The B.C. government was urged Wednesday not to renew leases for open-net salmon farms on the coast.

Aboriginals and environmentalists demonstrated outside Premier Christy Clark’s constituency office in Point Grey at noon and delivered a petition with more than 11,000 signatures opposing the renewal of salmon-farm leases in B.C.

In a statement, Molina Dawson of the Dzawada’enuxw First Nation from Kingcome Inlet said: “I know without a doubt that the cost to our wild salmon — and everything that relies on them — isn’t worth it. So, as long as the government and fish farm companies are actively endangering our fish they will not be getting any support from me.”

The Cohen Commission report last month suggested that salmon farms “have the potential to introduce exotic diseases and to exacerbate endemic diseases which can have a negative effect on Fraser River sockeye.”

Commissioner Bruce Cohen said that wild sockeye could suffer “serious or irreversible harm” if exposed to disease and that the federal fisheries department needs to recognize the possible risk of disease transfer between wild and farm fish.

He recommended that federal fisheries undertake a decisive study of the risks to wild salmon from Discovery Islands fish farming operations, north of Campbell River, with conclusive results by 2020, as well as an annual cap on salmon production.

If by that year DFO “cannot confidently say the risk of serious harm is minimal,” then the area should be closed to salmon farming, Cohen said. That should happen sooner if research confirms a link, he added.

Alexandra Morton, an independent salmon researcher, said Wednesday: “Cohen states that if salmon farms have more than minimal risk of serious harm, they should cease operations. We are well past minimum risk.”

Torrance Coste, Vancouver Island campaigner for the Wilderness Committee, said that the federal Conservative government cannot be relied upon to protect wild salmon. That’s why the province is being pressured to not renew sea-bed leases for salmon farms, including 18 coming up for renewal in the Broughton Archipelago, he said.

Mary Ellen Walling, executive director of the Salmon Farmers Association, said in response that the industry supports the Cohen report, which encourages precaution and care in decision making.

“Our farmers already do that …,” she said.

Walling noted that industry has about 14 protocol agreements with First Nations offering a “range of opportunities such as priority hiring, contract opportunities and revenue ….”

A 2011 report by Canadian Aquaculture Systems Inc. for the Aboriginal Aquaculture Association showed that annual output of farmed salmon in B.C. is about 77,300 tonnes — 60,500 tonnes of that produced in aboriginal territories under various operational and protocol agreements with the First Nations.

Walling added: “As for the tenures, our farmers have been operating there for many years and these are not new applications.”

Agriculture Minister Norm Letnick said in a statement only that the province continues to review the Cohen report and its implications and that the province would provide a more detailed response in the future.

The Ministry said there are 27 aquaculture tenures in the Discovery Islands. Of those, seven are currently under adjudication for tenure replacement, and are currently under a month-to-month tenancy.