Letter writer used old and disproved information about Salmon Farming Courier-Islander November 26, 2010
Reading Mary Russell's letter it appears that Mary is being spoon fed some of the oldest and most disproved propaganda Alexandra Morton has come out with in the past 20 years. Salmon farming has not been proven to be a threat to wild stocks in Canada.
It is widely known that millions of Atlantics were deliberately set free on the West coast of BC and Washington state years ago with the intent of enhancing sports fisheries. The result was that they all died. End of story. None ever bred, produced off-spring or crossbred with wild Pacific salmon. Sorry Mary but that is a scientific proven fact. There is no danger of Atlantics cross breeding with Pacific stocks. Do wild Pacific stocks cross breed with each other ? NO. Escapees are not being found as you proclaim and I'd be interested to know what scientific body you got that information from as it reeks of Morton and her usual falsehoods.
Since there is no disease as claimed by you albeit no doubt as a direct belief of everything Morton claims there is no disease spreading to our rivers from farmed salmon escapes. Show the proof of your claim and please other than something of Morton's which would no doubt be engineered to show proof.
What part of 'the industry doesn't import eggs from Norway' don't you get Mary? It hasn't been done for years. The big players have hatcheries with their own bloodstock. Marine Harvest for example has several hatcheries including one at Ocean Falls. Your claim that DFO scientists are gravely concerned about a new disease in Norway being imported here with eggs is propaganda. Since again no eggs are being imported from Norway and most of our runs are not dwindling as you claim. Bear in mind bad logging practice, manufacturing, chemical spills etc. have wiped out some runs and the information regarding such is available online. If you think mining gravel on the banks of the Fraser doesn't have an impact on the river think again.
Perhaps before you jump on the Alaska salmon "ranching" bandwagon you might want to do some research on the Alaska State fisheries own website. There you will find information regarding the Alaska state fishery personnel disposing of whole hatchery productions some years due to disease in the hatchery produced fish. One has to wonder how many may have been released before they realized they were diseased. Yes that's real healthy info Mary. Alaska has over enhanced it's fishery to the point that it has to have an impact on salmon fisheries south of the A-B line. All those billions of hatchery fish are eating food that would have been eaten by real wild fish namely ours and those of Washington state south to California. And by the way Mary those hatchery fish are contained in net pens for several months before they are released into the ocean and guess what ? They are fed the same diet as fish farm fish while they're in the same net pens as farm fish. And don't forget hatchery fish can be vaccinated and fed drugs etc. in the feed too. If you think Alaska isn't doing that you are wrong. The fact that they have had to dispose of whole hatcheries of fish would indicate disease can be a problem and they no doubt have to safeguard against that happening too often as the loss cost would be phenomenal.
Sea lice explosions? Mary do some reading other than Ms Morton. There are many scientists who regularly publish works refuting Morton's sea lice claims. There is no explosion of sea lice. Further to that she continually refers to Norway as an example but fails to add that the lice in the Atlantic are not even the same species. The recent claim by the Wilderness group that sea lice are now jumping from pink salmon to coho is utterly ridiculous. As a retired commercial fisherman I'm well aware that every species of salmon I ever handled in my 14 years on the boat had sea lice on it as does every fish species in the ocean. Naturally occurring parasites is all sea lice are and they too have their part to play in the ecosystem .
As for surplus feed into the environment perhaps Mary should visit a salmon farm before she gets too carried away with her claims and see in person how the fish are fed. Feeding is tightly controlled and waste is a no no both as far as environmental issues and simply the cost of the feed.
Mary gives kudos to Morton yet refutes the DFO control of aquaculture. Excuse me but wasn't it Morton herself that took the federal and provincial governments to court to force the DFO to do just that? And ever since she has done so she has called down the DFO and it's decades of scientific research. Not an alleged 20 years of research but decades by many scientists amongst them the highly respected and honored Richard Beamish.
Mary's letter borders on being a copy of McCain's sweet potato commercial on TV with it's overly romantic wording.
I don't know who Mary Russell is but she seems to be completely biased and focusing on long outdated claims made against the aquaculture industry. Most of the things she claims in her letter were thrown out and disproved long ago. She is simply looking at long outdated claims and reviving them to suit her own beliefs.
As for Morton I find it hard to respect her as a scientist when she continually puts out false information with NO proof to back it up. Her 70s hippy style of protest is nothing more than laughable as I don't believe a real scientist would set the stage for such performances as Morton does with great regularity to try and draw attention away from work being done by others that disproves her "work". Perhaps Mary would like to tell us in her next letter what she personally does in the field to protect and enhance wild salmon runs?
Heather Olney
