Eby says social license on factory farms has expired following massive fish kill
December 8, 2023
By: Meghan Rooney
While we wait for the federal government to follow through on the prime minister’s promise to get factory fish farms out of our coastal waters, the damage continues.
In a joint investigation with our allies at Clayoquot Action, we found more than 817,000 wild fish were reported killed in 2022, nearly five times the number reported in 2021 and more than 20 times the number reported in 2020. This is despite a reduction in the total number of salmon farm sites in B.C. over the same period.
Our investigation was spurred by federal documents we obtained from our close colleague Alexandra Morton that included DFO staff talking about the herring kill incidents at the Cermaq fish farm.
Senior scientist Stan Proboszcz
Immediately after we released the information and shocking images, we were swamped with media calls. Here are just a few of the stories:
Concerns over deaths of wild fish near fish farms | Global TV
Huge spike in herring killed in B.C. salmon farm operations: DFO data | CBC News
Deaths of wild fish at B.C. open-net farms surge in 2022: Federal data | The Province
A dead herring with a louse attached to it. Credit: Clayoquot Action
I told the CBC: “This problem is getting significantly worse…. We’re seeing unprecedented levels of wild fish caught and killed by the salmon farming industry, and that’s a great concern.”
Factory fish farms used to use a pesticide known as SLICE to control lice on their farmed Atlantic salmon but the fish have developed resistance to this chemical treatment. Some farms are now using a relatively new technology called hydrolicing. With this method, fish are sucked into a large floating barge and essentially power-washed and returned into the ocean nets.
Wild fish that are trapped within the factory farms, mostly herring that are much smaller than the farmed salmon, are injured and killed.
Our allies at Clayoquot Action witnessed one of these incidents and the images they took are really shocking. The herring have their eyes blown out.
Herring are an incredibly important part of the marine food web. They filter feed on plankton and small crustaceans and are an important food source for larger animals, including many species of fish, Chinook salmon, and even humpback whales.
It’s also important to note there is no commercial fishery for herring on the west coast of Vancouver Island because their numbers are so low, however, the salmon farming industry appears to be allowed to kill herring en masse.
This isn’t the first time the salmon farming industry killed hundreds of thousands of herring. In 2012, two salmon farms were diagnosed with a disease known as Infectious Haematopoietic Necrosis (IHN) and had to cull their farm fish. When they did this, over 400,000 herring were also killed. The kicker was Mainstream, the company responsible, received taxpayer-funded compensation to the tune of more than $4 million.
It’s clear factory fish farms have had years to solve these problems, but they still appear to operate with total disregard for our coastal waters and wild fish. To top it off, they face no penalties.
This continues while the prime minister’s promise to remove open net-pen salmon farms from our coastal waters languishes. The federal government delayed delivery of a transition plan promised last summer, with no future date for its release.
Over 800,00 herring were killed at fish farms in 2022
Our investigation spurred a public outcry and widespread media coverage.
Asked about the alarming numbers, B.C. Premier David Eby said salmon farms’ social licence to operate in B.C. “is expired.”
“In British Columbia, we know that those have to move into closed containment systems; the industry knows they have to move in that direction; the federal government knows they have to move in that direction… we all just need to work together to ensure that that’s delivered,” the premier told reporters.
Dead herring found by Clayoquot Action
Heiltsuk Nation Chief Marilyn Slett, an outspoken advocate for wild salmon who was with Eby when he was asked, said the time to step up and protect the species is now.
“We really don’t have time to not take any action,” she said.
Nathan Cullen, the provincial minister for Water, Land and Resource Stewardship, called on Ottawa to act.
“We’re doing our part. We need our federal partners to step up and do theirs, as well.”
Please write to the prime minister and tell him to keep his promise.
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Eby says social license on factory farms has expired following massive fish kill
December 8, 2023
By: Meghan Rooney
While we wait for the federal government to follow through on the prime minister’s promise to get factory fish farms out of our coastal waters, the damage continues.
In a joint investigation with our allies at Clayoquot Action, we found more than 817,000 wild fish were reported killed in 2022, nearly five times the number reported in 2021 and more than 20 times the number reported in 2020. This is despite a reduction in the total number of salmon farm sites in B.C. over the same period.
Our investigation was spurred by federal documents we obtained from our close colleague Alexandra Morton that included DFO staff talking about the herring kill incidents at the Cermaq fish farm.
Senior scientist Stan Proboszcz
Immediately after we released the information and shocking images, we were swamped with media calls. Here are just a few of the stories:
Concerns over deaths of wild fish near fish farms | Global TV
Huge spike in herring killed in B.C. salmon farm operations: DFO data | CBC News
Deaths of wild fish at B.C. open-net farms surge in 2022: Federal data | The Province
A dead herring with a louse attached to it. Credit: Clayoquot Action
I told the CBC: “This problem is getting significantly worse…. We’re seeing unprecedented levels of wild fish caught and killed by the salmon farming industry, and that’s a great concern.”
Factory fish farms used to use a pesticide known as SLICE to control lice on their farmed Atlantic salmon but the fish have developed resistance to this chemical treatment. Some farms are now using a relatively new technology called hydrolicing. With this method, fish are sucked into a large floating barge and essentially power-washed and returned into the ocean nets.
Wild fish that are trapped within the factory farms, mostly herring that are much smaller than the farmed salmon, are injured and killed.
Our allies at Clayoquot Action witnessed one of these incidents and the images they took are really shocking. The herring have their eyes blown out.
Herring are an incredibly important part of the marine food web. They filter feed on plankton and small crustaceans and are an important food source for larger animals, including many species of fish, Chinook salmon, and even humpback whales.
It’s also important to note there is no commercial fishery for herring on the west coast of Vancouver Island because their numbers are so low, however, the salmon farming industry appears to be allowed to kill herring en masse.
This isn’t the first time the salmon farming industry killed hundreds of thousands of herring. In 2012, two salmon farms were diagnosed with a disease known as Infectious Haematopoietic Necrosis (IHN) and had to cull their farm fish. When they did this, over 400,000 herring were also killed. The kicker was Mainstream, the company responsible, received taxpayer-funded compensation to the tune of more than $4 million.
It’s clear factory fish farms have had years to solve these problems, but they still appear to operate with total disregard for our coastal waters and wild fish. To top it off, they face no penalties.
This continues while the prime minister’s promise to remove open net-pen salmon farms from our coastal waters languishes. The federal government delayed delivery of a transition plan promised last summer, with no future date for its release.
Over 800,00 herring were killed at fish farms in 2022
Our investigation spurred a public outcry and widespread media coverage.
Asked about the alarming numbers, B.C. Premier David Eby said salmon farms’ social licence to operate in B.C. “is expired.”
“In British Columbia, we know that those have to move into closed containment systems; the industry knows they have to move in that direction; the federal government knows they have to move in that direction… we all just need to work together to ensure that that’s delivered,” the premier told reporters.
Dead herring found by Clayoquot Action
Heiltsuk Nation Chief Marilyn Slett, an outspoken advocate for wild salmon who was with Eby when he was asked, said the time to step up and protect the species is now.
“We really don’t have time to not take any action,” she said.
Nathan Cullen, the provincial minister for Water, Land and Resource Stewardship, called on Ottawa to act.
“We’re doing our part. We need our federal partners to step up and do theirs, as well.”
Please write to the prime minister and tell him to keep his promise.
I’m so tired of the damage these fish farms are doing to our wild fish and I’m sick of the promises Trudeau keeps making the people of Canada..FOR GOD SAKES SOMEONE MAKE THESE FISH FARMS GO AWAY !!!
It’s time to shut down this failed industry. It’s only caused harm and I’m afraid of a transition to land based will still be riddled with problems. Where does the waste go? Will they still be washed with antibiotics and chemicals? Would you eat the fish raised in a farm like that? It’s time to invest in making our natural systems seeing again, through respectful use! No one is guaranteed a living when developing businesses. Time to retire those permits!
Dear Prime Minister Trudeau: i would like to express my opinion to you that; the Government of Canada has Failed in it’s promise to keep wild Salmon safe from harm and over fishing by letting the Bureaucrats in DFO get away with allowing Cermac and other companies like them , allow the introduction of a foreign species of fish (Salmo salar) from Norway to be farmed in open net pens whereby the diseases from these said fish were introduce into the environment of Pacific Salmonoids.
Then allowing these open net fish cages to be installed in protected areas and near river and stream mouths where young Salmon smolts would have to pass by what turned out to be, fish farms heavily infected with sea lice which attached themselves to the smolts and killing them by the thousands.
All this you have likely been informed of and because of that have made a promise Sir, to have open cage fish farming eliminated from our Pacific coast waters by 2025. As an 82 year old Canadian Citizen and former member of the Royal Canadian Navy I hold you to your word. The anger I feel at the way the upper bureaucrats of DFO and the Fish Farming Companies have flaunted the law in this country may be insurmountable if this business is allowed to continue. Thank you for your time Mister Prime Minister.
why has BC not taken the management and total control over our fishery like Alberta has done over their natural resources ? must we wait like the East Coast waited for the total destruction of their cod fishery ?
The work to get rid of the destructive open net pen salmon farms has been done. It is stuck now in the Prime Minister’s office. This must end. We call on
prime Minister Trudeau to act on our behalf now. The promise must be kept to have all those factory farms out of BC waters by 2025 or before.
Wild Salmon are a very important part four ecology, they are food for more than 100 other species from whales to forests, bringing free of charge
very valuable nutrients and protein from the open Pacific to us for our use and benefit. Thousands of Canadian jobs are lost because of the loss of
our wild salmon. Coastal communities and First Nations have all suffered as our wild salmon have decreased. Herring also have been very seriously
harmed by the factory fish farms. Our waters have been polluted and infected, and marine mammals have been killed by fish farm operators without
penalty. Why is this.? As Canadian citizens we would be prosecuted and punished for such actions. Get rid of these mostly foreign owned fish farms
and restore our healthy wild habitat, wild salmon and herring for the benefit of Canadians and a healthy environment.
The work to get rid of the destructive open net pen salmon farms has been done. It is stuck now in the Prime Minister’s office. This must end. We call on
prime Minister Trudeau to act on our behalf now. The promise must be kept to have all those factory farms out of BC waters by 2025 or before.
Wild Salmon are a very important part of our ecology, they are food for more than 100 other species from whales to forests, bringing free of charge
very valuable nutrients and protein from the open Pacific to us for our use and benefit. Thousands of Canadian jobs are lost because of the loss of
our wild salmon. Coastal communities and First Nations have all suffered as our wild salmon have decreased. Herring also have been very seriously
harmed by the factory fish farms. Our waters have been polluted and infected, and marine mammals have been killed by fish farm operators without
penalty. Why is this.? As Canadian citizens we would be prosecuted and punished for such actions. Get rid of these mostly foreign owned fish farms
and restore our healthy wild habitat, wild salmon and herring for the benefit of Canadians and a healthy environment.