Tag Archives: Fish Farms

Rivers & Oceans

Court ruling doesn’t sink Ottawa’s decision to close Discovery Islands salmon farms, critics say

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 →
Indigenous Nations, Politics, Rivers & Oceans

Land and water in B.C. have a new ministry. We spoke with its leader

By Matt Simmons, The Narwhal, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

Josie Osborne seems careful with her words as she talks about her new job. The former mayor of Tofino, turned MLA,  is heading up the new B.C. Ministry of Land, Water and Resource  Stewardship and is the minister responsible for fisheries. But through  her political composure are glimpses of a lifestyle associated with the  little west coast community on Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation territory —  she lives on ten acres with her husband, dog, three goats and chickens  and works out of a brightly coloured tiny house office. 

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Justice, Rivers & Oceans

Federal court rules DFO breached salmon farmers rights to procedural fairness

On Friday, April 22, a federal court ruled that Former Federal Fisheries and Oceans Minister Bernadette Jordan breached the rights of B.C. salmon farmers to procedural fairness when she ordered them to phase out operations in the Discovery Islands by June 2022. 

Continue reading Federal court rules DFO breached salmon farmers rights to procedural fairness →
Rivers & Oceans

47 days until a decision must be made: sea lice and pathogens

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 →
Rivers & Oceans

The three sea lice monitoring windows

Taken from a BC Salmon Farmers Association email to Cortes Currents

Salmon farm conditions of license specify area-based and site-specific sea lice monitoring requirements for each farm. In general, the sea lice-related conditions of license divide each year into 3 sea lice monitoring ‘windows’ defined by the out-migration pattern of the juvenile salmon:

  • Non-migration Window: July 1 – January 31
  • Pre-migration Window: February 1 – February 29
  • Out-migration Window: March 1 – June 30.
Continue reading The three sea lice monitoring windows →