Suzuki Foundation concerned over handling of diseased farm salmon

February 13, 2002 - VANCOUVER - Assurances given by lawyers for a salmon farming company to BC Supreme Court that every effort would be made to ensure that waste from diseased salmon would not spill into the ocean turned out to be worthless says a Foundation representative who watched the fish being unloaded.

"I am very concerned about how these fish were transferred from the boats to the fish plant," said fisheries and aquaculture specialist Lynn Hunter who watched three seine boat loads - 1.6 million fish - of diseased Atlantic salmon being pumped ashore.

"Liquid spilled into the ocean while the fish were being pumped from the boats and there is slime floating on top of the water under the dock," Ms. Hunter said. "Fish also spilled from the containers when they were being loaded on to trucks and plant staff then sprayed the area with a disinfectant substance."

On February 8, aquaculture company Heritage Salmon Ltd. confirmed that 1.6 million Atlantic salmon smolts from one of their farms, weighing about 250,000 kilograms, had the highly contagious Infectious Hematopoietic Necrosis (IHN) virus.

The fish were brought to a plant on the Fraser River near Vancouver, but the Foundation and the Musqueam Indian Band obtained a court injunction prohibiting the unloading because of concerns the disease would enter the Fraser, the largest salmon-producing river in the world.

The injunction was lifted after the court received assurance the fish would be handled in the safest way possible. The fish were then unloaded at a plant on Vancouver Island. Heritage veterinarian, Dr. Paul Hardy Smith, swore to the court on Feb. 11 that "every effort will be made to avoid any spillage or splashing of water associated with the salmon."

"From what I saw I do not believe that Dr. Hardy-Smith's sworn affidavit to the court was upheld," Ms. Hunter said, adding that a crowd gathered around the fish plant to watch the unloading and that residents of Parksville, on mid Vancouver Island, are very concerned about the disease entering their watershed and local creeks.

"There were assurances that Department of Fisheries and Oceans staff would oversee this operation and once infected material started spilling they should have stopped the operation," she said.

The Foundation will follow up with the federal and provincial ministers of fisheries to demand they ensure this virus does not spread in the water or on land.

On April 30, British Columbia will lift a six-year moratorium on new salmon farms and give farms more self-regulating opportunities.

"Incidents like how this disease was handled show that this industry is unsustainable and the moratorium should not be lifted," Ms. Hunter said.


For more information, please call Jean Kavanagh at 604-732-4228 ext. 229