North Island Gazette, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Data from fish farms around Vancouver Island show sea lice numbers exceeding Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s requirements of three per salmon at the start of this year’s juvenile salmon migration.
Continue reading Sea Lice Exceeds Threshold On 14 Salmon FarmsBy Quinn Bender, Prince Rupert Northern View, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
A major B.C. salmon-farm operator will soon be testing a new containment system designed to prevent sea lice and algae from entering pens and hopefully reduce the chances of fish escapement. Cermaq Canada is assembling the structure, known as a semi-closed containment system (SCCS), in Port Alberni and plans to stock it with Atlantic salmon later this fall for trials at its Millar Channel farm in Clayoquot Sound.
Continue reading Cermaq Canada’s semi-closed containment system For Salmon FarmsNorth Island Gazette, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
The results of a new wild salmon study are skin crawling: 94 per cent of wild salmon fry in the Discovery Islands — to the east of Campbell River — had sea lice attached. The infected fry hosted an average of seven of the parasitic lice.
Continue reading Sea Lice Outbreak Prompts First Nations Call For salmon Farm ClosuresNational Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Two First Nations are calling for the closure of a fish farm off the east coast of Vancouver Island following the escape of 1,000 Atlantic salmon into their territorial waters in May. The We Wai Kai and Wei Wai Kum nations want the immediate cancellation of Mowi Inc. tenure for its Shaw Point aquaculture operation, according to a statement issued by the Laich-Kwil-Tach Treaty Society on Thursday.
Continue reading First Nations Call For Closure Of Shaw Point Salmon FarmBy Roy L Hales
Canada’s $2 billion Aquaculture industry is embroiled in controversy. While there may be some debate as to whether wild salmon spread more infections to British Columbia’s penned stock or vice versa,[1] there have been incidents like the Queen Charlotte Strait’s 2015 sea lice epidemic.[2] On May 20, 2016, Dr Kristi Miller, from Fisheries and Oceans Canada, announced that there is “a potential Heart and Skeletal Muscle Inflammation (HSMI) in farmed Atlantic salmon samples” collected from a aquaculture facility off the coast of Vancouver Island. In Norway, where HSMI is more common, this disease is “associated with generally low mortality on farms, generally between 0 to 20%.”[3] The stress (and thus mortality rate) is undoubtedly greater on wild salmon, which need to capture prey, escape predators and swim upstream to spawn. So, acting on behalf of marine biologist Alexandra Morton, ECOjustice is suing Canada’s Ministry of Fisheries for putting wild salmon at risk. Some argue the best answer is to bring salmon farms on land.
Continue reading Bring Salmon Farms On Land
