Tuesday, March 18, 2003

To the B.C. MLAs:

I have just read the transcript of Honourable Stan Hagen's remarks at the open BC Cabinet Meeting on salmon farming. I believe I am one of the scientists on the "other side," and feel there is additional information MLA's will need to answer the questions of their constituents. Recent media on salmon farming has raised awareness of this issue considerably and therefore if you repeat Hagen's comments that sea lice have always been around, many people will realize the Liberal government is not well-informed.

I have lived in the Broughton Archipelago for 19 years, studying killer whales and dolphins. I have written four books, including one with Random House. I am senior author on five scientific publications in peer-reviewed North American and European journals. I am a B.C. registered biologist, founder and director of Raincoast Research (www.raincoastresearch.org) and mother of two in a remote coastal community. I am the scientist who first reported the sea lice epidemic in the Broughton Archipelago. After years writing over 10,000 pages of letters to all levels of government I decided to step outside my field and do aquaculture impact research myself. As a result I have not only seen all below first hand, but have communicated with the majority of world experts on these various issues.

Sea Lice

Minster Hagen is correct sea lice have likely been around as long as salmon, but the problem is simply that salmon farms have dangerously altered the biology of one species marine louse. In a nutshell, sea lice die when adult salmon carrying them into freshwater during spawning migrations. In spring, therefore, there are no lice in coastal waters to infect the very small juvenile salmon leaving the rivers. Today however,adult wild salmon pass sea lice to salmon farms where sea lice thrive as all parasites do on stationary, high host densities. Even the lights used to promote salmon growth further stimulate lice production. Salmon farms now offer an over-wintering haven lice never had before.

Two of our salmon species, the pink salmon and the chum salmon are unique. What sets them apart is they do not spend a year feeding and growing in the rivers. As a result they go to sea 4-5 times smaller than any other salmon. Unfortunately the smaller a salmon, the fewer lice it can bear. So when our little pinks and chums go by the farms and pick up more than 1-2 lice, they are doomed. I have recorded upto 68 lice per 3.5 cm fish. Much more research is need to pin this down, it might be they can not bear a single louse. Among the 2,000 young salmon I have examined from Vancouver Island to Prince Rupert I found pinks and chums with lice do not grow properly. My research predicted an unbelievable 81% crash of pink stocks in the Broughton Archipelago and in fact 98% failed to return. This decline is greater than any recorded in the history of this coast. The senior DFO scientists who examined all possible causes found only sea lice linked all 8 affected rivers (PFRCC 2002, see http://www.fish.bc.ca/). The extent of this collapse is typical to Europe and eastern Canada, where salmon farms and wild salmon meet in confined waters. I accept sea lice are not the only problem, but when a phenomena such as this jumps around the planet with one common variable. That variable (salmon farms) should raise suspicions. When Hagen counts 40 sea lice scientists he is counting the people who published on salmon collapse due to sea lice in salmon farmed areas such as Norway, Scotland and Ireland. No one is publishing contrary results.

I can tell you, that I have been given a very rough ride for making this discovery here. My two years of work on this has not provided me a salary. I completed it with the help of international experts, because I am deeply concerned. I have produced two papers, at various stages of completion. Presentation of this work has been requested at five major conferences and workshops (unprecedented in my career and indication of the serious nature of this event).

I am alarmed salmon farming companies clearly chose to ignore the very stringent regulations designed in their home countries to prevent exactly the crash we saw here and will likely see again this year. For example, despite being considered the leading cause of the biggest BC wild salmon collapse in history, BC salmon farmers have continued to refuse to reveal crucial data on how many lice they have on their fish. If they were not a source of lice I would think they would make their numbers available and allow me on their farms. In Norway they must report lice numbers on the 15th of every month or face fines in the range of $100,000 daily (depending on how many fish they have) and jail if they fail to comply (Martin Iversen Martin.Iversen@nforsk.no)

Escaped Atlantic Salmon

Minister Hagen is mistaken in drawing the conclusion that escaped Atlantic salmon will not colonize the BC coast, because the experiment failed in the 1940-50's. The conditions between now and then are so different no such comparison is valid. Sixty years ago they released small Atlantic fry into rivers such as the Cowichan that were teeming with salmon. Today there is a stead drip of mature fish, already acclimatized to Pacific waters, entering the marine environment and these fish are finding their way into BC rivers and are spawning. Very important to note is that 68% of freshwater fish declines (and salmon do have a freshwater phase) are due to exotic introductions and 77% of fish declines due to such introductions are attributed to non-native salmon. Science has already made it clear moving salmon outside their native environments comes at great risk.

In 2000, I conducted research on Atlantic salmon caught in Fishery Management Area 12. In 6 weeks I documented 10,826 Atlantic salmon coming aboard commercial salmon boats and examined 775 of these fish. While government proposes these fish are not fit for survival, I found evidence otherwise. In a three week period the number of recently escaped Atlantic salmon with wild food in their stomachs escalated from 0 on day to 24.4% at the end of three weeks. Finding and consuming food is considered the first and greatest hurdle for an animal to survive in the wild. These results were published in Morton and Volpe 2002 Alaska Fisheries Research Bulletin Vol. 9 No. 2 (get PDF). These fish are already colonizing this coast. Atlantics are an aggressive species born out by the fact there is only one salmon in the Atlantic. To allow it access to the orchestrated balance we have between five species is truly to throw a wrench into the works.

"Sockeye Disease" IHN

IHN is an infectious virus of the rabies family. It is found in sockeye, but lies so dormant in the marine phase of this species researchers can not find it. When sockeye spawn, there have been outbreaks in freshwater. If an enhancement hatchery becomes infected with IHN they must kill the fish and dry the facility, to prevent spread of the disease. Salmon farmers report 1/4 of their industry is infected and do not follow this protocol.

A paper sponsored by the BC Salmon Farmers Association used DNA to determine there have only been three transmissions of IHN from wild salmon to farmed. From those three infective events, years of chronic reinfection among the farms have sustained and spread this strain of virus. For example, they theorize 4.5 million Atlantic salmon smolts spread over the Broughton Archipelago and Bella Bella became infected with IHN when the vessel transporting the smolts sucked up the virus via their water circulation as they passed a cluster of infected farms off Kelsey Bay. They found further evidence the seawater outside the Browns Bay farm fish processing plant was similarly contaminated.

This means salmon farmers introduced IHN infected Atlantic smolts to the Broughton and have sustained this virus, not normally found in saltwater, for the past 16 months with no end in sight. While Heritage and Stolt killed 3 million infected smolts in this area alone, when the virus was passed to fish nearer to harvest size Heritage opted to grow them out. They finally finished harvesting these infected fish for human consumption, in November. Two months later IHN flared up in their harvest-size fish at the nearby Sir Edmund Bay site. Now they have restocked the original infected site only a short distance downtide from Sir Edmund Bay. DFO tests show a particle can travel 10km on one Broughton tide and IHN virus can survive in seawater for 42 tides. They will never get rid of IHN with type of management.

However this is not solely a farm salmon threat. DFO reports 25% of herring challenged with the virus IHN died. All the herring that spawn in Kingcome Inlet are currently passing the Heritage infected farm at Sir Edmund. Even though IHN normally occurs in sockeye, remember it is at such low levels in the saltwater that scientists can not even find it in sockeye. As the Minister's entourage on the Broughton tour noted, infected fish offal is leaving the Sir Edmund site and mingling with the wild herring. There can be no such thing as quarantine in net pens.

I have responded to these events by sending samples of infected farm salmon and the adjacent wild herring for IHN DNA sequencing to out of country labs. I regret DFO is not here studying the potential for Heritage's IHN outbreak to kill the wild herring stock of this area. As with the sea lice, I sense I am going to have to initiate this work alone and without dedicated funds, because this concerns me greatly. Herring, like pink salmon are an essential energy resource to this ecosystem.

I cannot escape the impression Heritage is fouling their own waters and cannot possibly be considering a long-term industry here. They are not alone. Omega, and Pacific National Aqua are also heavily infected. I am also wondering where Health Canada is in all this?

Benefits to Coastal Communities

I live in Echo Bay, in the Broughton Archipelago. We are in the heart of the most densely salmon farmed area of this coast. While we bear the potential costs of this industry i.e. loss of a million dollar pink salmon fishery, displacement of killer whales (Morton and Symonds 2000), loss of tourism favoured marine anchorages, toxic algae blooms (heterosigma), gunfire over water to kill seals, Atlantic salmon in our waters etc. our community is dying with no benefit from salmon farming. We are being reduced to one day a week of postal delivery, the salmon farmers are discouraged to fraternize with us, they do not live here, shop here, put their children in our school or in any way benefit this community.

While tensions are very high at times and the local First Nations have repeated zero tolerance of salmon farms I hope you will note there has not been one act of vandalism on the equipment salmon farms leave unmanned throughout this area. I am very proud of my community's level-headed response.

Employment is very low on salmon farms. Indeed, farms call in every hour because there is only one person on some sites. In addition, while the industry has opened fish processing plants, many wild plants had to close due the price collapse caused by farm salmon. Sointula lost it's only two wild fish plants and significant employment, Port Hardy has lost several and none of this is even factored in. Low prices also inhibit skippers from taking as many deckhands per boat and fewer and fewer can afford to maintain their vessels (an industry unto itself in many towns here). I seriously doubt there has been any net gain in employment on the north island due to salmon farms.

As far as the international viability of this industry I would recommend any examine the current crisis within Pan Fish, one of the biggest international forces in salmon farming.

Ecological Footprint

In my estimation Minister Hagen mis-uses the term "footprint," when describing the range of impact of these "farms." It would be naive to think the only space a salmon farm leaves a mark on is the area of the cages. When a fish farmer throws several tonnes of food into the water every day and reports 3 to 1 growth ratio, you can know tonnes of waste are being released from these farms daily. While the ocean has enormous flushing capacity, the Broughton is flashing "overload" warning signals in the blooms of species such Noctiluca, the constant bubbles rising from the seafloor in areas of Sir Edmund Bay, the 81% infection rate of lethal sealice loads on pink salmon (1.6lice/gram host weight) and other factors. If we could see the sea floor, we would see an ebbtide and flood tide trace of waste deposition. We know it can't simply just vanish. "Well-sited" only means deposition happens somewhere distant from the farm. The prawn fishermen of my area are familiar with the farm waste signature, foul smelling mud adhered to traps and no life (due to the rotting process removing all available oxygen).

I cannot imagine these operations would be allowed on land with prodigious waste distribution beyond their leased boundaries. But more than that it is my sense netpens are not working for the salmon farmers despite free waste disposal. The net barrier not only allows pathogens and faecal matter out, is lets a host of salmon pathogens in. Salmon are designed to keep moving and thus leave all their "problems" behind. But when natural pathogens move into a farm, the sick and dying mingle unnaturally with the healthy. This is why a paper in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences dubbed salmon farms "Pathogen culturing facilities" (Bakke and Harris 1998).

Prince Rupert

The Minister might also be incorrect to suggest the Prince Rupert Regional District hired a biologist to do baseline monitoring of the area to be farmed there. I believe it was the David Suzuki Foundation that hired a local biologist to carry out that very important work. The Regional District office does not seem aware of having funded such work.

In Conclusion

I think each of you must be very careful in placing too many eggs in the salmon farming basket. If the industry can co-exist with wild fish so be it. However, I have combed the literature, and corresponded with many looking for one place on earth where salmon farming is co-existing with wild salmon and found there is no model. Further to that I must report that my research has made it clear that salmon farmers discarded many restrictive regulations designed by their home countries to combat wild salmon mortality when they came to BC. So when a community becomes dependant on salmon farms, I can only wonder how long that will last and at what cost. Because here in Echo Bay we welcomed salmon farms, but are dying of it today. Many salmon farmers south of Cape Caution appear in free-fall due to IHN and Kudoa, a parasite they are reluctant to talk about which liquefies their fish days after harvest. This is a familiar pattern with the Sechelt industry collapsing and having to move to the Broughton. Now the Broughton is IHN loaded and they are moving north again. My own experience gives me the impression salmon farms are on a fifteen year cycle. Thus I think it is essential there be wild fish left when this industry moves on or looses its market. The decline in the wild fish required to feed farm salmon alone should be alerting us to the finite nature of salmon farming.

Wild salmon on the other hand have infinite capabilities. Where wild salmon thrive so thrive the forests (the majority of nitrogen in watersheds comes from salmon), human communities, tourism and a myriad of non-salmon fisheries.

I hope this helps in addressing your constituents. Because if they are listening to the radio or reading the newspapers they will know many of Minister Hagen's answers are not accurate.

Respectfully,

Alexandra Morton, R.P.Bio.

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