© Alexandra Morton.
Salmon Farms
Salmon farms are found on Canada’s Pacific and Atlantic coasts – and in Norway, Scotland, Chile and the USA.
While they can be built safely on land, most salmon farms are large, floating facilities anchored to the sea floor. They raise fish in net pens, releasing all wastes into the ocean.
Salmon farms are frequently located in wild salmon habitat, posing a disease threat to wild populations.
A lethal threat
Salmon farms are lethal to wild salmon because they crowd hundreds of thousands of salmon into a feedlot environment, elevating the level of parasites, viruses and bacteria. Net pens disrupt nature’s ability to control disease and epidemics.
In the wild, predators such as gulls, eagles, seals and whales dispose of diseased fish rapidly. This controls the spread of disease and so epidemics in wild populations are extremely rare.
Salmon farms, on the other hand, do not remove all the fish that are shedding pathogens into the environment. Penned salmon die gradually, releasing a plume of viruses, bacteria and parasites into the water beyond the pens.
- Since farms are located on wild salmon migration routes, wild fish come into direct contact with high levels of disease and parasites.
- A single fish farm can release 65-billion infectious virus particles per hour into surrounding waters, (Dr. Kyle Garver, DFO, Cohen Commission testimony).
- These virus particles travel in ocean currents over 30 kilometres from the farms.
Allowing wild fish to swim through pathogen-loaded waters is like exposing healthy humans to an infectious disease ward. It elevates the risk of becoming sick.
| Wild salmon are a keystone species |
| They feed the forests that make the oxygen we breathe. Sustain more than 100 species. Support coastal economies. Underpin First Nations culture. Provide food security. |
Salmon farming in the Archipelago
The Musgamagw Dzawada’enuxw Nation has said “no” to the salmon farm industry for almost 30 years, yet one third of BC farms are in its territory. The Nation has suffered large losses of wild salmon and herring populations since the onset of salmon farming. Raincoast Research has studied the impact of salmon farms here since the late 1980’s.
When the first industrial salmon farm arrived in the archipelago in 1987, the future looked rosy. Local residents were promised jobs, reduced pressure on wild salmon stocks, and a say in where fish farms could be located.
In a few short years, these hopes were dashed and the community withered as warning signs of ecological collapse began to appear:
- Bacterial disease outbreaks (furunculosis) in wild salmon passing salmon farms.
- Unprecedented algae blooms.
- Sea lice infestations, killing large numbers of young wild salmon swimming to sea.
- Diminishing salmon and herring stocks despite fishery closures.
- Displacement of resident orca.
- Sea floor contamination from farm waste.
- Viruses in wild salmon that are associated with the global salmon farming industry