Media Releases

July 10, 2025 To: Premier David Eby and the Honourable Randene Neill, Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship The coast is our lifeline – it plays an irreplaceable role in ecological function, Indigenous cultural survival, recreation, climate adaptation, and ensuring British Columbia’s economic prosperity. Unfortunately, these ecosystem services are being eroded by habitat degradation, pollution, and the intensifying impacts of climate change.

For immediate release: Across the globe, conservation groups from major salmon farming regions – Norway, Canada, Chile, Scotland, and Australia – have criticized the Aquaculture Stewardship Council’s (ASC) newly released Farm Standard for continuing to endorse irresponsible salmon farming practices that place wild fish and marine ecosystems at risk. The ASC Farm Standard adopts Salmon Standard criteria that are either outdated or have been weakened over the last decade to accommodate industry ‘business as usual’ practices:

VANCOUVER, BC, UNCEDED xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (MUSQUEAM), Sḵwx̱w̱ú7mesh (SQUAMISH), AND səlilwətaɬ (TSLEIL-WAUTUTH) TERRITORIES, March 7, 2025 /CNW/ - Conservation groups are warning that the federal government's decision not to issue an emergency order to protect southern

VANCOUVER/UNCEDED xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (MUSQUEAM), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (SQUAMISH), AND səlilwətaɬ (TSLEIL-WAUTUTH) TERRITORIES – Conservation groups filed a legal challenge over the failure of the federal Ministers of Fisheries and Oceans and Environment and Climate Change to make a timely recommendation to Cabinet for an emergency order — an action they’re legally required to take under the Species at Risk Act (SARA) after determining that Southern Resident killer whales face imminent threats to their survival and recovery.    

VANCOUVER/UNCEDED xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (MUSQUEAM), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (SQVANCOUVER/UNCEDED xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (MUSQUEAM), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (SQUAMISH), AND səlilwətaɬ (TSLEIL-WAUTUTH) TERRITORIES:  Conservation groups are calling on federal ministers to recommend that Cabinet issue an emergency order immediately to protect Southern Resident Killer Whales. According to a November 29 assessment by Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) and Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), these whales face imminent threats to their survival and recovery despite existing protective measures.

VANCOUVER: traditional territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations - In a decision released yesterday, Fisheries Minister Diane Lebouthillier expressed the government’s intention to “ban” the open-net pen salmon farm industry by 2029. Living Oceans is pleased to see the Minister making an appropriately precautionary decision to protect wild salmon, but expresses concern for its implementation.

Vancouver, On the traditional territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) First Nations: Corporate salmon farming giant MOWI is so concerned about the federal government’s decisions “removing 192 million salmon meals from the dining tables of Canadian households” that it has decided to begin exporting its product from eastern Canada to Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, with plans to expand into China.

Tofino BC, 26 April 2023—As fish farms are being closed around British Columbia, Cermaq Canada has requested a fourth permit to expand their operations near Tofino. Cermaq now has only 14 fish farms left in British Columbia—all in the Clayoquot Sound UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. Twenty-two conservation and Indigenous groups have co-signed a letter to Fisheries Minister Joyce Murray, calling on her to stop the expansion of salmon farms near Tofino, and to remove all fish farms from BC waters by 2025.

Vancouver, traditional territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations:  Fisheries Minister Murray announced today that salmon farms in the critical migration routes of Fraser River salmon, through the Discovery Islands (DI) area near Campbell River, will remain free of Atlantic salmon. Living Oceans welcomes the news that Minister Murray has decided to protect wild Pacific salmon from the harmful effects of salmon farms in the Discovery Islands.