Fish farms must be moved from prime habitat for wild salmon

November 25, 2002 - VANCOUVER - All salmon farms that are located in prime wild salmon habitat, including their migratory routes from freshwater to the ocean, must be immediately moved given the alarming evidence of an independent report released today, says the David Suzuki Foundation.

The concerns of conservationists and some independent scientists that net-cage salmon farms – floating feedlots – are breeding grounds for sea lice that last year were found in epidemic numbers on juvenile pink salmon in British Columbia’s Broughton Archipelago, were reinforced by the report of the Pacific Fisheries Resource Conservation Council.

The council urges the federal and provincial governments “to undertake urgent actions to maximize the chance of safe passage of fish through the Broughton Archipelago during April 2003,” when the pinks will next go to sea. It based its report written by a scientist from the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO).

“This report vindicates what the David Suzuki Foundation, other conservation groups and independent scientists have been saying about this outbreak of sea lice, and we call for the immediate fallowing of all salmon farms in the Broughton Archipelago,” said Lynn Hunter, the Foundation’s aquaculture specialist

The Broughton Archipelago is located off the northeast coast of Vancouver Island adjacent to Port McNeil, and it is the area with the densest concentration of salmon farms on the BC coast.

“Dire warnings regarding the developing sea-lice catastrophe in the Broughton Archipelago were first voiced two years ago,” says Dr. John Volpe of the University of Alberta. “This report not only validates these warnings but exposes DFO's gross misconduct when in December 2001 senior scientists at the Pacific Biological Station attempted to quash debate on the issue with shoddy science.”

Dr. Volpe wrote the report Super Un-natural: Atlantic salmon in BC waters for the David Suzuki Foundation, which is a member of the Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform (CAAR).

The report by the Pacific Fisheries Resource Conservation Council can be found at www.fish.bc.ca

For more information, please contact Lynn Hunter at 250-479-0937 or Jean Kavanagh at 604-732-4228. Dr. Volpe can be reached at 780-722-1417.