Salmon Farming

VANCOUVER-- Living Oceans Society is renewing its call to transition from open net cage salmon farms into closed containment after the July 1 escape of up to 30,000 Atlantic salmon from a Marine Harvest Canada fish farm in Frederick Arm on the Mainland coast 50 km north of Campbell River. The near-harvest sized fish escaped when one of the anchors holding the pens in place apparently slipped into deeper water causing the corner of the net cage to sink for an undetermined time.

Sointula, B.C. – Living Oceans Society criticized the provincial government report on salmon farm compliance as missing the point by failing to address the industry’s fundamental problems. Inadequate regulations governing B.C.’s salmon farming industry means that salmon farms’ impact on the environment is not taken into account. 

Vancouver/Sointula, B.C. - Living Oceans Society revealed today that it has uncovered years of unlicensed over-production on Mainstream Canada’s salmon farms in the beleaguered Broughton Archipelago off northern Vancouver Island.

Vancouver, B.C. – The Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform (CAAR) has learned that fish farm companies are seeking approval to roughly double current licensed production on several farms in critical wild salmon migration routes such as the Broughton Archipelago and the northern Georgia Strait. This follows a provincially imposed moratorium on expansion into northern B.C. On a site- by-site basis, some farms could triple, quadruple or increase six-fold their current licensed production levels.

SOINTULA, B.C. ─ The Conservative government is using Canada’s struggling economy as an excuse to put our environment at risk, claims Living Oceans Society, a marine conservation organization based in British Columbia. Regulations that are currently proposed for inclusion in next week’s federal budget will exempt all projects valued at less than 10 million dollars from the Environmental Assessment process.

Vancouver, B.C. – Five open net-cage salmon farms must be permanently removed from a salmon migration route in the northern Georgia Strait in order to protect thousands of juvenile salmon from sea lice and other potentially fatal diseases, the Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform said Tuesday.

“The Wild Salmon Narrows, along the east and north side of Quadra Island, is a significant migration route for juvenile wild salmon from local rivers, the Fraser River, and in all likelihood, Washington and Oregon runs as well,” says Ruby Berry of Georgia Strait Alliance.

Sointula and Campbell River - Preliminary results from the joint Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform (CAAR) and Marine Harvest Canada (MHC) sea lice monitoring program in the Broughton Archipelago indicate that sea lice levels in 2009 on juvenile pink and chum salmon migrating through the region are lower than in recent years.

VANCOUVER, SOINTULA, B.C. - Very quietly, with no announcement and no media release, the Government of British Columbia has just relinquished regulatory control of marine fin-fish aquaculture in B.C., handing over jurisdiction to the federal government. Living Oceans Society regards the Province’s abdication as an opportunity for significant change and progress on sustainable aquaculture. 



SOINTULA, B.C. – Just days after the Norwegian government reported a 380 percent increase in escapes from open net-cage fish farms over this time last year, Marine Harvest Canada has admitted to another mass escape of approximately 40,000 farmed salmon in the beleaguered Broughton Archipelago.

VANCOUVER – The federal government is facing a lawsuit for their failure to assess the environmental impacts of a proposed fish farm expansion that would create one of the biggest salmon farms in British Columbia.