Court injunction stops dumping of disease-laden fish waste into the Fraser River

February 10, 2002 - VANCOUVER - Waste from 1.5 million diseased farmed Atlantic salmon was prevented from being dumped into the Fraser River because of a court injunction obtained by the David Suzuki Foundation, the Musqueam Indian Band and Sierra Legal Defense Fund.

The Supreme Court of BC injunction was obtained at 10:30 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 8 after the Foundation learned that infectious waste - including water, blood and fish parts – would run from the plant into the Fraser River, the world’s largest salmon producing river. The fish came from a Heritage Aquaculture site off northern Vancouver Island and were to be delivered to the Bella Coola fish plant on the Fraser River.

“We were incredulous when we learned that enormous amounts of fish containing a highly contagious salmon disease, particularly for sockeye, was simply going to be brought, untreated, into the Fraser – the largest sockeye river in the world,” said biologist Otto Langer, the Foundation’s director of marine conservation.

Several DFO officials indicated to Foundation executive director Jim Fulton that they were concerned about this dumping into the Fraser, but the Department did nothing to stop it.

“We were not able to get the Department of Fisheries and Oceans or provincial environment or fisheries officials to halt the boats coming into the Fraser so we went ahead with the Musqueam Band and Sierra Legal Defense to make sure this diseased waste was not dumped into the Fraser,” Mr. Fulton said.

Mr. Langer was one of three people who provided an affidavit to Justice Holmes. In part his affidavit reads: “In my extensive experience as a fisheries biologist, there is a potential that the release of fish, fish parts, or fish blood from the infected fish into the Fraser River could materially increase the risk of infecting wild salmon or other wild fish in the Fraser River with IHN.”

“This is the department that is supposed to be protecting the public interest when it comes to the health of our oceans and prime salmon rivers like the Fraser,” said Mr. Fulton. “And where were DFO officials on Friday when this was happening? Who knows, but it took a Native Band and two non-profit environmental organizations to protect the hugely important Fraser habitat.”

The injunction was applied for in the name of the Musqueam Indian Band because of the threatened interference with their aboriginal rights to fish recognized by the Supreme Court of Canada in the 1990 Sparrow case.

Band lawyer Lewis Harvey told the court: “The Supreme Court (of Canada) found that the Musqueam had proven an aboriginal right to fish, including a right to fish for salmon, for food, social and ceremonial purposes in their traditional fishing grounds at the mouth of the Fraser River.”

He continued: “The Musqueam are very concerned about any risk of harm to the wild salmon species upon which they depend for their traditional and commercial harvesting rights. In particular, the Musqueam are very concerned that the introduction of the virus IHN into the waters of the Fraser River could cause devastating and irreparable harm to salmon stocks and the Musqueam salmon fisheries.”

The Foundation believes that the fish should be unloaded for processing on the ocean or in a salt water inlet so that critical wild salmon in the Fraser will not be exposed to this infectious disease.

“In my opinion, transferring the infected fish to one of these facilities would present a reduced risk of infecting wild salmon stock with IHN, compared to transferring the infected fish to a processing facility on the Fraser River. The Fraser River is a bottleneck for the migration of salmon. Up to a billion fry come down the Fraser River each year. It is the largest salmon producing river in the world,” Mr. Langer said in his court affidavit.

While IHN virus does occur in the wild, the tightly packed conditions on salmon farms provide optimum breeding grounds for disease, especially in introduced Atlantic salmon.

“The province has just lifted the moratorium on new salmon farms and the fisheries and environment ministers tell us that their plans for the industry to regulate itself will be better for the environment. Well here was a company that was prepared to take infected fish into one of our most important rivers and that’s irrational and wrong,” Mr. Fulton added.

The court injunction expires on Wednesday, Feb. 13 at 4 p.m. The Foundation, the Musqueam Band and Sierra Legal will continue work this week to ensure the fish are disposed of in the most environmentally safe way possible, Mr. Fulton said.

“We now expect DFO and the province to do their jobs properly and not blindly promote the salmon farming industry,” he said.


For more information and to arrange interviews, please contact Jean Kavanagh, David Suzuki Foundation, at 604-732-4228 ext. 229.