Salmon Farming

VANCOUVER, B.C. – Over 40 organizations from across Canada and the U.S. submitted a joint letter opposing the Canada General Standards Board (CGSB) proposed organic standards that allow antibiotic and chemical treatments of farmed fish. The signatories reflect a broad cross section of the scientific, conservation, consumer, and organic communities, and represent a collective membership of over one million people. The CGSB period for public comment closed yesterday and a revised draft of the standard will soon be released.

OTTAWA - Today in the House of Commons, New Democratic Party Fisheries and Oceans Critic Fin Donnelly tabled a motion asking for transparency and more study before genetically modified (GM) Atlantic salmon are approved for human consumption.

US company AquaBounty has genetically modified a faster growing Atlantic salmon by inserting a growth hormone gene from Chinook salmon and genetic material from ocean pout.

VANCOUVER – Today Living Oceans Society and the Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform (CAAR) released a new report – Better than the Rest? A Resource Guide to Farmed Salmon Certifications. Largely written for retailers, this guide assesses the five eco-certifications on the market, two certifications in draft and the organic labels in use and in development for farmed salmon. Unfortunately all five eco-certifications fail to fully meet the requirements of credible standards.

VANCOUVER ─ A new open net-cage salmon farm proposed by Mainstream Canada near Plover Point in the Clayoquot Sound Biosphere Reserve seeks to more than triple the size of the farm it will replace. The company has been characterizing the farm as a “replacement” site for their Cormorant tenure. But after protracted delays, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) has made existing B.C.

VANCOUVER--Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) has posted the counts of marine mammals shot or drowned at active salmon farms in B.C. during the first quarter (Jan.-Mar.) of 2011. The numbers are shocking.

VANCOUVER, B.C. – A 2009 memo from Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) entered into evidence at Canada’s federal Cohen Inquiry into the collapse of Fraser River sockeye Thursday reveals that salmon at the AquaBounty facility in Price Edward Island have tested positive for the Infectious Salmon Anaemia (ISA) virus.

Tofino, B.C. – Environmental groups have written an angry letter to Premier Christy Clark for allowing the approval of a new salmon farm site in Clayoquot Sound on the West Coast of Vancouver Island while never addressing serious concerns about diseases from farms impacting wild salmon.

On October 3rd the Province offered Mainstream Canada a 55-hectare salmon farm tenure on the shores of Meares Island, near Plover Point, in the Clayoquot Sound UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.

Vancouver, B.C.— The Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform (CAAR) is appalled to learn that on October 10, DFO quietly issued a new aquaculture licence to Mainstream Canada for another open net-pen salmon farm in Clayoquot Sound. The new site is located in Fortune Channel near Plover Point on Meares Island.

Vancouver, B.C.— Living Oceans Society is pleased to hear a number of the Conservation Coalition recommendations were adopted by the Cohen Commission, reinforcing the concerns of DFO’s mismanagement and the serious threat of net-pen salmon farms on the British Columbia coast. The Cohen report is further proof that a transition away from an open-net pen salmon farming to closed containment is needed immediately.

OTTAWA -- Wild salmon advocates from Canada’s east and west coasts are in Ottawa today, and welcome the tabling of the long-awaited Fisheries and Oceans Standing Committee Report on Closed Containment technology. The report has the potential to help foster change in Canada’s salmon aquaculture industry and offer much-needed protection for Canada’s wild salmon, coastal fisheries and the communities that depend on healthy oceans.