Activist group musn't get any conservation cash, say fish farmers
Canadian PM and fisheries minister urged to block any handouts to 'foreign-funded' Atlantic Salmon Federation
Fish farmers in Atlantic Canada have urged Prime Minister Mark Carney and federal fisheries minister Joanne Thompson to ensure that none of the money earmarked for wild fish conservation goes to the Atlantic Salmon Federation (ASF), which opposes salmon farming.
The federal government has allocated CAD 81.7 million (£44m / US $59m) to wild Atlantic salmon conservation and restoration as part of a CAD 3.8 billion investment in nature conservation.
Tom Taylor, executive director of the Atlantic Canada Fish Farmers Association (ACFFA) has written an open letter to Carney and Thompson, requesting that the ASF shouldn’t benefit from taxpayers’ money.
Active in conservation
“Atlantic Canada’s fish farmers support meaningful, science-based efforts to restore and protect wild Atlantic salmon populations. We share these waters. We are active partners in conservation,” writes Taylor.
“However, as details of this funding are finalised, we are unequivocal: no public funds should be allocated to the Atlantic Salmon Federation (ASF).
It is indefensible to allocate taxpayer dollars to an organisation actively working to dismantle a responsible, highly regulated food production sector
“At a time when Canada must strengthen its food security, economic resilience, and rural communities, it is indefensible to allocate taxpayer dollars to an organisation actively working to dismantle a responsible, highly regulated food production sector.”
Taylor points out that the Atlantic Canada finfish farming sector employs more than 9,400 people, generates CAD 3.2bn in economic output, and supports more than 1,400 local businesses, contributing over CAD 600m in additional economic activity.
Fundy Salmon Recovery
He adds that salmon farmers are also active partners in conservation, and cites the Fundy Salmon Recovery programme as an example. Taylor says the initiative, which involves Fort Folly First Nation, Cooke Aquaculture, the University of New Brunswick, the Province of New Brunswick, Parks Canada, and Fisheries and Oceans Canada, is delivering groundbreaking, measurable results. More than 13,000 mature wild salmon have been successfully returned to inner Bay of Fundy rivers, with over 700 tagged fish returning – the highest returns seen in decades.
“It is a proven, science-driven model that is reversing decline and rebuilding wild populations,” writes Taylor.
“This is what responsible, science-based conservation looks like: collaboration, transparency, and outcomes. It stands in stark contrast to the approach taken by the ASF.
The ASF is a foreign-funded organisation that has repeatedly engaged in campaigns designed to misrepresent, undermine, and ultimately dismantle Atlantic Canada’s salmon farming sector while providing negligible outcomes for conservation
“The ASF is a foreign-funded, activist organisation that has repeatedly engaged in campaigns designed to misrepresent, undermine, and ultimately dismantle Atlantic Canada’s salmon farming sector while providing negligible outcomes for genuine conservation. Their activities are strategic, coordinated efforts to de-market farmed salmon and erode public trust in a vital Canadian food-producing industry.”
No public funding
Taylor accuses the ASF of running campaigns designed to spread misleading and incomplete information about farmed salmon, with the explicit goal of discouraging its consumption and shutting down the sector.
“We believe these campaigns warrant formal investigation as intentionally deceptive marketing practices aimed at damaging a lawful Canadian industry,” he writes. “Organisations that engage in this type of activity should not benefit from charitable status. Nor should they receive public funding.”
ACFFA wants a formal review of the ASF’s charitable designation “based on it acting merely as a conduit for foreign entities and deceptive marketing practices”, and is seeking a clear commitment that no federal funding for salmon conservation be directed to the ASF during this review – or thereafter.
Wants farms phased out
According to information on its website, the ASF has a research department focused on tracking and modelling salmon behaviour and movement, assessing climate damage resilience, and developing a network of sentinel stations to monitor and study the health of rivers and salmon populations.
It also has a headwaters programme that is says is dedicated to removing barriers to fish passage, and a Wild Salmon Watersheds programme to protect rivers where salmon still thrive.
On the issue of salmon farming, it claims the industry is “wracked by disease and parasites which spread to wild fish and the environment”, and that escaped farmed fish interbreed with wild salmon, which it alleges is a contributing factor to population collapse.
In 2023, it launched a letter-writing campaign agains salmon farmer Mowi Canada East’s plans to expand its hatchery in Newfoundland, and in early 2025 launched a camapign for open net pen farms to be phased out in Atlantic Canada, as the federal government is currently doing in British Columbia.
