Removal of regional moratorium urged
In a recent article in The Vancouver Sun, journalist Peter O’Neil stated that a “Federal memo recommended Ottawa lobby BC to allow new fish farms on north coast”. This is not surprising, as yet another major investigation into the fluctuations of returns to spawning grounds by wild Pacific salmon found no reason to blame fish farming for these events.
The investigation did, however, state that there could theoretically be some risk to wild salmon from salmon farms, and as a result, the inquiry recommended a small area north of Campbell River be kept at today’s production levels. This has nothing to do with the previously established moratorium on the Province’s north coast, and none of these initiatives have anything to do with the Broughton Archipelago, despite Mr O’Neil’s assertions to the contrary. He writes:
An internal federal memo recommended last year that the Harper government lobby the B.C. government to lift its 2008 moratorium on new fish farms off the north coast. The document was prepared in May 2013 by top departmental officials advising Keith Ashfield, then the federal fisheries minister. It was titled the “post-Cohen aquaculture business resumption plan” — a plan to encourage the expansion of B.C.’s fish farming industry after the $26-million (~€17.85 million) Cohen Commission report on missing wild salmon. However, both the B.C. and federal governments said Thursday that no high-level discussions have taken place on the matter.
The memo suggested that the federal government “initiate … engagement with the province of B.C. to explore potential expansion of salmon aquaculture in the North Coast, including removal of the current moratorium on salmon farms” along B.C.’s north coast. It also proposed that Ottawa allow multi-year rather than single-year licences to improve long-term business certainty for industry. And it called for “robust” consultation about the expected province-wide industry expansion with the public, industry officials, environmental groups and First Nations. “This approach will help mitigate potential legal risk (for example, First Nations litigation), as well as help address potential concerns related to environmental and disease impacts which may be heightened by a transition to multi-year licences and/or expansion of marine finfish aquaculture in the North Coast.”
The report also elaborated on the government’s commitment to expand research into the effect of fish farms on the health of wild salmon. That pledge was made after Justice Bruce Cohen’s 2012 Fraser River sockeye report, which didn’t blame fish farming for the wild fishery’s problems but expressed concern about the potential for harm from the spread of disease and sea lice.
Among his recommendations was a continued freeze on expansion of the industry in the fish farm-heavy Broughton Archipelago. He also called on the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to stop promoting the fish farm sector since it potentially conflicted with the department’s obligation to protect wild fisheries. While the government didn’t end the department’s role as an industry advocate, it did launch a plan to produce a peer-reviewed scientific report assessing the potential transfer of disease from farmed to wild fish.
The results of the study, which is underway, could “if required” result in changes to the federal aquaculture management regime on the West Coast, particularly relating to the Discover Islands area and the Fraser River sockeye fishery, according to the briefing note.
