B.C. gives nod to release of salmon farm audits
By Gordon Hoekstra, Vancouver Sun August 30, 2011
B.C. has withdrawn its application at the Cohen Commission to keep its audits of dead fish at salmon farms out of the public eye.
Environmentalists immediately pounced on the release of the data, which they say shows signs of disease that could be linked to a new virus discovered by federal fisheries biologist Kristi Miller.
The BC Salmon Farmers Association urged the public not to draw conclusions from the data without a larger context, saying current evidence shows no link between salmon farms and the demise of the sockeye.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper called the inquiry by B.C. Supreme Court Justice Bruce Cohen after sockeye returns to the Fraser fell to about one million from an anticipated 10 million in 2009.
The environmental groups, including the Pacific Coast Wild Salmon Society and the Raincoast Research Society, had argued the audit information was important to make public because it would give more insight into what types of diseases are occurring at salmon farms.
Symptoms of salmon diseases like marine anemia, sometimes called a leukemia, are described in the audit data, environmentalist and commission participant Alexandra Morton said Tuesday during a break in the inquiry.
As a participant, Morton has already been able to examine the data but had not been able talk about it until it was made public.
Morton said she believes there is a link to the symptoms of marine anemia being described in the audit data and research by Miller, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans head of genetics, who recently testified on the discovery of a previously unknown salmon virus. Miller has said the new virus could be potentially matched to a genetic signature linked to the increased die-off of sockeye returning to the Fraser River.
"Nobody is going the next step [to investigate the link]," said Morton, who wants salmon farms removed from the ocean migratory route of sockeye salmon.
BC Salmon Farmers Association executive director Mary Ellen Walling was critical of Morton's interpretation of the data, saying scientists have found no significant statistical connection to link salmon farms with the changes in the number of sockeye from year to year.
Walling said the salmon farms have no issue with the province releasing its audit data. The salmon farmers association had earlier offered no objection to similar data they had collected being released to the inquiry.
"It's an unprecedented data release. But from our point of view, we feel the public has the right to be informed. We just want to make sure that people have the opportunity to put the information into some kind of context," said Walling in an interview.
That context includes low mortality rates on salmon farms, about two per cent, and awareness that symptoms are not the same as proof of a disease, said Walling.
The province's lawyer, Tara Callan, notified the inquiry of the change in its position on Monday.
The Vancouver Sun reported last Friday the province had argued that revealing the B.C. Ministry of Agriculture and Lands audit data would put a chill on disclosures from farms of all types — including chicken and cattle farms — which provide voluntary information on possible disease outbreaks.
In an email response to The Sun, Minister of Agriculture and Lands Don McRae said the province removed its objection to the audit data being released in the interests of transparency and to expedite the work of the Cohen Commission.
