Salmon farming industry puts wild salmon at increased risk by reactivating farm along Wild Salmon Narrows migration route

Fifty-five organizations and thousands of concerned citizens have been calling for the removal of five salmon farms along Okisollo and Hoskyn Channels on the north and east side of Quadra Island, a critical Fraser River sockeye migration route. This call was supported by the conclusions of a think tank of scientists who convened at Simon Fraser University in 2009 to discuss the potential causes of the Fraser River sockeye collapse. Included in their recommendations was the experimental removal of salmon farms along Fraser River sockeye migration corridors.

Despite these calls, and the many still unanswered questions concerning the role that fish farms may have played in the 2009 collapse, Marine Harvest has chosen to sublet an inactive site along this very route to Grieg Seafood. Expansion of net-cage salmon farming along a critical Fraser River sockeye migration route during an inquiry into the reason for the sockeye collapse is reckless, given that salmon aquaculture is included in the scope of potential impacts that may have led to the drastic decline. Adding a sixth farm and half a million more farmed salmon to the Wild Salmon Narrows migration route is an irresponsible move that elevates the threat to Fraser River sockeye and many other wild salmon that migrate through this region.

On top of this, last week a new scientific paper was published in PLoS ONE journal. Sea Louse Infection of Juvenile Sockeye Salmon in Relation to Marine Salmon Farms on Canada’s West Coast provides a tangible link between salmon farms and elevated levels of sea lice on juvenile Fraser River sockeye salmon. This study further highlights the need to observe the precautionary principle and remove farmed salmon from the path of migrating wild salmon.

Grieg Seafood stocked the previously inactive Conville Bay site with Atlantic salmon being relocated from another fish farm site, a move that can sometimes indicate problems at a farming location. Grieg Seafood and the BC Salmon Farmers Association have ignored our request to explain where these farmed Atlantics were moved from and why, despite their constant reassurances that their industry operates in an open and transparent manner.

Watch the video below and join us in the Wild Salmon Narrows at the reactivated Conville Bay net-cage salmon farm. Also, take action by joining our Spring Cleaning Crew and help us clear this critical migration route before the offspring of the 2009 collapsed Fraser River sockeye arrive at this very location in a few short months.

Join the Wild Salmon Narrows Spring Cleaning Crew.

New year, new look

Now that we’re full on into February, it might seem a bit late to be talking about the beginning of a New Year. But let’s just say I’ve aligned myself with the Chinese New Year – Happy Year of the Rabbit – and we’ll leave it at that!

And really, I needed a bit more time anyway to catch my breath after 2010, especially the last few months. With three 20^th anniversary celebration events in the fall alone, a big win in our legal action to protect the orca, and planning for a busy year ahead – it was a heady and hectic end to a great year!

Looking back, I have to say, it was truly a wonderful experience to have so many of our members and supporters take part in our 20^th Anniversary Celebrations around the region. I experienced a real pleasure in meeting so many of you and hearing stories that covered the breadth of our organization’s existence. It renewed my belief that the work GSA does is deeply important to our supporters, and I look forward to meeting many more of you in the future.

Now enough about 2010 – because so far, 2011 has been off to an excellent start. Our Clean Marine BC Program is now under the new leadership of Lisa Winbourne - we welcome Lisa to GSA! Mike Richards, who wraps up 10 years at the helm of that successful program, is now taking on the challenge of Director of Special Projects, a new position for GSA. We also welcome David Fields, who is joining GSA’s Salmon Aquaculture program team until early June. New faces and new energy are a great way to start the year!

On the campaign front, the New Year has already brought big news, both good and bad. We celebrated Agrimarine and the launch of their first commercial-scale closed containment tank installation, while we decried Fisheries and Oceans Canada for appealing parts of a ground breaking ruling around the protection of our southern resident orcas (two steps forward, one step back!). These two examples are bookends - one looks for new ways of doing things to protect wildlife and promote a healthy economy, while another just keeps doing things the same old way, to the detriment of our environment and a species we all hold dear.

But we prefer to focus on the new energy abounding here at GSA, and in the spirit of ‘something new’, if you've gone to our website, you'll have noticed something new. After many months of passionate discussion, we are very excited to launch our new logo! It’s a fresh look that continues to represent the long-time passion and strengths of GSA: our effectiveness at connecting land and sea, and the ‘caretaker’ responsibility we have for the Strait, just as a mother orca has for her new calf. We hope you like it too!

And last but not least – thanks to all of you who continue to support GSA in our work, with your time and with your hard earned dollars. You have made all our successes in the last 20 years possible. If you aren’t a GSA donor yet, please consider making a donation today and joining one of the most effective groups in BC, and the only one with its eyes on the health of our Strait.

May 2011 be good to you!

For the love of sockeye

Spectators gathering at the Adams River,
October 2010

Last month I had the privilege of witnessing the miraculous abundance of Fraser River sockeye returning this year. The Adams River was a whir of activity as people jostled for the best position to see as the salmon fought the currents and each other for the best mate and place for a spawning redd. Tears welled up frequently as I marveled at the beauty and the miracle of their unlikely return.

I say unlikely return, as these fish came back in greater abundance than has been seen in a whole century, despite all mankind’s greed and ignorance has thrown at them. But the tears also came in frustration, and still do, as I hear the fish farm spin doctors churn out the denial and deflect attention from their impacts on wild salmon. “The sockeye have returned and we haven’t changed a thing, so we couldn’t have caused the collapse of Fraser River sockeye last year,” claims the fish farm industry. “The conservationists are wrong.”

Well, why don’t we start by taking a look at what we do know…

Based on peer reviewed published science, we know that sea lice harm wild pink and chum salmon…in fact we know that a heavy sea lice infection can even kill an adult salmon either directly, or by weakening them to be preyed upon or more susceptible to disease. (For instance, the vice president of Cooke Aquaculture in New Brunswick recently told La Presse they “lost 500,000 fish this year” to sea lice infestation.) The body of scientific evidence also continues to grow; just last month two studies were released on the impacts of sea lice from salmon farms in BC on coho salmon. So how many sea lice does it take to kill a juvenile sockeye? We don’t know, but we do know through genetic analyses that Fraser stocks have been reported to have sea lice in the vicinity of salmon farms in the Wild Salmon Narrows farming region. We also know that fish farms are prone to disease outbreaks as seen in BC, Europe and Chile, despite vaccinations and antibiotic use, with devastating effects.

Fraser sockeye returning to their spawing
grounds

What we don’t know is what the salmon farming industry is hiding when it comes to sea lice and disease on their farms. The salmon farming industry has vehemently resisted the release of these data while claiming that their operations do not have a negative impact on wild fish populations. The Cohen Inquiry into the decline of Fraser River sockeye recently obtained some information from a few farms going back five years (which is yet to be analyzed and also not available to the public), but without access to complete data, no one can adequately assess the impacts and if salmon farms have harmed Fraser sockeye.

It is from this platform of denial and obstruction that the fish farm industry makes baseless and simplistic claims like the one above, attempting to exonerate themselves from any role in the decline of wild salmon while their farms continue to spread sea lice, waste and potentially even disease into our waters.

That’s why we are asking for an emergency migration route for juvenile salmon, a route on the east and north side of Quadra Island in the Wild Salmon Narrows which needs to be cleared by March to increase the chances of survival for next year’s miraculous juvenile salmon. Immediate measures to remove salmon farms from sockeye migration routes was also recommended by a think tank of scientists that gathered at Simon Fraser University in December 2009 to discuss possible causes of the Fraser River sockeye collapse. I’m not holding my breath, since both the provincial and federal governments have done little to protect wild salmon from fish farms so far, and in fact are supporting the industry’s expansion. However, this year’s miracle which is the Fraser River sockeye gives me hope that wild salmon can hold on while we continue gaining ground and working hard to get this industry into closed containment.

Credit: this post was originally published by Michelle at http://blog.farmedanddangerous.org 

Our garbage to clean up

As part of this year's annual wilderness kayak trip (see last week's blog for more), my husband and I found what we call a piece of heaven. Not far from God's Pocket Marine Park, we spent 4 days camped at a location that had a gorgeous sandy beach and a lovely rocky beach, linked by a beautiful cedar forest. Keeping us company were wrens, plovers, eagles, ravens and a few black-tailed deer. It was truly a spectacular part of coastal BC and we were thrilled to call it home for a few days.

But though we were far from any human contact the impact of civilization was all around us. The sandy beach had garbage strewn all along the high tide line. We had seen some garbage on other beaches we camped at along Vancouver Island but this was the worst and was truly jarring.

We spent much of our time paddling and enjoying the peace the island had to offer, but we couldn't ignore the debris that continually crossed our paths.

So, on our third full day of passing by a garbage can half buried in the sand, we decided to hold an impromptu beach clean-up. We felt it was a sign! After spending a 1/2 hour digging up said can, we went to work. Several hours later, we stood before a stunning amount of garbage for one beach. Here's what we found:

- 79 plastic drink bottles
- 25 styrofoam floats
- 25 plastic containers for household products, including prescriptions, soap, bleach and salad dressing
- 200 feet of rope
- 15 plastic bottles for industrial products
- 12 plastic car oil containers
- 1 strip of tarp
- 1 food barrel
- 1 fender
- 1 two foot long mercury halide lamp
- 1 grocery store tray
- 2 tire floats
- 1 tire with rim

And we didn't get it all. Out of necessity, we ignored items < 3cm long. In the end, we filled that garbage pail plus 3 full size garbage bags and we still had to pile some of it up. It was truly incredible considering, here we were, 45km from Port Hardy, 200km from Campbell River and 450km from Vancouver! There is a happy ending to this story, however. We've arranged with the wonderful owners of Odyssey Kayaking, Pat and Jackie Kervin, to head back to the island to pick up the results of our garbage clean up and take it away to be responsibly processed. Considering at least 1/2 of what we found is recyclable, it will not just be going to the dump!

Where this garbage came from is unclear, but at the end of the day, it's ours. The garbage in our oceans started with us and ended up here - where we live, work and play. It's something we all need to take a hard look at doing something about.





What can you do?
- take part in a local beach clean up, and see how good it feels to clean up a bit of our world.
- find out what your community is doing to reduce garbage, from Zero Waste Challenge to education on choosing products with less or no packaging.
- choose products with minimal packaging or that can be recycled.
- find out how garbage is managed in your community and support innovative ways for it to be handled so that it doesn't end up on our oceans. Ask local or regional staff for more information.
- raise the issue with your friends and neighbours. The more each of us becomes aware of the garbage we create and where it can end up, the sooner we can solve this growing problem.

And finally, if you find yourself on a city street, country road or distant beach and see some garbage, take a moment to pick it up and dispose of it responsibly. By doing a little bit of 'street and beach clean-up' every day, along with reducing the garbage we create, we have a chance to keep more pieces of heaven clean for generations to come.

Nature's rhythms: a kayaker's tale

Each year, as part of my annual holidays, my husband and I reconnect with nature through a week of wilderness kayaking. Taking all the necessities of life with us - which does not include a cell phone! - we travel to parts of BC whose beauty and ruggedness take our breaths away. Though we live without the creature comforts of our daily city life (save for coffee, chocolate and a good book, of course!), we spend this week reconnecting with things that matter most to us.

In the 8 summers we've taken to the waters on these trips, we have spent some time in some spectacular places. From the Broken Group on the west coast of Vancouver Island to Desolation Sound, from Read and West Redonda Islands to most recently exploring the Islands off the north shore of Vancouver Island. All these places are unique, they are all remarkable, and we've found them to be restorative and spectacular.

There are many things I love about these trips but high on the list is that during this week, our minds are not focused on deadlines or appointments or emails galore, but instead on the simplicity of life in the natural world. Our attention is on the basics - food, clothing and shelter. When your day is reduced to these fundamentals, you are both busy yet free to use your time to simply be.

Living simply within the natural world also means you must ebb and flow with her rhythms. You can have all the plans in the world for your trip but how easily or possible it is to achieve them depends on how well you match your plans with nature's rhythms. That fact is a lesson that I've really learned in the last 8 years.

I remember our first overnight trip to the Broken Group in 2003. My husband was an intermediate kayaker and very experienced canoeist from his Ontario days. I, on the other hand, was a novice kayaker who had never done an overnight kayak trip. I still remember how frightened I was as each tiny wave or small swell hit my boat. After many years on the water, I've come to learn what the waves and swells mean, and how to use their power to make kayaking easier. It's about working with nature, not against her. Learning more about waves, winds, currents and tides has meant that we shape our day to what nature is doing rather than trying to force our schedule on her. The result is we go further, see more of the region we're exploring and enjoy our paddling that much more.

The varied emotions we experience on our trips are more than I can put down here. But on this trip alone, they ranged from the peacefulness of seeing deer feeding on kelp on the beach, to joy at seeing frolicking sea otters, to wonder at seeing salmon - large and small - jumping for hours on end, to the absolute fear of finding a black bear less that 15 feet from our tent (thankfully the velcro sound from the bear spray being unclipped was enough to encourage the bear along!). But all these memorable experiences have been possible because we've put ourselves in a place where we can be - for a short time - a part of nature's rhythms.

These trips are to us a gift and a sanctuary in our busy lives. But the lessons we learned are the ones we as a society must learn too. We must live with the rhythms of nature not fight them. If we don't, then this journey we are on will continue to be a hard one, with devastating effects. But if enough of us live by this credo, then good paddling and happy, healthy days are truly ahead.