Salmon Farmers publish ‘real story’ about fish farm health
BIV Business Today, Monday, 29 August 2011
The province’s salmon farmers have released thousands of pages of information about fish health in an effort to clear the industry of any culpability associated with the death of Fraser River salmon stocks.
BC Salmon Farmers Association executive director Mary Ellen Walling said the “robust” data set should help the public understand the “good” management practices at the province’s coastal fish farms.
“There is nothing to connect the health of our farmed fish to the challenges faced by Fraser River sockeye,” said Walling.
The data was handed over to the Cohen Commission of Inquiry last week, which resumed evidentiary hearings earlier this month into the decline of Fraser River sockeye stocks.
Environmental groups and anti-fish-farming activists have long contended that sea lice associated with the farms have negatively affected the health of B.C. salmon.
Although the fish farmers maintain that accusation is untrue, Walling did warn that the release of the information poses some risk for farmers given that campaigners could use it to “undermine” the industry.
The provincial government opposed the release of the data.
“We appreciate the province’s concern – but feel that in the interest of our industry’s goals of transparency, we needed to support this release.”
Last week, a leading Department of Fisheries and Oceans scientist testified that B.C. fish farmers had agreed to have their stocks tested for a mystery virus that could be linked with the decline in salmon stocks. (See “Aquaculture to search for salmon virus” – BIV Business Today, August 26.)
Reference Link:
Aquaculture to search for salmon virus
BIV, Thursday, 25 August 2011
The province’s salmon farmers have agreed to test their fish for viruses, according to a key witness who testified at the Cohen Commission in Vancouver Wednesday.
Kristi Miller, head of molecular genetics at the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), said four main salmon farming companies have agreed to work with her scientists to search for evidence of a virus that could be linked to the decline of Fraser River salmon stocks.
The Cohen Commission was set up to investigative the 2009 collapse of Fraser River sockeye stocks.
Miller became a media sensation earlier this year after she published groundbreaking research in the journal Science, which pointed to a genetic signature that might be associated with salmon mortality rates.
Miller, however, wasn’t able to publicly comment on her research until Wednesday, leading various media outlets to report that the federal government had “muzzled” her.
The courtroom in downtown Vancouver was packed with spectators as Miller told the inquiry that although the federal government had told her not to speak to the public about her research, she had never been barred from publishing her research.
“The integrity of the science is strong,” said Miller. “There’s nobody telling anybody what they can and can’t publish, or what they can and can’t say in a publication.”
Her testimony came just days after the commission resumed evidentiary hearings following a summer break.
The next few weeks feature a number of testimonies focusing on the impacts of disease and aquaculture on salmon stocks.
A number of things are being blamed for the decline in fish populations, including sea lice from salmon farms and mystery illnesses, but scientists have yet to pinpoint the cause.
Miller conceded Wednesday that at the time her paper was published, the thought that a virus was associated with salmon mortality rates was a “hypothesis” and scientists had yet to nail down a “specific virus.”
“In my view, the most important finding … is the fish are already conditionally challenged before they’re entering the river,” she said, adding that, in some years, up to 99% of some stocks have died before they have spawned.
“Really, there’s been very little science around why this occurs.”
