Media Releases

Halifax and Vancouver:  The Canadian government is receiving 10% royalties from sales of the world’s first genetically modified (GM or genetically engineered) animal, a GM Atlantic salmon.

VANCOUVER:  BC groups hailed the move by Washington State today to phase out salmon farming in State waters at the conclusion of current leases. The Bill, passed by both houses of government, was signed into law by Governor Inslee this morning. “It was a victory for the precautionary principle,” said Stan Proboszcz of Watershed Watch Salmon Society. “There are just too many indicators that wild salmon are exposed to negative impacts from these farms for governments to continue to turn a blind eye.”

Vancouver:  Environmental groups are applauding the B.C. government’s recent decision to conduct a review of fish processing plants, following revealing video of virus-laden bloodwater being discharged into the ocean.  After the video and initial lab results were released publicly, the fish farming industry said that discharge from fish processing plants was disinfected prior to release to the environment.

Vancouver: Reports are surfacing today of an oil spill that apparently occurred early Wednesday morning near Port Mellon in Howe Sound, near the site of the Howe Sound Pulp and Paper Mill when a derelict barge sank. It is presently unclear how much oil was aboard; early estimates place the visible spill at 200 litres.

In a new study published today in the online journal Plos One, Alex Morton and co-authors Drs. Rick Routledge and Molly and Fred Kibenge trace the Norwegian variant of piscine reovirus (PRV) in samples of wild salmon. Sampling from regions where salmon have little chance of passing a salmon farm disclosed very low levels of the pathogen (5%); while Fraser River stocks were as much as 45% infected.  Significantly, the rate of infection was highest in the lower reaches of the Fraser River, as compared with the Upper Fraser where infection rates dropped 50%.

VANCOUVER - A review of the provincial Animal Health Laboratory and its fish health program is long overdue, according to two B.C. conservation organizations.  While critics claim the investigation is unwarranted, Watershed Watch Salmon Society and Living Oceans Society point to a well-documented history of concerns with the lab’s fish health work.

Halifax, Vancouver — A countrywide SeaChoice research project found seafood fraud in Canada is minimal, but on-package seafood labels generally lack critical information that would allow consumers to make informed purchases. In spring 2017, SeaChoice partnered with the University of Guelph Centre for Biodiversity Genomics’ Life Scanner program to engage 300 volunteer “citizen scientists” across Canada. Each was provided with two DNA testing kits to sample seafood in their local grocery stores. The results are now public on the LifeScanner website.

K’JIPUKTUK/HALIFAX  - A retired Environment Canada employee and conservation and environmental law groups are calling for action from the federal government after Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) confirmed certain aquaculture activities result in a disposal at sea, likely violating the federal Disposal at Sea Regulations.  Despite this confirmation the activities appear to be continuing without any enforcement action by ECCC. 

VANCOUVER — U.S.-based Seafood Watch’s ranking of B.C. open-net-pen farmed salmon as a “good alternative” seafood choice is problematic, according to SeaChoice, Canada’s sustainable seafood watchdog. Seafood Watch’s shift in ranking from Red (avoid) to Yellow (good alternative) results from an improved score for the assessment criterion that measures whether disease transmission from farmed salmon to wild fish has population-level impacts on wild salmon.