Provincial governments hoping to increase production of salmon sales and boost economy do not understand the dangers in using "fish farms" to accomplish this. A case study of the Broughton Archipelago as well as in-depth research, all discussed in this report, point to reasons to not utilize fish farms. Doing so would escalate diseases, pollution, death of salmon, and loss of other wild fish as well as be detrimental to scenery, taxpayers, First Nations' rights, and access to locals.

Don’t let fish farms destroy BC's wild salmon miracle

Wilderness Committee Educational Report Vol.17 - No.02 - Spring/Summer 1998.

Fish farms threaten to drive wild salmon into extinction.

A proposed sixfold expansion of B.C.'s industrial netcage salmon farms, if permitted by government, will be disastrous for B.C.'s sport and commercial salmon fisheries and for the coast's lucrative and expanding wilderness tourism industry. Fish farms threaten to drive wild salmon into extinction. Don't let it happen!

Special to WCWC by Tony Eberts

A provincial government desperately seeking ways to bolster the sagging economy may be poised to strike a devastating blow against our wild Pacific salmon.

If the Glen Clark administration approves a massive expansion of fish farming as practised on the B.C. coast (from about 100 existing farms to 600 farms) it could leave our rivers lifeless and our commercial and sports fisheries in ruins.

With vast financial and political power behind them and the lure of big profits in front of them, the international corporations that control salmon netcage farming refuse to recognize the industry's horrifying world record. But that record, and the inevitability of threats to wild salmon stocks the spreading of disease, genetic degradation and filth in our waters cannot be denied, no matter how well funded their propaganda campaign may be. And what about the food quality of those drug-fed, penned-up farm fish?

400-600 more farms are proposed, mostly for the mid-coast (the Great Bear Rainforest) north of region shown below.

Description

B.C.'s netcage feedlot-reared salmon: source of eggs and feed and destination of the farm fish product.

Industry spin doctors employ the common techniques of denial, obfuscation, ridicule and smear against industry critics. Despite the documented evidence of environmental and economic damage associated with netcage fish farming here and in other parts of the world, they insist there is no solid evidence that it could happen.

But it is not up to the industry's critics to prove the perils posed by the netcage operations. The onus is on the industry to prove beyond all doubt that it will cause no significant harm. Considering that many of our wild salmon stocks already are in crisis from resource mismanagement, pollution and habitat destruction, the people of B.C. deserve nothing less.

Some hidden costs of netcage salmon farming

noted in a 1996 study commissioned by the non-profit David Suzuki Foundation:

  • Risks of disease transfer from netcage fish to wild stocks such as black cod, herring and salmon, and in particular to large numbers of migrating Fraser River salmon.
  • Risks of introducing exotic diseases from the continued importation of Atlantic salmon farm stock.
  • Pollution from fish sewage, roughly equal to that from a city of about half a million people, with associated disease risks, contamination of shellfish and loss of habitat.
  • Death, wounding and harassment of mammal and bird populations from shootings, net entanglements and underwater noisemaking devices.
  • Loss of access to traditional fisheries for First Nations people, with increased risks to their health from exposure to drug residues in food collected near netcage operations.
  • Competition for spawning beds and genetic interaction between wild and escaped salmon in both salt and fresh water.
  • Lost access to anchorages and pristine scenery for the sportfishing, recreation and tourism industries; some sportfishing resorts have already been forced out of business by fish farm operations.
  • Loss of revenue for commercial fishermen due to lower salmon prices, and risks to future revenue for commercial and sportfisheries because of potential declines in wild stocks.
  • Potential health problems for fish farm workers from handling drugs.
  • Losses in quality of environment for foreshore residents and other foreshore users because of odors, visual pollution and danger from gunfire.
  • Costs to taxpayers of government regulatory costs and an array of cash subsidies to the industry.
  • Losses of wild fish such as herring and juvenile salmon, consumed by netcage fish.
  • Endangered public health from eating fish with antibiotics and other drugs that have already led to the spread of fish diseases that are fully resistant to three types of antibiotics.
  • Net loss to the world of food, because more than four pounds of fish protein are consumed for every pound of netcage salmon produced here.

    • And what do the people of B.C. get in compensation for paying these high costs?

    Extra salmon that could much more safely be supplied by healthy commercial, sports and native fisheries...and fewer jobs because the new jobs produced by the mushrooming fish farms will not match those that this industry will kill.