"This is a pretty simplistic approach and I think it doesn't recognize the great strides salmon farmers have made over the years to really minimize our impact on the marine environment," Mary Ellen Walling, head of the B.C. Salmon Farmers Association, said.
The simple part is how much this spokesperson can flip like a fish on defending the fish farmer! Give me a break Ellen.
Final salmon report spawns controversy
Scott Simpson and Miro Cernetig
Vancouver Sun
Thursday, May 17, 2007
VANCOUVER and VICTORIA - The debate over the future of British Columbia's controversial salmon farming industry boiled over once again Wednesday, with no apparent resolution in sight.
The final report of the Sustainable Aquaculture Committee barely hit the table in the legislature in Victoria before first nations, fish farmers, politicians, and environmentalists voiced their support, or their opposition, to some of its most pertinent recommendations.
The central premise of the report is that British Columbia needs to become the world leader in re-engineering its method of holding fish, converting from sea pens to closed pens with their own water supply, oxygenation and filtration systems.
Fish farmers were alarmed, environmentalists delighted, first nations divided, and Agriculture Minister Pat Bell disappointed.
The Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform said the general public has strong views as well, releasing a poll of 606 B.C. residents suggesting 80.7 per cent support a transition to closed sea pen technology for salmon farms -- the report's linchpin recommendation.
The poll by Strategic Communications Omnibus indicated 73.1 per cent agreed the province should mandate salmon farms switch to closed pens -- quarantining farm fish from migrating wild salmon "even if it results in higher costs."
The survey, conducted March 15 to March 27, is considered accurate within four percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
Simon Fraser University Prof. Rick Routledge, a fish population statistician, said the connection between declining wild salmon populations and unnaturally high concentrations of sea lice in the vicinity of fish farms is well established in the scientific community. He compared the British Columbia government's reluctance to deal with the problem to the denial by the tobacco industry of a direct link between cigarette smoking and lung cancer.
Craig Orr, executive director of Watershed Watch, has organized five international workshops on sea lice and said that, while the industry can reduce the toll the parasites have on migrating wild juvenile salmon populations, it can't eliminate those losses.
"We can never get it to a level where wild fish aren't vulnerable to sea lice from salmon farms. "This points to a need to separate wild fish from farm fish so that you cannot have transfers between those two groups."
Meanwhile, fish farmers insist they've upgraded the environmental practices at their facilities and don't need a radical intervention by government.
"This is a pretty simplistic approach and I think it doesn't recognize the great strides salmon farmers have made over the years to really minimize our impact on the marine environment," Mary Ellen Walling, head of the B.C. Salmon Farmers Association, said.
The industry has already conducted a number of long-term production-scale tests of closed pen technology, and found it expensive to operate. They also found fish in that environment didn't grow as large, and matured earlier.
"I think it's a particularly attractive idea to urban people, people who aren't out in the marine environment, because it seems on the surface like a real quick-fix solution," she said.
Bell said he's still reviewing the report. But signaled it won't likely win support with the Liberal government, saying the NDP-dominated committee's call for an end to open sea pens would wipe out the industry.
"Just knowing that the technology doesn't exist today and it would take time to develop that technology ...my view would be that it would mean the end of the 3,000 people working on the coast [in the fish farm industry]," said Bell.
Robin Austin, NDP MLA for Skeena and the committee's chair, said the report is a path to a bigger and sustainable fish farming industry.
"By moving towards ocean-based closed containment, British Columbia will become a global leader in the development of a more sustainable and marketable eco-friendly product," said Austin.
"This will protect jobs and bring new investment to our coastal communities. Our province has a unique opportunity to lead the world in the future of aquaculture."
Some first nation leaders who count on the current form of fish farming to reduce poverty in their communities joined the aquaculture industry in denouncing the committee's suggestions.
"The NDP are slamming the door in the face of our people," said Chief Clifford White, of the Gitxaala first nation.
"We believe aquaculture creates a sustainable economy that will allow our people to build meaningful jobs and careers in our traditional homes. The report presented today is totally unacceptable."
Other aboriginal groups including the Gitxsan Nation and Allied Tsimshian Tribes called on the government to immediately adopt its recommendations, including a permanent ban on fish farms on the north B.C. coast, saying they want it to be a "fish-farm-free zone" in consideration of potential threats to wild salmon.
© The Vancouver Sun 2007
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