Fish Farming

[albannachxcuileag]

An article in one of our fly fishing, fly tying magazines across here makes me ask, how bad is fish farming or "Aquaculture" affecting the runs of the various salmonoids in Canada.

 

The salmon and seatrout runs in Scotland have been severely affected by the presence of fish farms as they spread disease and lice amongst the returning fish as well as contribute to localised pollution around the farm areas. The writer of the article states that the the increase in farming has had devastating effects on natural stocks in Canada. Have you found this to be the case?

 

The biggest salmon farmer is Marine Harvest who operate in Europe, North America and off the South American coasts as well. Their CEO recently made a controversial statement regarding the effects of fish farming on natural stocks and that farming was the main reason for the decline in fish runs.

 

There is nothing worse that seeing cages in the lochs and hearing of the effects of infestation, pollution and escapees that dilute the natural stock fish.

 

Opinions?

[lonefisher]

Being a person with little education on fish farming i feel the only good thing about them is that without them native/ wild species would be further exploited for food ect. But it seems to me that from what I have heard that the problems associated with fish farms, like the ones you have noted above, seem to add new problems...... Where the balance is and whether they are good or not i can't really say as I don't know all the ins and outs of the topic...... some of the BC boys on here might have a better understanding of the topic though..... I will watch this thread with interest.

[Brownstone]

I grew up in Bay d'Espoir on the south coast of Newfoundland, Aquaculture is big there, mostly "rainbow" trout .. in the spring the ice would damage some cages and thousands of fish would escape into the wild. Bay d'Espoir is home to one of the largest hydro electric developments in North America, so it makes a prime habitat for fish(ing) .. These farm fish although unable to reproduce, would eat massive amounts of food and grow to ridiculous proportions .. They get into the salmon rivers and be compete with young salmon and sea-run trout for food, and since they were use to being force feed in pens, I'd imagine they had an insatiable appetite. At first people saw it as a blessing these "monster" trout, people would travel from all over the island to have a go at them, and since they were not a native fish .. no regulations .. but as I remember after a couple years of escapes it was hard to hook into a nice sea-run brookie that were so ever popular a few years before...I don;t really know how the situation is now (my experience dates back some 12-15 years) but there were major concerns on how they would effect the rivers long-term .. I now the DFO has a program in place for tracking these fish in Newfoundland and people are to report catching one and recording info .. I believe Aquaculture bears the risk to drastically change natural fish habitat ..

[Lundvike]

I am from Lund BC, on the west coast so I will add what I know. two big problems are: the addition of non-native fish, namely atlantic salmon which have now been found spawning in some river systems obvious loss of habitat for native fish, and sea lice which grows rapidly when fish are in held in pens, whole runs have been destroyed be sea lice.

 

Also a good portion of the fish food ends up on the bottom below the pens which significantly alters the bottom fish population, rock cod, ling cod, halibut etc. are replaced by less desirable bottom dwellers. There is a bay very close to where I grew up that had a fish farm in it, the farm has been gone for probably 15 years and the bottom fish population is starting to recover.

 

Recently fish farms have been setup on shore rather than in the ocean this eliminates the non-native species issue. As for fish farms protecting native fish from human pressure it is probably a wash at this point as to the damaged caused versus the amount of pressure taken off.

 

There is also a lake near where i am from that has a Kokanee ( Kokanee info ) farm which has essentially stocked that lake and others in the system with Kokanee.

[ladystrange]

i had heard about a few of the atlantic salmon farm pens breaking on the west coast. and i also heard that oceans and fisheries have said, if catch an atlantic salmon, keep it.

 

but that's about it.

[Harps]

West coast:

http://www.flyfisherman.com/westerncanada/...astaquaculture/

 

 

East Coast:

http://www.canflyfish.com/2007/Nov07-Conservation.asp

 

Fish farms can be a problem on both.

; and inland... look at the char release on the Elbow a few years ago and the net tears on Lake Diefenbaker (http://www.gov.sk.ca/news?newsId=6e36127f-13a4-400c-bbd3-4a4c6afb7411).

[monger]

Here is some info from an email I received yesterday: (email from Eric to friend Marshall)

 

As you may have heard recently in the news, important wild salmon stocks in British Columbia have been rapidly declining. I became concerned about this issue two years ago after talking with a fishing lodge owner. The more I looked into the problem, the more shocked I was to learn of the harmful effects that salmon farming has on the wild salmon populations. Millions of fish have disappeared over the past few years. I spoke in depth with First Nations people, tourism operators and recreational anglers regarding their deep concern about the effects that salmon farms have on the marine environment. All these groups assured me that immediate action was required and so the Save Our Salmon (SOS) Initiative was born. Since inception, I have contributed $1 million to fund scientific research, public awareness, and legal research. This funding has resulted in a sound, long-term strategy for correcting this situation.

 

I have attached a package of information that more fully describes the issues and the approach that I am recommending. I am planning a few private luncheons in March and April to provide more information about this important work and to discuss the various ways like-minded people might work together to help solve this problem.

 

Here is part of the attachment:

 

Columbia.

Thursday » December

20 » 2007

B.C. wild salmon in danger of extinction

Stephen Hume

Vancouver Sun

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Five years ago, a senior fisheries biologist in Galway, Ireland, warned what lay

ahead for British Columbia's wild salmon: Infestations of sea lice around fish farms

followed by a collapse of wild stocks wherever baby salmon migrated through

concentrations of the parasites.

Dr. Greg Forde was not a radical environmentalist, as the aquaculture industry

routinely characterizes critics. He worked for Ireland's western regional fisheries

board, struggling to cope with a collapse of wild stocks in a sea lice-infestation that

emerged after fish farms came to that coast.

More than stocks collapsed. The sport fishing industry, a major revenue producer

there -- as in B.C. -- was rocked to its foundations as game fish dwindled.

"The awful thing is about lessons not learned," Forde told me back then. "It's all déjà

vu. It's the most frustrating thing to hear what's happened here has now happened

in B.C."

His colleague, Seamus Hartigan, in charge of managing the Galway River salmon

fishery, echoed Forde's sentiments. "It happened in Norway for years and we didn't

pay any attention," Hartigan said. "It's happened in Ireland and you [in B.C.] are not

paying attention. Do you want to learn by other people's mistakes or do you want to

learn by your own mistakes?

"Norway had some of the best rivers in the world for the production of massive

salmon -- they are just gone," Hartigan said. "Why couldn't we learn from that? Why

can't you learn from us? Is the B.C. government willing to make a place in the

scheme of things for indigenous species?"

The five-year-old question is poignant considering the gloomy forecast for the fate of

pink salmon on the province's mid-coast in a new study reported last week by Scott

Simpson. It argues that if sea lice infestations associated with fish farms on

migration routes continue, pink salmon stocks on the mid-coast can be expected to

collapse into localized extinctions.

Sounds like a 2007 assessment in Ireland which warns that if prized sea trout stocks

are not to be lost, "the elimination of sea lice on and in the vicinity of marine salmon

farms must be a constant priority."

The B.C. study, published in the journal Science, adds to Scottish research which

found sea lice from fish farms killed up to 50 per cent of migrating smolts and it

strengthens the argument that sea lice propagated in net pens here kill baby pinks

the same way.

A paper published last year in the North American Journal of Fisheries Management

found that dying pink salmon smolts carried twice the load of blood-sucking sea lice

as healthy fish.

The self-interested aquaculture industry dismisses this research as biased. The

federal department of fisheries and oceans, mandated to protect wild stocks while

promoting aquaculture, protests that the studies "overstate" risks. Our provincial

government, paralyzed by ideology, ignores the problem even as its own legislature

committee on sustainable aquaculture advises otherwise.

Let's be clear. If the extinctions forecast by this new study take place as predicted, it

will be an ecological catastrophe for the mid-coast. Pink runs sustain bears, killer

whales, eagles, seals, sea lions and trout. Their decaying bodies fertilize riparian

forests and maintain the nutrient levels for aquatic plants, insects, amphibians and

fish in rivers.

If the pinks go, expect the chum, coho and chinook to follow, perhaps sooner than

you think. Then the bears. Then the fishing lodges.

Even as plans ramp up for industrial gravel removal from the lower Fraser,

preliminary stock assessments for salmon returns in 2008 suggest a dismal year for

dwindling runs already ravaged by neglect, mismanagement and loss of spawning

and rearing habitat.

Eight of 14 sockeye runs to the Fraser watershed are forecast to reach less than

target escapement and are declining, some rapidly. Out of 12 chinook runs to the

Fraser or Georgia Strait, nine fall in this category. All four such coho runs are listed

as "of concern."

So here's the question for readers: Will B.C. be a better place without wild salmon?

If you think not, you'd better get organized, act like citizens in a democracy and

prepare to hold politically accountable those who dither, deny and do nothing despite

the warnings.

shume@islandnet.com