Tag Archives: Tenacibaculum maritimum

Rivers & Oceans

Report of the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans

Originally published by the Parliament of Canada

On 1 February 2022, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans (the Committee) agreed to undertake a study to “examine how the Department of Fisheries and Oceans prioritizes, resources and develops scientific studies and advice for the department, how the results of scientific study are communicated to the Minister and Canadians, and how the minister applies data and advice provided by the department and other government departments to ministerial decisions.”The Committee heard from 57 witnesses over nine meetings held between 26 April 2022 and 7 October 2022.

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Rivers & Oceans

PRV1a in fish farms, an interview with Dr Gideon Mordecai

Editor’s note: In Dr Mordecai’s most recent study, the PRV-1a virus was reported beside fish farms in the Okisollo Channel and Raza Island. Wild salmon infected with that virus would have swam by neighbouring Cortes, Read and Quadra Islands on their way home to spawn. 

Dr Gideon Mordecai is a Research Associate with the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries at UBC. He is also the author of more than 20 scientific publications, the most recent of which reported the PRV1a virus was in 70% of the samples they studied from 56 fish farms.

Cortes Currents asked Dr. Mordecai,”Fish farms are claiming that BC’s PRV1 isn’t deadly for wild salmon. Is that true?” 

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Rivers & Oceans

70% of the fish farms sampled had PRV-1, study finds

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A new study published by the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, states that 70% of the samples taken from 56 fish farms had PRV-1.

One of the co-authors is independent biologist Alexandra Morton, who explained, “The study was my concept and I funded a lot of the analysis and did a lot of the sampling myself. It was truly collaborative with Clayoquot Action sampling the Farms in Clayoquot Sound. An extraordinary man, Dr. Neil Fraser from Powell River got in his speed boat and went to the central coast. The Wild Fish Conservancy down in Washington State, sampled farms there. So it was  a sustained effort by a lot of people, and then Dr. Gideon Mordecai did the analysis of the relationship between the different strains that we picked up.”

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Rivers & Oceans

B.C. fish farms cultivate increased risks for wild salmon, new studies show

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Pacific salmon are likely exposed to increased risks from pathogens concentrated in fish farms on the West Coast, two new scientific studies indicate. 

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Rivers & Oceans

Fish Farms may pose more than a minimal risk, studies suggest

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Three recent academic papers suggest that salmon farms may pose more than a minimal risk to wild salmon migrating through the Discovery Islands. 

In response, the BC Salmon Farmers Association emailed Cortes Currents that while these studies reported the presence of viruses, they did not show they were causing disease in farmed or wild salmon. 

Today’s program largely consists of interviews with Dr Andrew Bateman from the Pacific Salmon Foundation (PSF)’s Strategic Salmon Health Initiative (SSHI), one of the scientists involved in these studies, and readings from the industry’s response.

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