Please find enclosed a press update including:
"ISA virus confirmed in AquaBounty’s genetically-engineered salmon: Evidence unveiled at federal Cohen Inquiry into Fraser River sockeye salmon" (Living Oceans Society, 16th December):
http://www.livingoceans.org/media/releases/salmon-farming/isa-virus-confirmed-aquabounty%E2%80%99s-genetically-engin "Kristi Miller Steals Show Again as Salmon Inquiry Rocked by New Virus Bombshells" (The Common Sense Canadian, 16th December):
http://thecanadian.org/k2/item/1222-kristi-miller-cohen-commission-salmon-virus "The Greatest Gift" (Salmon Are Sacred, 16th December):
http://www.salmonaresacred.org/blog/greatest-gift "Canada Holds Hearings on Suspected Virus in Salmon" (The New York Times, 16th December):
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/16/science/canada-begins-hearings-on-infectious-salmon-anemia-virus.html "DFO covers up disease in wild salmon - day one of explosive testimony at the Cohen Inquiry into ISA virus" (Alexandra Morton, 16th December):
http://alexandramorton.typepad.com/alexandra_morton/2011/12/dfo-covers-up-disease-in-wild-salmon-day-one-of-explosive-testimony-at-the-cohen-inquiry-into-isa-vi.html "Salmon 'smoking gun' debated" (The Times Colonist, 16th December):
http://www.timescolonist.com/technology/Salmon+smoking+debated/5870552/story.html "ISA making salmon disappear" (The French Tribune, 16th December):
http://www.frenchtribune.com/teneur/118575-isa-making-salmon-disappear "B.C. salmon tested positive for potentially deadly virus, inquiry told" (The Vancouver Sun, 16th December):
http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/salmon+tested+positive+potentially+deadly+virus+inquiry+told/5870695/story.html "BC salmon may have exhibited virus for decades" (FIS, 16th December):
http://www.fis.com/fis/worldnews/worldnews.asp?monthyear=&day=16&id=48555&l=e&special=&ndb=1%20target= "Salmon disease blocked by rules" (The Times Colonist, 16th December):
http://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/Salmon+disease+blocked+rules/5870590/story.html "Salmon Inquiry: Alexandra Morton" (CBC News, 15th December):
http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?v=10150518988071253 "Cohen Aquaculture Daily" (Watershed Watch, 15th December):
http://www.watershed-watch.org/2011/12/cohen-aquaculture-daily-december-15-2011/ "Protesters rally to protect wild salmon" (Chilliwack Progress, 15th December):
http://www.theprogress.com/news/135702028.html "Wild salmon march on Chilliwack MP's office" (Chilliwack Times, 15th December):
http://www.chilliwacktimes.com/news/Wild+salmon+march+Chilliwack+office/5868194/story.html "Statement regarding availability of samples from BC salmon farms" (BCSFA, 15th December):
http://www.salmonfarmers.org/media-releases "Our finest hour" (Salmon Warriors, 15th December):
http://salmonwarriors.blogspot.com/2011/12/our-finest-hour.html "Salmon Are Sacred" (You Tube, 15th December):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KAwop6PUXc&feature=youtu.be "Cohen Commission hears of virus in B.C. sockeye salmon" (The Vancouver Sun, 15th December):
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Cohen+Commission+hears+virus+sockeye+salmon/5868107/story.html "Virus present in B.C. salmon for decades, inquiry told" (The Globe & Mail, 15th December):
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/virus-present-in-bc-salmon-for-decades-inquiry-told/article2272915/ "B.C. salmon had virus as far back as 1985: report" (CTV, 15th December):
http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/SciTech/20111215/salmon-virus-report-111215/ "New version of salmon virus may have started in B.C., expert says" (The Vancouver Observer, 15th December):
http://www.vancouverobserver.com/politics/2011/12/15/new-version-salmon-virus-may-have-started-bc-expert-says "B.C. salmon had virus as far back as 1985, but it may not be as deadly" (The Canadian Press/News 1130, 15th December):
http://www.news1130.com/news/national/article/310702--b-c-salmon-had-virus-as-far-back-as-1985-but-it-may-not-be-as-deadly "Salmon Virus Fears: Scientist claims early evidence of salmon virus, feared lab would be closed" (NPR, 15th December):
http://kplu.org/post/scientist-claims-evidence-salmon-virus-early-1986-feared-lab-would-be-closed "Congress must investigate GE salmon's human health impacts" (Indy Bay Media, 15th December):
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/12/15/18702807.php "Well farmed salmon is key to sustainability: Farmed salmon is a Christmas food favourite but at what cost?" (The Daily Telegraph, 15th December):
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/8958364/Well-farmed-salmon-is-key-to-sustainability.html "First salmon farm earns BAP certification" (World Fishing & Aquaculture, 15th December):
http://www.worldfishing.net/news101/first-salmon-farm-earns-bap-certification "Sound science shows no virus" (The Westerly News, 15th December):
http://www.canada.com/Sound+science+shows+virus/5863853/story.html "Mainstream upgrades to improve water quality" (The Westerly News, 15th December):
http://www.canada.com/Sound+science+shows+virus/5863853/story.html Including from Damien Gillis reporting in today's Common Sense Canadian:
"Among the bombshell revelations that emerged from the first of three extra days for the Commission – added recently to address the discovery of ISA virus in wild BC salmon – were the confirmation that ISA virus (or something very similar) is undoubtedly here in BC, and has likely been for at least 25 years; and Miller’s own detection of a new deadly virus in both farmed and wild salmon..... Back to Clayoquot Sound and this new virus Miller discovered there. When she was invited to test Creative Salmon’s famred Chinook salmon, Miller came up with two shocking findings: 1. A full 25% of these fish tested positive for ISAv (so there you have it – farmed fish in BC with ISAv, contrary to the claims of the Province’s fish health audit office and industry that after thousands of test over the years, they’re just sure it isn’t in their fish!); 2. A second virus known as piscine rheovirus – the cause of a deadly disease called HSMI (Heart and Skeletal Muscle Inflammation)."
From Alexandra Morton writing in her blog today:
"Testing farm salmon in Clayoquot Sound for a jaundice yellow condition killing the farm fish for the past 7 years revealed both ISA virus and a new Norwegian virus that causes Heart and Skeletal Muscle Inflammation (HSMI) in salmon. Dr. Miller also reported higher levels of both ISA virus and HSMI in Fraser sockeye smolts in 2007, than 2008. The 2007, sockeye smolts were the ones that never came home in 2009. This raises the question how much these diseases contributed to the sockeye crash."
And from today's New York Times:
"The most combative exchanges occurred during testimony by Kristina Miller, the head of molecular genetics for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans laboratory at Nanaimo, on Vancouver Island. While previous reports of the virus had surfaced from sources outside the Canadian government, only to have Canadian officials question them, Dr. Miller testified that she also had received positive results when she tested for the virus, known as I.S.A. She said that when she reported her work to a superior last month, she was asked why she had conducted it at all. “Nobody in the department talked to me about disease or I.S.A. after that,” Dr. Miller testified. At one point, she said she was frustrated at what she called “flippant dismissal of pathogens” that could be harmful."
Note that on 16th and 19th December there will be an ISA hearing at the Cohen Commission - details of witnesses online here
Follow the Cohen Commission on Facebook via:
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=812895354&ref=tn_tnmn#!/events/263406340380314/ Read the leaked Canadian Government report detailing over 100 positive tests for ISA in farmed Atlantic and wild Pacific salmon – online via 'Fishyleaks'
For background on the global spread of ISA read "ISA: Diary of Disease Disaster" and "Fish Farmageddon: The Infectious Salmon Aquacalypse" – online via:
http://www.wildsalmonfirst.org/fish-farmageddon-infectious-salmon-aquacalypse Read the official reports from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency on the second case of ISA in coho salmon in the Fraser River - online here
Read the report from the OIE Reference Laboratory on the positive samples in Fraser River chinook and chum – online here
Read the first official report of the European strain of ISA in sockeye salmon in Rivers Inlet on the Central Coast - online here
Read the Norwegian laboratory report on the 6th and 7th positive tests for ISA in Fraser River coho and sockeye – online here
More details via "Chronology of a Cover-Up in Canada: ISA in British Columbia"
Best fishes,
Don