Farmed and dangerous: Salmon farming linked to major wild salmon collapse - related article: Catch of the Day

When independent biologist Alexandra Morton slipped her dipnet into the cold waters of the B.C. coast two years ago, catching dozens of samples of wild juvenile pink salmon covered with sea lice, she knew that something was seriously wrong.

She alerted federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) to what could be evidence of a major disaster for wild salmon stocks that return to a cluster of stream systems in a remote area about 300 kilometers north of Vancouver. Both juvenile and adult wild salmon must run a gauntlet through narrow inlets containing the highest density of salmon farms anywhere on the coast.

Fisheries and Oceans did nothing.

But as day by day and week by week Morton's sampling showed alarming levels of lethal sea lice on out-migrating young salmon smolts, Fisheries and Oceans finally sent out its own research vessel to investigate.

It was now long past the initial outbreak of sea lice. The DFO study curiously took most of its samples well outside-the cluster of islands in the Broughton Archipelago where Morton identified the problem. Few juvenile pink salmon were found and only seven were caught in the area in question. Yet on the basis of this flimsiest of evidence, DFO proclaimed that there didn't seem to be a problem.

Flash ahead a year and a half. In what should have been a healthy return of pink salmon to the region, 3.5 million salmon had vanished. A tiny fraction - 147,000 fish - straggled back to their natal streams. Environmental groups, First Nations and commercial fishermen cried foul. But DFO seemed mired in years of denial that many say stems from the untenable conflict of interest inherent in a fisheries agency that puts considerable energy into actively promoting salmon farming. More than two years ago, the federal Auditor General concluded that DFO had not researched the impacts from salmon farming on wild salmon stocks and was operating in a policy vacuum. Significant research gaps were identified. None were carried out.

Then in November 2002, DFO's own official watchdog group, the Pacific Fisheries Resource Conservation Council, issued its own report backing up Morton's research findings and calling for emergency action to stave off a final collapse of the Broughton pink salmon stocks. The Council stated that the best option to ensure a low risk to out-migrating juvenile pink salmon in the spring of 2003 would be to empty all salmon farms of potentially lice-bearing adult salmon. Neither the federal nor the provincial governments were willing to do this.

On the provincial side, the ministry most involved in regulating salmon farming has been the industries staunchest advocate, backed up by firm direction from Premier Gordon Campbell who seems hell bent to open up B.C. for big business with little regard for environmental consequences. And salmon farming is big business. No longer the "mom and pop" operations of 15 years ago, more than 80 percent of salmon farms are now owned by just five multinational corporations, most of them Norwegian.

Almost 100 salmon farms dot the coast. Each farm is a series of open netpens with up to a million fish per farm. The crowded conditions create a breeding ground for parasites and diseases. What were minor sea lice and disease problems in the wild are magnified and concentrated in salmon farms, a large number of which are situated directly on wild salmon migration routes.

Young wild salmon are seriously threatened by lice infestation. An adult salmon with 12 sea lice (about the size of a lentil) will survive. But a two inch long juvenile with the same 12 sea lice doesn't stand a chance. The lice are parasites and are sucking off essential fluids, while leaving a gaping wound prone to infection. Lice can also carry diseases. And juvenile fish don't have to actually die from the direct impact of the parasite; weak fish simply get gobbled up by another fish. Survival of the fittest.

Farmers can douse their own fish with pesticides to stave off losses. Wild fish have no such option. But this is one of the other problems associated with salmon farming - pesticides to control sea lice are harmful to crustaceans such as prawns, shrimp and crabs. Farming also results in concentrated fish feces smothering the ocean floor at sites with poor tidal flushing.

Over the last 10 years, upwards of a million farmed salmon have escaped into the wild. Some of these are a species foreign to the B.C. coast--Atlantic salmon. Dr. John Volpe, an independent scientist who has researched impacts from escaped Altantic salmon says the threat from escaped farmed salmon is real. He says it is only a matter of time before this foreign species begins to colonize local streams where wild salmon stocks are weak.

Escaped farmed salmon have been found in more than 80 B.C. streams and have been identified as far north as Alaska. Escaped Pacific farmed salmon can interbreed with wild salmon and threaten the wild salmon gene pool. Farmers do not use brood stock that matches the local wild stock (although an environmental assessment review said they should be). Farmers use stock bred for their needs (domesticity, consistency) which may be just the opposite traits needed to survive in the wild and ensure continued diversity.

An even larger issue has received little attention. It takes four kilos of wild fish caught in Pacific waters off South America to manufacture the feed pellets to produce one kilo of farmed salmon. Anchovies and mackerel are taken from southern ecosystems to provide feed for a luxury product for northern consumers. Farming fish does not take pressure off wild stocks. It depletes wild stocks.

Environmental groups and First Nations have banded together in a coalition to fight for a ban on all netpen salmon farming in B.C.. The Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform (CAAR) says most problems from salmon farming can be eliminated by moving salmon farms onto land or into closed-contained systems in the ocean. Such technologies already exist.

Many First Nations are calling for all farms in their traditional territories to be shut down. Several First Nations court actions have been launched.

In the short term, CAAR wants an aggressive plan to save the remaining wild pink salmon in the Broughton Archipelago.

In February the federal and provincial governments announced an action plan that includes fallowing (emptying) farms on one singular juvenile salmon migration route and heavy pesticide treatment on fish farms experiencing high levels of sea lice. CAAR says this is folly. Juvenile salmon use more than one migration path and sea lice can travel large distances on incoming tides.

Alexandra Morton is again out on her boat sampling sea lice for the third year in a row, as the new generation of juvenile pink salmon are exiting the inlets. Again, she is finding lethal levels of sea lice, even on the one migration route where farms have been fallowed.

"As long as there are fish farms here, there is no safe place in the Broughton Archipelago for wild salmon," says Morton. "I tried to warn them of this, but they would not listen."

"It just keeps getting worse," says Jennifer Lash of the Living Oceans Society, a member of CAAR. "At this point, the government must focus on saving the wild salmon, not salvaging the fish farm industry."

RELATED ARTICLE: Catch of the Day

It is fairly easy to tell farmed salmon from wild. First, people can simply ask - but sometimes seafood dealers and restaurant waiters don't even know. The simplest clue is the species of salmon.

Sockeye is always wild (could be BC or Alaska origin) because they are too "wild" for farming. They die from stress if penned up.

Pink and chum salmon are always wild. They are lower priced so you would always lose money if you tried to farm them.

Pacific chinook may be farmed or wild. You have to ask. If you know fish well, you can tell because farmed chinook are flabbier and have less firm flesh because of lack of exercise, and they have a blander taste. They are the same colour because the farmers use dye in the feed!

Atlantic will always be from farms because wild Atlantics are no longer fished commercially because of low numbers.

David Lane is the Environmental Director for the United Fishermen and Allied Workers' Union - CA Win British Columbia. For more information on the salmon farming issue, visit the CAAR website at www. farmedanddan gerous.

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