Government Must Shift from Blaming “The Wild” to Actually Solving Salmon Farming Woes
http://www.asf.ca/gov-t-must-shift-from-blaming-the-wild-.html
"The Atlantic Salmon Federation (ASF) is responding to recent remarks by government and industry in the media, blaming ‘the wild’ for recent outbreaks of Infectious Salmon Anemia (ISA) in the salmon farming industry. Yes, ISA is known to be in the wild, but its presence there was never a problem until net cages crowded with salmon caused epidemics.................
When open net salmon farming operates near wild salmon, these populations decline at a faster rate than do wild salmon populations that are not adjacent to the industry. The Conne River salmon population has declined more than any other monitored river within the province of Newfoundland and Labrador (>70% decline from 1986 to 2011). The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) has assessed the salmon populations of the Conne and Little rivers as threatened. ISA is not a new disease. It has followed the industry wherever it has operated in eastern Canada from New Brunswick, where the first outbreak was detected in 1996, to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. It has caused massive losses for salmon farmers in Norway, Scotland, Chile, and the Faroes............. "
Really af, how about something relevant to this coast; maybe something about the expected high PSM expected on early Fraser River sockeye and chinook due to warmer than average Fraser River water temperatures, and expected low and warm water in spawning tributaries .
Rather than repeat ably telling us of the woes of the East coast, or problems in Norway or Ireland or wherever because of salmon farms, the fact is we live here, and have had salmon farms on our coast for over 30 years with zero documentation of these farms causing reductions of wild Pacific salmon.
We have our own West coast problems, mainly due to climate change, over fishing, and habitat loss. I think it is far more important to suggest to anglers and FN that it would be in their best long term interests to limit their harvest of Fraser River sockeye or chinook this season, because the only way to increase these populations is to have more spawners.