Salmon farming expansion bad news for British Columbia

January 31, 2002 - VANCOUVER – It is clear that business at any cost comes first and the environment is sacrificed given today’s announcement that the province will lift the five-year moratorium on new salmon farms, says the David Suzuki Foundation.

“Premier Campbell made a choice today and it’s not for wild salmon or for the health of BC’s coast,” said Lynn Hunter, the Foundation’s aquaculture specialist.

“With this decision, it is clear that this government is only interested in pleasing a handful of multinational businesses without regard for the interests of all British Columbians and our environment,” she said.

Like with forestry and mining, the government’s move to performance-based regulations that are monitored by industry is very worrisome, said Otto Langer, the Foundation’s director of marine conservation.

“This is a decision that will lead to the decline of the health of marine life on the BC coast,” said Mr. Langer, a registered professional biologist who worked for the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans for over 30 years.

Five years ago, a provincial review gave BC’s salmon farming industry a yellow light for expansion and established 49 recommendations to be met before any expansion should occur. Only half of those recommendations have been implemented yet production levels at the existing farms have more than doubled, Ms. Hunter explained.

“Our oceans belong to all of us, but with this decision a handful of the government’s business friends are given carte blanche to pollute and perhaps forever alter pristine marine environments," she said.

The Suzuki Foundation supports ecologically responsible aquaculture that does not pollute or allow farmed species to escape, damaging habitat for native wild species. Salmon farming in BC uses open net cages that float in the ocean, permitting uneaten food pellets and feces to enter the marine environment. Most of the fish farmed are introduced Atlantic salmon, which are now reproducing in the wild because so many have escaped.

The Foundation's latest study concerning salmon farming has been published in a repected international journal. More


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