BCSFA: Week in Review: Aquaculture at the Cohen Commission - Aug. 22-26
BCSFA, August 29, 2011
After months of hearings at the Cohen Commission of Inquiry into the decline of Fraser River Sockeye Salmon covering a range of topics from ocean temperatures to fishing, this week, we saw some focus turn to BC salmon farming industry. While the first part of the week focused on disease in wild fish, which raised some discussion about our business, on Thursday aquaculture was on the docket.
Disease
The week started with a four person panel that included Dr. Stewart Johnson (Head, Aquatic Animal Health, DFO), Dr. Michael Kent (Professor, Microbiology & Biomedical Sciences, Oregon State University, Dr. Christine MacWilliams (Fish Health Veterinarian - Salmonid Enhancement Program, DFO) and Dr. Craig Stephen (Director, Centre for Coastal Health & Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Calgary). It was an interesting panel that talked about reports focused on disease in wild fish. Significantly Dr. Kent said there was no cause that he could determine that would have a significant effect at a population level for the Fraser River Sockeye.
There was some discussion here about the management of disease in hatcheries - and the different kinds of hatcheries out there. Also interesting was information about DFO's handling of disease in hatcheries, where it was discussed that diseased fish are released to the ocean, but that samples are taken in advance.
Dr. McWilliams stated that because of the high susceptibility of Atlantic salmon to ISA-V, that if it were to be in BC, we would see it in salmon farms first. This is important, considering the high rates of success we continue to use on our farms. The extensive process required for any egg imports was also outlined - with Dr. Kent saying the early implementation of these regulations has kept foreign pathogens out of BC.
The next panel featured Dr. Kristi Miller and Dr. Kyle Garver. There was a lot of public and media attention around Dr. Miller's testimony. She explained that she had isolated a genomic signature which could be caused by a virus, and then, that she has isolated a novel virus and work is underway to determine its connection to the genomic signature. There was a lot of discussions about what this virus could mean, and what kind of virus it is - and it was challenging for all to not speculate when those questions were posed. Key in their comments was that the genomic signature is most prevalent in the freshwater environment - and is found in runs of Sockeye that do not pass salmon farms. It was also clarified that salmon farmers have agreed to have their salmon tested for the signature.
Thursday afternoon and Friday saw the beginning of the aquaculture hearings proper. The first few days featured Dr. Brendan Connors (School of Resource and Environmental Management, Simon Fraser University), Dr. Larry Dill (Department of Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University), Dr. Josh Korman (Ecometric Research Inc.) and Dr. Don Noakes (Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Thompson Rivers University).
Some key comments made right away included that the fish health database operated by the salmon farmers is a good one, and has collected a good amount of comprehensive information. They agree there is no connection between health on farms and the success of the Fraser River Sockeye run. Concerns were raised about potential impacts and there was significant debate between the panelists about the processes each underwent to come up with their results. This panel continues next week.
Some interesting documents were also released: key for the BC Salmon Farmers Association are the fish health database documents (posted here on the BCSFA website).
Check back next week for more updates.
