Another anti-salmon farming campaign
Canada: Canadian environmentalists trying to influence the outcome of upcoming federal election
Opinion, Odd Grydeland, FishfarmingXpert, April 01, 2011
Last week it was Scottish-born activist Don Staniford that kicked off a “salmon farming kills” campaign, pointing to- among else- the tragic accidental death of a British Columbia First Nation diver on a fish farm in central B.C. This week it is the American-born activist Alexandra Morton who is rattling the sabres in an apparently desperate attempt to influence the result of the May 02 election of a new federal government. And this Norwegian-born self-proclaimed journalist doesn’t buy any of it.
I never proclaimed to be a scientist, but I do know a thing or two about salmon farming, having been inside the business for over 27 years. Ms Morton’s claim to be a “scientist” or “biologist” is apparently based on two titles- a Honourary Doctorate from the B.C.-based Simon Fraser University and a title of “Registered Professional Biologist” (RPBio)- something that at the time required the acceptance by a scientific journal of a couple of papers as well as the recommendation of acceptance by one or two other RPBio’s. I don’t believe that she ever has had to defend any of her writings in a scientific forum such as the Pacific Scientific Advice Review Committee (PSARC). But that may be about to change.
A speculative reason for this latest maneuver by Ms. Morton might be to counteract some of the upcoming results from the Cohen Commission, which was established last year by the Canadian government, following a dismal return of sockeye salmon to the Fraser River in 2009, despite an optimistic forecast. By applying for and receiving standing in this process, Ms. Morton and her environmentalist friends will no doubt be subject to intense cross-examination by lawyers of others with standing status, and this could result in a huge embarrassment for her. The fact that last year saw the biggest run of sockeye salmon to the Fraser in a hundred years doesn’t help her cause.
Alexandra Morton has been “Crying Wolf” so many times now that industry insiders, governments and the professional segments of the scientific community have long ago written her off as insignificant when it comes to providing new or useful information. While she has been on the war path against salmon farming for decades over anything from seal scarers to commonly found parasites of Pacific flatfish , Ms. Morton really came to fame when she was able to show images of a bunch of full-grown sea lice plastered onto weeks-old tiny pink salmon smolts on the 6 o’clock evening news, starting almost ten years ago. The fact that researchers from the federal government failed to find any significant negative effect of sea lice on wild salmon didn’t matter- she had her story and her pictures, and less informed people up and down the coast bought it, and are obviously still buying it.
Whenever research results produced by some of the most credible scientists in Canada are published by government, the environmental movement in B.C. and the rest of the country is quick to point to the virtual destruction of the East Coast cod fishery under the management of the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO). There is only one thing wrong with that assertion- it wasn’t DFO scientists that caused the overfishing of cod, but rather politicians eager to protect votes from within the coastal fishing communities. In the political debate about salmon farming in B.C. we are now seeing politicians standing up for sound science rather than popular hyperbole.
Having been caught grossly overstating the impact of sea lice on wild salmon, Ms. Morton has now shifted her focus to that of fish diseases- particularly “exotic” ones. This is no doubt a result of the devastating impact that the introduction to the Chilean salmon farming industry of the ISA virus has had on that business. She has been quick to quote a paper suggesting that this virus can be transmitted vertically, while it has been demonstrated that this is not the case. Ms. Morton (and others) fail to separate the true definition of vertical transmission from the transmission through improperly disinfected salmon eggs. Some pathogens can be found inside a salmonid egg and therefore disease agents can be transmitted from the parent fish to the off-spring (the causative bacteria for Bacterial Kidney Disease is one of them). This is called vertical transmission. If eggs from a parent fish infected with a virus like ISA are not properly disinfected before being shipped to another jurisdiction, then the disease agent can be transmitted via the ovarian fluid. This is not true vertical transmission but rather transmission via contamination. And many Atlantic salmon can be carriers of a non-virulent strain of the ISA virus that subsequently can mutate to cause disease. Canada has strict regulations in place to avoid both vertical and accidental transmission of fish pathogens.
Ms. Morton plays the scary ISA-virus card freely despite any detection of the virus on the Eastern coast of the Pacific Ocean (California to Alaska). She also conveniently avoids to mention the fact that laboratory exposure of Pacific salmon to high levels of the ISA virus has failed to produce significant mortality. Years ago, some salmon farms suffered losses of Pacific salmon to “Salmon anaemia”- and this endemic disease has apparently caused some losses of Fraser River sockeye salmon. This is now the latest “wolf cry” from Ms. Morton.
Stay tuned- there is no doubt more to come. In the meantime- saner observers should keep in mind that there has never been found any pathogens or parasites on farmed fish in British Columbia that were not well documented before salmon farming started here.
