Claims about fish-farming effects are bogus
Straight.com By Carlito Pablo, September 2, 2010
...Marine Harvest Canada, a Norwegian subsidiary, is the biggest salmon-farming company in the province. According to spokesperson Ian Roberts, the Vancouver Island firm operates 35 farms and accounts for half of the total production of mesh-net-grown salmon.
In a phone interview from Campbell River, Roberts pointed out that it isn’t just sockeye that are making a strong return. He said that chinook, coho, and pink salmon have also done very well this year.
“We disagreed back then that we were to blame for any low numbers of wild salmon, but we were very polite about it,” Roberts told the Straight. “We took the criticism. It was upsetting to be accused of something that you knew you weren’t responsible for. But we took it on the chin, knowing that salmon are cyclical and the salmon will return. And they have.”
Carl Walters, a professor at the UBC Fisheries Centre, describes himself as a fish-population expert who has studied sockeye and pink salmon for 40 years.
“My personal opinion is that the claims about fish-farming effects on either of those species are bogus,” Walters told the Straight by phone. “It is certainly not a matter of fact that fish farming has affected those populations. It is quite unlikely that fish farming has anything to do with the changes in sockeye-salmon numbers that we’ve seen, the downs or ups...
