ATLANTIC SALMON like this one, found in the Tsitika River on wild, warn environmental and other groups now that a fish farm Vancouver Island, are going to become a common feature in the moratorium is about to be lifted. JOHN VOLPE PHOTO. Unwelcome fish feared Brace for Atlantic salmon in the Skeena River if fish farming expands By ANDREW WILLIAMS “Tf fish farms come to the north coast, it’s just a matier of time before you’re catching Adlantic salmon in the Kispiox.” That's a quote from Dr. John Volpe, a fish- eries biologist at the University of Alberta. Volpe should know. He was the first to dis- cover that Atlantic salmon had successfully spawned over several years in the Tsitika River on Vancouver Island. To date, there have been documented sightings of Atlantics in 79 rivers in British Columbia, as far inland as Bonaparte Creek near Cache Creek. With the provincial Liberal decision to lift the four-year moratorium on further fish farms, it is certain that the salmon aquaculture indu- siry will soon expand to the inlets and bays of the north coast. First Nations and other groups are examining this possibility because of the jobs: and benefits it will offer-commuiities huf-" ting from the decline of the. traditional jobs in logging, mining and commercial fishing. That the industry is eager to move north is indicated by the construction of a large private fish hatchery on Wolf Creek near Port Edward. ‘This:facility will produce five million Atlantic salmon :smolis per year — more fish than the Kitirnat hatchery produces — clearly intended for new fish farms around Prince Rupert and area. How many of these fish will escape? ~ While the regular large escapements, num- bering in the hundreds of thousands, of Atlan- ‘tic: salmon are well publicized, Volpe says that less well known is the fact that each year ~the floating sea pens leak four to ten per cent “of the fish .they hold, as a result of tears. This means we can expect anywhere be- - tween 200,000 and 500,000 of the five million ‘Atlantic salmon to escape into our coastal wa- ‘ters and rivers each year, in addition to the large escapements caused by storms and pre- “dator damage, Already, sports fishers and com- mercial fishermen are catching farm fish in the Douglas Channel and the Skeena River which have escaped from sea pens 250 miles away on Vancouver Island, It is inevitable that if there are more farms closer: to us, we Will soon be catching many ~ more of these exotic fish throughout Our rivers. If you are wondering why this is cause for concern, give a thought to what has happened “in Norway, Scotland, Ireland and New Bruns- “wiek. In the 1960s, Norway pioneered the - farming of Atlantic salmon for many of the _ same. reasons which make it attractive to people living in remote coastal villages in ‘B.C, — permanent jobs. The industry quickly expanded to the point _ that the total number of farmed salmon being produced is now 500 times greater than the “wild catch, But this economic bonanza did not “come. without a price - the virtual collapse of _wild stocks of Atlantic salmon and sea trout. In “-many rivers escaped farm fish outnumber wild . fish as much as seven to one. * Infectious salmon anemia (ISA) and furun- _-culosis’have spread to wild populations of sal- mon and trout; and sea lice and the parasite ““Gyrodactylus salaris have decimated many -runs. Norway had to poison off the wild stocks in 35 of the world's best Atlantic salmon rivers in an effort to eradicate this parasite, brought to its waters with imported salmon smolts from Sweden. It has also spent $100 million dollars to slaughter the stock of 20 sea farms in an at- -. tempt to stop an outbreak of furunculosis that was imported with salmon smolts from Scot- land. ' “Another concern is the sewage and waste ~ food from fish farms. In Scotland waste and sewage ‘from fish: farms is estimated to be ‘twice. as large a source of nitrogen and phos- ~ phorous’ ‘pollution as all the human sewage from the entire country. Unknown is the impact of oh. aquatic organisms of the many chemi- cals sed to combat diseases, sea lice, fungus . - and other problems resulting from the unnatur- al. crowding of salmon in the nets. The’ resulting impact’on the marine environ- ment, seabed and marine creatures is devasta- ting. In addition, an estimated 1.6 million sal- mon escape each year from fish farms in Nor- way. These escaped fish now make up more , than half of the commercial catch of “wild” fish in Norway and up to 25 per cent of the catch in Scotland. Where farmed fish breed with wild Atlan- tics, as they are doing in New Brunswick, the concern is that they will dilute the gene pool of the wild fish, to their detriment. When Nor- ~: wegian interests began to take over the B.C, aquaculture industry in the mid-80s, they im- ported the fish they had domesticated in floa- ting sea pens — the Atlantic salmon — and with it, the same problems which had occurred elsewhere. Concerns raised by a growing record of these problems prompted the provincial gov- about the industry's impact and government and industry apologists came to head in Jan- uary of this year when on the same week that © B.C. fisheries minister John van Dongen re- commended an end to the moratorium on ex- pansion of salmon farms, he confirmed that several hundred thousand Atlantic salmon had escaped from farms in Clayquot Sound on west Vancouver Island. Alaska, California and Oregon have all banned sea-based fish farms because of wor- ries about their impact on wild salman stocks, and therefore, Alaskan commercial fishermen are especially upset about the Atlantic salmon they've been catching along their shores which have escaped from sea pens in BC, The industry says fish farms provide signif- icant jobs and income to coastal communities. B.C, is the fourth largest producer of Atlantic ‘ernmérit! ‘tol'place a moratoriuni(dh: expansion! Salmon in the world after Norway, Scotland ~~ éf Atlantic. salmon aquaculture -in 1996. It will be lifted at‘the end of Apfil'by-thé'Liberals. During 1996 and 1997, the B.C. Environ- mental Assessment Office reviewed and iden- tified many of the concerns resulting from the way fish farms are operating. Nonetheless, the report gave a caulious go-ahead to the indu- stry, but this was before the identification of Atlantic salmon breeding in the wild and evi- dence of the transfer of sea lice and diseases. Then, in 1997, the provincial and federal governments paid out $10 million to New Brunswick salmon farmers when they had to kill off stock because it was carrying ISA, which it was feared could spread to wild fish. In B.C., resear- chers have found furunculosis in 4 coho hatcheries located near fish farms, identified several bacterial f infections danger- ous to humans on escaped farm fish and confirmed the link between the proximity of sea A opens to the migra- tion routes of wild salmon and dead- ly infestations of sea lice on wild salmon smolts, The BC Sal- mon Farmers’ Association and DFO dismiss this evidence of problems, as they have done all along. In February 2000, Canada’s Auditor General released a report entitled, “The Effects of Sal- mon Farming in B.C, on the Management of Wild Salmon Stocks.” He concluded the DFO “is not fully meeting its legislative obligations under the Fisheries Act while participating in the regulation of salmon farming in B.C, and “ts doing little to monilor and assess the act- ual and potential effects of salmon farming” on the wild stocks of fish for which DFO is re- sponsible, The federal Auditor General called for a comprehensive environmental assessment of the industry. In June, 2001, the Senate Stand- ing Committee on Fisheries concluded that DFO does not have the scientific information needed to regulate properly the industry. Frustrated with the unwillingness of govern- ment to research the problems and the indu- stry’s rejection of concerns, the David Suzuki Foundation funded several studies of the indu- stry:; Net Loss the Salmon Netcage Industry in Andrew Williams British Columbia was released ‘in October, » - 1996. Dr. John Volpe released his Super un- Natural: Atlantic Salmon in B.C. Waters in October, 2001. An independent public inquiry headed by Stuart Leggatt, a retired B.C. Su- preme Court judge, released its findings and . recommendations In January 2002, entitled, Clear Choices, Clean Waters. The confrontation between those concerned ‘and Chile. At $300. million a-year, farmed fish "he are B.C.’s. largest legal agricultural export. But industry claims that over 3,000 people are employed in salmon farms is disputed. Other reports suggest that the number is closer to 1,000 and that the average wage in 1990 was about $15,000 (Halliday, Sandy, Vance 1990.) Also, the industry is largely Norwegian owned and so much of the profit goes overseas. . In addition, low-priced salmon from Chile and increasing prices for fish food, have many fish farms in B.C. operating in the red. As one researcher said, this is an industry in which the profits are private and the costs are public. Floating sea pens block off anchorages to commercial fishermen and recreational boaters, drive fishing guides and outfitters out of business, lower the price of wild salmon, pollute the waters and create an eyesore. If the fish farmers have to destroy their crop because it is diseased, they are compensated with taxpayers’ money. What other industry do you know which has this cosy arrangement? If the government is going to spend your money in this manner, wouldn’t you like a say in whether farming an exotic species in our wa- ters shouid continue, never mind expand? Fish farming will expand. Odd Grydeland, president of the BC Salmon Farmers’ Associa- lion, expects an increase in licences of [5 to 20 per cent per year. Raising domesticated fish is too big an economic player to be shut down in these hard times. So whal are the alternatives? MW Implement the Leggatt Inquiry recom- mendations; @ Remove all net-cage salmon farms from the marine environment by January 1, 2005; @ Remove the promotion of aquaculture from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and increase monitoring and regulation of sal- mon farming by government regulators; W@ Increase involvement of communities, especially First Nations, in consultation, part- nership, and ownership of farming operations; M@ Maintain the. moratorium on new farm sites with no further expansion at existing sites, complete and update the Salmon Aqua- culture Review; M@ Apply the precautionary principle to re- gulation of the salmon farming industry; and M Require.labelling and identification of farm salmon at the consumer level. If aquaculture is to go ahead, more research needs to be done. Pilot projects are underway to develop closed-containment fish farms to eliminate escapes and filter out wastes. If we continue to use the existing technology, how-— ever, history will repeat itself on the Skeena.-. “Not only will we bé° ‘catching escaped At- lantic salmon in the Kispiox and Bulkley, but also through the spreading of disease, parasites and spawning adults, these may weil be the only fish we are able to catch. Andrew Williams lives:'in Terrace and is the president of the Skeena Fly Fishers, a Sierra Club member, a teacher and a writer. - CORRESPONDENCE FOR THE TERRACE STANDARD The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, March 27, 2002 - A5 ce eo re ere The Mail Bag Treaty vote a cowardly dereliction of leadership Dear Sir: The Campbell government is misguided in its insistence to have a referendum on the treaty process to guide its position. Firstly, guidelines for negotiations have been agreed to by the federal government, the earlier B.C. provincial government and the First Nations. A referendum is a good democratic mechanism for input into public-policy: bul when it comes to treaty talks on the natives’ claims to their lands, it is akin to beating a dead horse hoping that it would neigh one last time and create same more furor about its inevitable last whimper. Secondly, a referendum is not an effective way to inform British Columbians about why we need to settle the land question with the natives. What is needed are educational seminars, courses, informal meetings and discussions to better inform them that these parameters have been drafted . and were actually used in the past eight years or so and are there not only to facilitate native interests but also, perhaps more so, those of other Canadians. They need to be assured that while federal negotiators and the previous B.C, governments - have conceded that indeed there is not only a moral but also a legat basis for the natives’ claims to their land and self-dctermination, they also have put in place reasonable limits to these claims to protect the interest of Canada as a whole. The public does not need a divisive referendum which asks them to sort out for the government its legal obligations. They are not paid to do that. This elected government is presumed to know and facilitate the implementation of these obligations in. respect of the treaty talk guidelines at this point in time especially that there is so much economic uncertainty in B.C. Many investors will not touch B.C. with a ten foot pole if the issue of ownership of certain areas they would like to work on is not at all clear. And a number has done just that reacting to last week's B,C, Court of Appeal ruling that the Haida should be consulted by the government in allowing | developers in Haida land. Thirdly, for the government to ask for more’ guidance from the public via a referendum in this case is clearly reneging onresponsible representative leadership. As a result of this holding tank tactic the Haida and the Tsawassen Natives are withdrawing from the negotiation tables and going back to the courts. This is the more expensive route as the Supreme Court warned inits landmark 1999 Delgamuukw decision. There it said that the aboriginals have a legal right: for protection of an aboriginal title which continues to exist. It urged negotiation. It did not recommend a referendum to thresh out the fact of aboriginal fille. and self-determination. What the Campbell .government .is doing is, goads a public to ill-informed resistance to treaty talks by making the otherwise lawful claims look like they are a public menace. It precariously insists on this delaying’: tactic even though. there is general agreement not only: i in Canada but in other western nations with a native situation that these claims can be reasonably accommodated in a just society. It looks like the Campbell government is asking a legally blind driver to negotiate the crossroads which ~ otherwise have clear directions as to where the neat turn should be while it sits at the back hoping the ° blind will drive toa holding. tank and Postpone the inevitable. \ This is not leadership. It is a cowardly: and - unfortunately a wasteful game of bluff. Lillian C, Garcia Terrace B.C. No honour in referendum Dear Sir: So, the Liberal government is going to go ahead and conduct a referendum asking the following question: “whereas the government ‘of British Columbia is committed to negotiating . workable, affordable treaty settlements that provide certainty, finality and equality, do you agree that. the government should adopt the following principles to guide its participation in treaty negotiations...” Note the crucial parameters for the government: . “workable, affordable” blah, blah, blah. (What about “just” and “equitable”, not to mention “fair” or “legitimate”? Perhaps those words are not only unfashionable in government circles these days, but may no longer even exist in the Liberal lexicon.) The thrust of this government initiative is’ disturbing. It is rooted in the paternalistic policies of a century ago, when assimilation of aboriginal : ‘people’ was espoused as part of Social Darwinism = the implied superiority of assorted colonialists and later a variety of master racists. People contesting that assimilation is not at the : heart of Liberal aboriginal policy have only: to éxplain away the “Honourable” Gordon Campbell’s arrogant words in support of the referendum motion in the legislature: “We want aboriginal young people to have the same hopes and dreams ~ and know they can realize them in British Columbia - as every other young person in this province.” Mr: Campbell has. no. business dictaiitig the hopes = and dreams of First Nations’ peoples; avid’ he has to business implicating the people of B.C. in his discredited and dishonorable policy by foisting this unnecessary referendum upon us. John How Terrace B.C. About the Mail Bag, . othe: Terrace. ‘Standard “4 address’ 163240 Clinton: St, Tense; 8 5R2. You can fax us at 250-638-8432 or e-mail us at standard @kermode.net. No attachments, please. We need your name, address. and phohe number for verification. Our deadline ‘is noon: Friday or hoon Thursday: if. its a long weekend. AE Sra ata ed aE eR re re er alee