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[mattcass]

Government-funded group switches sides on risks of fish farms

Pacific Salmon Forum now agrees sea lice are killing salmon
 
Scott Simpson
Vancouver Sun

Saturday, February 09, 2008

In a major blow to British Columbia's salmon farming industry, a government-funded research group says it now accepts a recent scientific study that warns of mass extinctions of wild pink salmon on the central coast due to salmon farming.

In an uncirculated "communique" obtained on Friday by The Vancouver Sun, the Pacific Salmon Forum has acknowledged that sea lice infestations contributed to plummeting pink salmon populations in the Broughton Archipelago from 2001-2005 -- as noted in a recent article in Science, a leading international research journal.

The article by Martin Krkosek, co-researcher Alexandra Morton and others, drew international attention. It warned that wild pink salmon could be extinct within four years on the B.C. central coast due to sea lice infestations arising from salmon farms in that area.

The article was condemned by B.C. salmon farmers who said it was motivated by opposition to the industry rather than pure scientific research.

Initially, the forum also criticized the article -- suggesting it was overstating the gravity of the situation -- and announced in a news release on December 18 that it was inviting the authors for a meeting at forum headquarters in Nanaimo to discuss its findings.

That meeting took place Thursday and has apparently prompted the forum's science advisory committee to soften its stance.

A forum communique dated Feb. 7 and passed along to the Sun on Friday by Watershed Watch Salmon Society expresses "general agreement" that future pink salmon extinctions will depend on "future management regimes."

In other words, Watershed Watch executive director Craig Orr noted in a telephone interview on Friday, it's up to government fisheries managers to decide the extent of the impact on wild salmon.

"That is really crucial for sure. It means, what the hell are we going to do?" Orr said.

Watershed Watch has been recommending the province compel salmon farmers to fallow, or leave vacant, any farm sites that lie along migratory routes for wild juvenile pink salmon emerging into the Broughton from their natal streams in the spring.

Last year, a provincial legislature committee studying fish farming also recommended the industry switch from open-net sea pens to closed-containment pens that would prevent lice infestations at farms from spreading to wild fish migrating in the vicinity.

Both recommendations have been ignored by the province.

"We've been asking for a fallow route. We've been asking for closed-containment [sea pens]. We've been asking for [Broughton salmon farmers] Marine Harvest to reduce their lice loads. Their vets fight us all the time on that," Orr said.

"Does this mean the forum is throwing down the gauntlet to government to come up with an action plan? I don't know."

Morton said Thursday's discussion among the forum's science committee and the article's authors was intense and seemed to reflect a pro-salmon farm bias on the part of the forum's representatives.

"It was supposed to be just a look at the science. They were very reluctant to admit there were no flaws they could find with the paper," Morton said in a telephone interview.

ssimpson@png.canwest.com

[mattcass]

And in related news....

Courier-Islander
New paper stokes sea lice debate
Dan Maclennan
February 06, 2008

http://www.canada.com/vancouverisland/northislander/story.html?id=ff0318df-0ea5-415e-8856-3d727208bd82


A new yet-to-be published scientific paper circulated by the BC Salmon Farmers Association attacks the high-profile scientific paper published in December predicting the extinction of wild pink salmon in the Broughton Archipelago due to fish farm sea lice infestations.

The lead author of the December paper, meanwhile, is returning fire, as the latest chapter of salmon aquaculture's dueling scientists appears to be turning personal.

University of Alberta researcher Martin Krkosek and B.C.'s Alexandra Morton were among the authors of a paper published in the December issue of the prestigious magazine Science. They said that sea lice infestation rates are 70 times higher among juvenile pink salmon from seven rivers in the vicinity of central coast fish farms and that the mortality rate among infected fish is "commonly over 80 per cent." They said sea lice hyper-concentrate around the farms and spread to wild salmon migrating nearby. They predicted pink salmon could be extinct in the Broughton within four generations if the sea-lice infestations continue.

But another paper, from Washington State's Kenneth Brooks and Simon Jones of Fisheries and Oceans, denounces the Krkosek/Morton paper. Brooks and Jones say pink salmon numbers aren't threatened. They say pink salmon mount an effective immune defence to sea lice.

"By selective use of data, questionable analytical procedures and several unsubstantiated assumptions presented as fact, Krkosek et al. predict the extinction of pink salmon stocks in the Broughton Archipelago," Brooks and Jones state. "The authors failed to acknowledge and review the work of numerous scientists from around the world whose results do not necessarily support their conclusions. They have failed to present alternative hypotheses and analytical approaches or to discuss how these might influence their conclusions."

Brooks and Jones also thank 17 scientists for their critical comments and endorsement of their manuscript.

The manuscript has obviously been well received by the BC Salmon Farmers Association, still stinging from the coverage given to the Krkosek/Morton paper. Spokesperson Mary Ellen Walling said Brooks and Jones produced a conclusive review with clear findings.

"It validated what we'd been thinking, and it was signed off by 18 other Phds, very highly regarded scientists, who are leaders in the sea lice research field," she said. "I think the study really speaks for itself. It does support our understanding of the situation, that we're farming in a very responsible way and we're not having an impact on wild salmon."

But Brooks and Jones don't necessarily go that far.

"The purpose of this paper is not to deny that salmon farms may contribute sea lice to the marine environment," they state. "The fact is that at this time research has not determined the relative contribution from wild and farmed sources of lice."

Reached on Friday, Krkosek said the work by Brooks and Jones was inaccurate and misleading.

"I'm sure it's giving the BC Salmon Farmers what they want right now, an attempt to undermine our work," he told the Courier-Islander. "We've been through the critique and it's full of mistakes. It's totally wrong and we have a response that we are drafting. There's misrepresentation of data throughout and analyses that just make no sense biologically. There's no statistical tests of hypotheses. They're treating the variation in the data wrong. It's just totally full of mistakes."

Krkosek wondered how Brooks and Jones got their endorsements "when it's so full of mistakes." He also said the release of paper prior to its publication was misleading.

"When it's presented to the public in the way that it currently is, with all this information coming out before the peer review's over, before the paper's published, it looks like it's a legitimate scientific debate, but in reality these are just strategies by the industry to try to recover some of their damaged public image," he said.

Krkosek said the Brooks and Jones paper will be published, along with his response to the paper, in an upcoming edition of the scientific journal Reviews in Fisheries Science.

© Courier-Islander (Campbell River) 2008

[troutbreath]

Thanks for posting mattcass.

Provincial government would rather charge you more for a conservation stamp than do anything about sea lice from fish farms. Those two from Washington state DFO should clean up their own house before they start on ours. I hate to hear the rosy picture they'd paint about the great fishing down there.

[bentrod]

It's WDFW, not Washington State DFO.  They're also not the ones who are in charge of Marine Species, it's National Marine Fisheries Service.  BTW, they do not paint a rosey picture.  It's all doom and gloom down here.  The Columbia River fishery is in danger of being completely shut down this year.  But, one thing that I do appreciate down here is that no one in their right mind would try to take on the Corps of Engineers and NMFS and USFWS and mine gravel from a stream bearing anadromous fish. 

[troutbreath]

'Simplistic' salmon report slammed by industry
'Pure and utter nonsense,' Wash. aquaculture consultant claims
 
Charles Mandel
Canwest News Service


Wednesday, February 13, 2008


HALIFAX -- The aquaculture industry has dismissed as "simplistic" a new report that blames salmon farms for destroying wild fish stocks.

The paper, in the peer-reviewed journal the Public Library of Science Biology, says sea lice, interbreeding, escaped fish and parasites from farmed salmon are decimating wild salmon.

"In terms of salmon farms being the cause of the reductions in fisheries, that's pure and utter nonsense in my opinion," said Kenneth Brooks, a Washington state aquaculture consultant.

In their report, the late Ransom Myers (a world-renowned fisheries biologist) and Jennifer Ford, of Halifax's Ecology Action Centre, compared the survival of salmon and trout that swam past salmon farms early in their life cycles with those that weren't exposed to aquaculture operations.

They concluded that wild salmon exposed to farming operations experienced a decline of more than 50 per cent. They studied six regions: B.C., Newfoundland, New Brunswick, Ireland, Wales and Scotland.

"I expect the salmon farming industry will [dispute the report] because that's their job, but the evidence is pretty clear now," Ford said.

The Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance called the report "a very narrow perspective on a complex issue."

Ruth Salmon, CAIA's executive director, said many other threats harm wild salmon, including urbanization, forestry, agriculture, mining and climate change. "To bring it down to one issue, such as salmon aquaculture, is far too simplistic."

New Brunswick's Bay of Fundy region -- one of the areas cited in the paper -- saw a sharp decline in wild salmon stocks coinciding with the opening of farming operations in the area in the mid-1980s, according to the Atlantic Salmon Federation.

Spokeswoman Sue Scott said the original wild salmon population totalled about 40,000. Today she estimates just 200 wild salmon are left.

"That's a tremendous drop in populations and it is at the same time the salmon farming industry came on board."

But Brooks believes that fisheries globally, including Atlantic salmon, were in trouble long before salmon farms existed.

Brooks recently co-authored a paper in which he attacks Martin Krkosek, a scientist at the University of Alberta and author of a salmon study, for poor science.

Krkosek, along with Myers, Ford and B.C. biologist Alexandra Morton, released an earlier paper warning sea lice from farms could lead to the extinction of wild stocks in B.C.'s Broughton Archipelago.

© The Vancouver Province 2008

[mattcass]

This is an article about the paper that is the subject of troutbreath's post...

www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080212.BCSALMON12/TPStory/National

The Globe & Mail, 12th February 2008

Salmon farms killing wild stocks: study

Survival rates of wild fish dropping by as much as 50 per cent each
generation, research shows

Mark Hume

VANCOUVER -- Salmon farms are having a negative impact on wild stocks
globally, in many cases causing survival rates to drop by more than 50 per
cent per generation, according to a new study being released today.
The research by Jennifer Ford and the late Ransom Myers, both of Dalhousie
University in Halifax, is the first to examine the impact of salmon farming
on such a wide scale.

It compared the marine survival of wild salmon in areas with salmon farming
to adjacent areas that didn't have farms - and it found wild stocks are
suffering wherever they are in contact with salmon farms.

"We show a reduction in survival or abundance of Atlantic salmon, sea trout
and pink, chum, and coho salmon in association with increased production of
farmed salmon. In many cases, these reductions in survival or abundance are
greater than 50 per cent," the researchers say.


The paper describes the overall impact of salmon farming as "significant and
negative."

In order to determine the collective effects of aquaculture on wild fish,
the researchers studied five species of wild salmon and trout in five
regions of Europe and Canada, including areas in British Columbia, New
Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.

The peer-reviewed paper, published by the Public Library of Science, states
that generally Atlantic salmon populations were depressed more than Pacific
salmon populations, possibly because Atlantics are more susceptible to
genetic effects. "The impact of salmon farming on wild salmon and trout is a
hotly debated issue in all countries where salmon farms and wild salmon
coexist," the researchers say.

"Studies have clearly shown that escaped farm salmon breed with wild
populations to the detriment of the wild stocks, and that diseases and
parasites are passed from farm to wild salmon. An understanding of the
importance of these impacts at the population level, however, has been
lacking.

"In this study, we used existing data on salmon populations to compare
survival of salmon and trout that swim past salmon farms early in their life
cycle with the survival of nearby populations that are not exposed to salmon
farms," the study says.

"Many of the salmon populations we investigated are at dramatically reduced
abundance, and reducing threats to them is necessary for their survival.

Reducing impacts of salmon farming on wild salmon should be a high
priority."

The researchers state that it is "very unlikely" that factors other than
salmon farming could explain the widespread declines.

"It's very significant research. It's basically the first time anybody has
put the global data together," John Reynolds, who holds a chair in salmon
conservation at B.C.'s Simon Fraser University, said yesterday in commenting
on the paper, called "A Global Assessment of Salmon Aquaculture Impacts on
Wild Salmonids."

Prof. Reynolds said the study by Ms. Ford and Dr. Myers (who died last year)
makes it clear that changes need to be made in the way salmon farms operate.

"Frankly, it's surprising to me," Prof. Reynolds said of the study's
conclusions.

"It's a stronger result than I would have anticipated."

Prof. Reynolds, who serves as a scientific adviser to the provincially
funded B.C. Pacific Salmon Forum, which is researching the impact of salmon
farming in the province's Broughton Archipelago, said the study clearly
shows aquaculture is having an impact. "It tells me we really are going to
have to think about the way we are doing salmon farming," he said.

"I don't think we have to give it up. But people will have to make some
choices."

Recent data released by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans show that the
numbers of wild pink salmon in the Broughton Archipelago this year are
similar to last year's.

But Prof. Reynolds said wild salmon populations fluctuate from one year to
the next, and the important thing is the overall trend in areas with farms.

"The strength of this study is that it puts everything together," he said.

[mattcass]

A second article from the Vancouver Sun...

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/features/going_green/story.html?id=1b30ef0f-90b3-41eb-907d-7f83625fe07c&k=68674

New fish farm study cites crash in salmon, trout populations
 
Stephen Hume
Special to the Sun

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

In a development that promises to further rattle the credibility of provincial aquaculture policy, a new study by scientists at Nova Scotia's Dalhousie University reports that fish farms are directly associated with plummeting populations of wild salmon and trout.

On average, the paper says, survival and abundance of wild salmon and trout crashed by 50 per cent or more in areas where fish farms were established.

"Many of the salmon populations we investigated are at dramatically reduced abundance, and reducing threats to them is necessary for their survival. Reducing impacts of salmon farming on wild salmon should be a high priority," the paper says, otherwise survival rates will fall even further as aquaculture increases.

Agriculture and Lands Minister Pat Bell, whose government lifted a moratorium on fish farm expansion and has since overseen rapid growth in the industry, recently said B.C. salmon farmers do a good job in protecting the environment and controlling parasites that prey on immature wild salmon.

The paper, A Global Assessment of Salmon Aquaculture Impacts on Wild Salmonids, written by Jennifer Ford and Ransom Myers, was published today by the Public Library of Science Biology, an international peer-reviewed journal.

The scientists compared the marine survival of wild salmon and trout populations in areas with fish farms with similar populations in adjacent areas without farms. Conditions in Scotland, Ireland, Atlantic Canada and the B.C. coast were examined and compared to determine correlations between wild salmon survival rates and the growth of salmon farming.

In B.C., coho, pink and chum stocks were studied in Johnstone Strait where fish farms are concentrated in narrow inlets and passages, then compared with control populations on the undeveloped central coast.

"We show a reduction in survival or abundance of Atlantic salmon; sea trout; and pink, chum and coho salmon in association with increased production of farmed salmon. In many cases, these reductions in survival or abundance are greater than 50 per cent," the authors conclude.

Along with Martin Krkosek, a University of Alberta scientist, and Alexandra Morton, a biologist from Simoom Sound, Ford and Myers wrote an earlier paper that predicted the extinction of wild salmon runs in B.C.'s Broughton Archipelago in four years if steps were not rapidly taken to control sea lice infestations. Advocates for B.C.'s aquaculture industry have long argued that farming salmon protects wild stocks by reducing commercial fishing pressure, and that sea lice associated with net pen aquaculture are not detrimental to migrating salmon smolts.

The new paper seems certain to trigger a new storm of controversy. It comes just as the salmon forum -- established by Premier Gordon Campbell to oversee research to determine whether fish farms are a threat to wild salmon and steelhead stocks -- releases an interim report that claims: "In the context of the 2007 interim research results it does not appear that the natural stocks of pink salmon in the Broughton would be subjected to mass extinctions within four generations as predicted by the recent study by Martin Krkosek."

Furthermore, a paper soon to be published in Reviews in Fisheries Science by Kenneth Brooks, a scientist who does research for aquaculture clients, challenges Krkosek's methodology and conclusions.

However, a communique released last week by John Fraser, the former speaker of the House of Commons who chairs the salmon forum, appears to suggest that the paper by Krkosek and Morton has scientific merit.

It said that in a recent meeting to discuss their paper: "There was general acknowledgement that . . . sea lice infestations between 2001 and 2005 likely contributed to depressed productivity of pink salmon in the Broughton Archipelago. There was general agreement that the paper's predictions regarding extinction are dependent on future management regimes."

Now, there's an opening for the provincial government. If closed containment isn't yet an economically viable option for fish farms, allowing them to put wild salmon stocks worth more than a billion dollars a year at risk isn't viable, either.

Perhaps prudent "future management" might consider either fallowing all farms on migration routes while immature wild fish are present, or relocating farms away from sensitive estuaries and migration routes.

shume@islandnet.com

[mattcass]

This was published the day after the article in my first post (Government-funded group switches sides on risks of fish farms, Scott Simpson, Vancouver Sun). What the heck is wrong with the PSF?

Feb 10, 2008 17:26 ET

Pacific Salmon Forum Releases 2007 Interim Research Findings - Findings Do Not Support Claim of Wild Salmon Extinction

NANAIMO, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - Feb. 10, 2008) - Key findings of the BC Pacific Salmon Forum's 2007 research program were released today based on preliminary reports of some fifteen research projects involving over 30 scientists and other personnel. This research program is aimed at improving understanding of the Broughton Archipelago's ecosystem with research projects focused on oceanography, potential role of sticklebacks, the natal stream origin of pink and chum salmon, marine monitoring of juvenile pink and chum salmon and sea lice, impacts of lice on salmon, wild fish health and salmon population dynamics.

2007 adult pink salmon returns as a whole in the mainland inlets of the Broughton Archipelago system were described by researchers as similar or slightly improved relative to the brood return of 2005. In context of the 2007 interim research results it does not appear that the natural stocks of pink salmon in the Broughton would be subject to mass extinctions within four generations as predicted by the recent study by Martin Krkosek, et al.

Over twenty key findings have resulted from this work, all of which have been examined and approved by the Forum's Science Advisory Committee based on the interim research findings provided by the individual research teams.

Said John Fraser, Forum Chairman, "It's apparent from our research that the ecosystem within the Broughton Archipelago is very intricate. The interaction between wild salmon, farmed salmon and other species is taking place in a region of a complex mix of currents, winds, and geography." Fraser goes on to say, "Since it is clear we are dealing with dynamic ecosystems that includes many factors not simply sea lice, the Forum will be funding a broad range of researchers to come together to develop an analytical framework that will incorporate all ecosystem factors in order to interpret the data that is emerging from this research program."

Research is continuing in 2008. The Forum is continuing to explore management opportunities that will support healthy wild salmon populations in this area including integrated pest management.

Research summaries were prepared and approved by each of the researchers and no editing of their final summaries has taken place. The full text of the summary of key findings and individual interim research project reports can be found at:

www.pacificsalmonforum.ca/research/index.php.

[troutbreath]

'Friends' of fish farming should drop the cloak of denial
 
Stephen Hume
Vancouver Sun


Monday, February 18, 2008


Twenty-seven years ago, the Banff School of Advanced Management presented each graduate with a tiny gold Tyrannosaurus Rex, top of the Cretaceous food chain.

Wear the pin, we were told, not as a symbol of the power that comes with your exalted corporate status, but to remind you of the school's motto, "adapt or perish."

I thought about that advice last week as I read the latest e-mails in the spin surrounding fish farms, sea lice and whether there's evidence of a threat to wild salmon.

Studies by reputable scientists at reputable universities published in reputable journals say there's evidence of associations between fish farms, propagation of sea lice and declines of wild salmon.

For reporting this, my e-mail has variously characterized me as: An enemy of fish farming; a purveyor of "junk" science; the dupe of a clandestine Alaska campaign to steal market share from B.C. fish farmers; an unethical journalist who's either too biased or too cowardly to delve into a web of unethical connections between scientists whose research raises questions about fish farm practices, the editorial boards of scientific journals that publish their research and funding from rich, powerful environmentalists with an anti-fish farm agenda.

Among those whose connections I'm supposed to investigate:

Alexandra Morton, the biologist from the Broughton Archipelago who first raised concerns about the possibility of a link between sea lice from fish farms, mortalities among migrating smolts and a massive collapse in pink salmon returns in the region.

Morton's mother, Barbara Hubbard, a grandmother in her late 70s who is better known as an author, futurist and New Age thinker.

Martin Krkosek, a scientist from the University of Alberta, who is also doing research into sea lice, fish farms and possible interactions with wild salmon for the provincial government-funded Pacific Salmon Forum.

And, believe it or not, John Fraser, chair of the forum, the former Progressive Conservative fisheries minister, Speaker of the House of Commons, member of the Order of Canada, Order of B.C. and holder of honorary doctorates from Simon Fraser University and the University of B.C., whose mandate from Premier Gordon Campbell is to coordinate a major research project investigating the entire marine-terrestrial ecosystem of the Broughton Archipelago and potential impacts from fish farms.

Theoretically, the conspiracy against the fish farm industry includes powerful enemies who sit on the boards -- and presumably direct the editorial content -- of journals like Science and the Public Library of Science Biology, publishers of the recent papers I cited.

Science is an organ of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, an international non-profit organization founded in 1848 whose name describes its mission and which has 262 affiliated societies and academies. Science is the world's largest peer-reviewed general science journal. Its executive publisher is a former director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health and its executive editor is a former president of Stanford University.

The Public Library of Science lists as its directors distinguished scientists from Harvard, Yale, Princeton, California Institute of Technology, Michigan and Ohio. Alexandra Morton's mother and John Fraser aren't anywhere to be found, so far as I could see.

Which brings me back to that motto, adapt or perish. The salmon farmers' worst enemies sometimes seem to be its most ardent friends.

If, as an industry, it doesn't wish to find itself in the same corner in which the forest industry found itself a decade ago, it needs to put an end to the silly spin and put a cork in this furore questioning the integrity of legitimate scientists and journalists every time some evidence of potential negative effects is presented.

Good science is about testing hypotheses in a civil way.

Now, in a world faced with rapid population growth and looming protein shortages, I believe fish farms are here to stay -- but not necessarily in their present primitive form.

So fish farmers face a choice. Become proactive in finding out if and where their practices really do have an impact on wild salmon and then participate in mitigating those effects. Or wrap themselves in a cloak of denial, deflection and obfuscation and have changes imposed upon them.

Adapt or perish. Help manage the change or the change will manage you.

And you might not like what you get.

shume@islandnet.com

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

[bentrod]

Simplistic or not, I don't really care.  Personally, I feel they are having a negative impact on native salmon populations.  Unless the farmers raise these fish in aquariums completely separate from the natural system, there is no way to prevent disease and parasites from escaping. 

Outside of the negative impacts to the natural system, the fish don't taste the same, they don't look the same (dyed) and word has it, they're not nearly as good for you.  So, I will never eat a farmed fish nor will I let any of my family eat one.  I've seen how the political system works; and in most cases, if I can't buy someone off like a lobyist, I'll never win.  However, if there's no market for them, they usually go away.   

[mattcass]

Unfortunately 95% of the salmon farmed in BC goes south of the border. There will always be a market.

[bentrod]

It must keep going south to California or Mexico.  Fortunately, maybe I'm just not looking closely enough, but I rarely if ever see farmed fish in Washington markets.

[DragonSpeed]

It must keep going south to California or Mexico.  Fortunately, maybe I'm just not looking closely enough, but I rarely if ever see farmed fish in Washington markets.

Have a look in Costco