I recently spent a week in the Broughton Archipelago monitoring wild juvenile salmon as part of a collaborative endeavor between CAAR, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, independent scientists and all the salmon farming companies operating in the Broughton Archipelago. It’s a very unique project, bringing government, NGOs, scientists and corporations together to assess recent farm management changes on the incidence of lice on wild juvenile salmon. (more…)
Farmed and Dangerous Blog
Archive for the ‘Environmental Impacts’ Category
A report from the “epicentre” of the sea louse controversy in Canada
Wednesday, July 7th, 2010Another fish farm casualty? Waiatt Bay traditional clam gardens dying
Friday, July 2nd, 2010Whenever you hear about salmon farm impacts, inevitably it is about sea lice infecting wild juvenile salmon, or maybe diseases. However, there is another issue that is very concerning…the potential that the waste from salmon farms are contaminating and killing off shellfish beds. (more…)
What’s with all those net-pen farmed salmon escapes?
Wednesday, May 26th, 2010“We were bad but we’re better now!” That’s a standard refrain whenever industries have nothing left to offer in their own defense. I’ve heard it time and again from the salmon farmers and the agencies that regulate them. To that end, new standards and licenses aimed at better preventing farmed fish from escaping open net-pens and re-capturing them when they do were added to the aquaculture regulations eight years ago. Nonetheless, 2008 was one of the worst years for farmed fish escapes setting a sixteen year high. (more…)
Open net-cage farms don’t follow the rules of responsible behaviour in the wilderness
Tuesday, May 11th, 2010All level-headed Canadians know leaving food out while camping isn’t smart. Not only will you lose your dinner, but you’ll encourage animals to return for easy meals, and by doing so you endanger them and yourself. Provincial and National wilderness parks across Canada provide steel containers in order to prevent wildlife from accessing food and waste for the good of all—problem solved. The ocean too, is an underwater wilderness filled with a wealth of animals—all looking for a free lunch. Hence, sticking tonnes of free food (in the form of farmed salmon and fish feed) in some of our most remote wild areas will likely cause problems, and I think everyone will agree open-net salmon farms have problems. (more…)
Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture: more speculation than science
Wednesday, April 14th, 2010Recently, the salmon aquaculture industry and news outlets have been promoting a new approach to salmon farming called Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA), meaning that several marine species are raised in the same operation, such as mussels that eat the waste from salmon raised in open-net pens. This approach allows salmon farm companies to increase and diversify their product sales while using the same open-net cage technology and inputs. This new business approach also comes with claims that it will alleviate the impacts that salmon farms have on the marine environment, even going so far as to claim that problems like sea lice can be controlled. (more…)
Government-held sea lice data to be made public in BC
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010After a six-year battle, CAAR member group T. Buck Suzuki Environmental Foundation along with Ecojustice won a Freedom of Information case to gain access to data collected by the British Columbia government on sea lice and disease levels at specific salmon farms. (more…)
