidence suggests that the virus is being transmitted from the farm to wild fish. I haven’t seen any evidence that says that’s not happening,” said Dr Gideon Mordecai, a viral ecologist at the University of British Columbia and the lead author of a paper published in Science Advances last month.
Continue reading PRV spreads from salmon farms to wild Chinook, study saysTag Archives: Salmon Farms
Bernadette Jordan’s strategy to save Pacific Salmon stocks
On June 8th, Fisheries Minister Bernadette Jordan announced the guiding principles of what may be largest government action to save Pacific Salmon stocks in Canadian history.
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Fish farms underreport sea lice when not being audited, study says
“Our results suggest that sea-louse counts reported by the salmon farming industry are lower than the true abundance of parasites on their fish. When the federal government audited a sea-louse count, the industry’s mean counts for that month increased by a factor of 1.18 for L. salmonis and by 1.95 for C. clemensi.” – Sean Godwin et al, Bias in self-reported parasite data from the salmon farming industry.
Dr Sean Godwin is the lead author of eight of the fifteen scientific papers listed on his website. The bulk of these explore interactions between wild and farmed salmon. One of the most troubling, published in the journal Ecological Application, is a survey that showed fish farms underreport sea lice when they are not audited by Fisheries and Oceans Canada.
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Salmon farms infecting wild Chinook salmon, study suggests
National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
The transmission of a virus tied to kidney and liver damage in endangered Chinook salmon is being fuelled by the exchange of the disease between open-net pen fish farms and wild stocks in B.C., a new study indicates.
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Budget 2021: Funding for salmon farms
It has been a year since the The Campbell River Business Recovery Task Force described fish farms as one of the city’s three key first dollar industries. Mayor Andy Adams said they are Campbell River’s largest economic driver. This is also a sector being phased out over the course of the next year. In the last of a series about the 2021 Federal Budget, North Island-Powell River MP Rachel Blaney talks about funding for salmon farms
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