Anti-salmon farming groups win fight to maintain ban in Discovery Islands

Anti-fish farming groups in Canada have won a legal battle to maintain a ban on salmon farms in the Discovery Islands area of British Columbia.

The ruling by the Federal Court of Appeal upholds a June 2024 Federal Court decision which affirmed the Canadian fisheris minister's ability to  refuse aquaculture licences in the Discovery Islands based on conservation concerns. Salmon farmer Mowi Canada West is understood to have appealed the 2024 decision.

Environmental law charity Ecojustice represented anti-fish farming groups the David Suzuki Foundation, Georgia Strait Alliance, Living Oceans Society, and Watershed Watch Salmon Society, and veteran anti-salmon farming activist Alexandra Morton, in the appeal.

Precautionary approach

“The Federal Court of Appeal noted the dire consequences that declining wild salmon stocks could have for First Nations rights, the economy, and the social fabric of British Columbia, and further confirmed that the Minister has broad discretion to take a precautionary approach when wild salmon face serious threats,” Ecojustice lawyer Imalka Nilmalgoda said in a press release.

The legal fight over farming in the Discovery Islands began in December 2020 when fisheries minister Bernadette Jordan announced a phase-out out of salmon sites on the orders of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Subsequent fisheries ministers refused to reinstate the farm licences, and the federal government has since declared that open net pen salmon farming must cease in BC by the end of June 2029.

“After years of litigation, the courts have been unequivocal that the Minister is entitled to prioritize conservation,” said Stan Proboszcz, senior science and policy analyst for Watershed Watch Salmon Society. “With the federal government committed to banning open-net pen salmon farms in BC, further lawsuits would only waste public time and resources, and the industry should focus on an orderly transition out.”

Ecojustice’s press release repeats claims by activists that after the farms in the Discovery Islands began closing, scientists recorded sharp declines in salmon lice and early signs that salmon populations are recovering. 

Lice numbers haven't fallen

However, that claim was debunked in a paper published in the Journal of Fish Diseases after researchers analysed eight years of sea lice numbers on wild juvenile chum and pink salmon from 2017 to 2024 in the Discovery Islands region.

“Sea lice levels on wild salmon in 2024 were among the highest recorded during the last eight-year period in the Discovery Islands, despite the closure of salmon farms. A similar pattern with a low sea lice infestation in 2023 and higher levels of sea lice infestation in 2024 was also observed in the Broughton Archipelago and other areas with and without salmon farms,” said scientist Lance Stewardson, director of Mainstream Biological Consulting Inc., and one of the paper’s authors.

“These findings demonstrate that the evidence does not support the narrative of no salmon farms means no sea lice.”

Mowi has been contacted for comment on the appeal court ruling.