Removal of BC salmon farms coincides with rebounding wild runs for “National Fisherman”

By Paul Molyneaux for ’National Fisherman”

Early evidence suggests salmon runs on British Columbia rivers are growing where salmon farms are removed

While many wild salmon runs in Canada have rebounded in the absence of salmon farms on their British Columbia migration routes, the salmon farming industry is lobbying hard to convince the country’s new prime minister, Mark Carney, to rescind the ban on open net pen salmon farming.

 Passed under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government, the ban was initially intended to get all salmon out of BC waters by 2025, but was pushed back to 2029. 

Corporate Muscles

Now the big players, Mowi and CERMAC – which recently bought Grieg Seafood – are pushing to have the law repealed completely.

Advocating salmon aquaculture with the familiar litany of jobs, feeding the world, and reducing pressure on wild stocks, Fabian Dawson, writing in the online publication Sea West News, cites a new study that says that sea lice from salmon farms have little impact on wild salmon. He also makes claims about new feed ingredients, while everyone in the industry acknowledges that nothing can replace wild fish and krill.

Paid to Write

“Fabian gets paid to write controversial things like that,” says longtime wild salmon scientist and activist Alexandra Morton. “Nobody reads it or believes it.”

Morton points to growing evidence that salmon runs rebound when salmon farms shut down. “Admittedly, all we have is corollary evidence, but it’s growing. If you look at the Fraser River sockeye this year, the returns were more than twice what was predicted.” Morton notes that all salmon farms were taken out of the Discovery Islands approaches to the Fraser, though there are farms continuing to operate further north, and she believes that Cermaq and Mowi are fearful that tribes where salmon farms still operate will also pull the plug on them.