Province in denial about lice epidemics on salmon farms

December 11, 2002 - VANCOUVER - Comments from a senior provincial bureaucrat that there is no scientific evidence linking epidemics of sea lice to salmon farms are not only disturbing, they are wrong given a recent federal report and evidence from an independent biologist, says the David Suzuki Foundation.

Earlier this year, an unprecedented collapse of pink salmon stocks off the northeast coast of Vancouver Island occurred because of a dramatic impact on the near-shore marine environment and not because of chance or an act of God, federal scientists confirmed.

The report by the Pacific Fisheries Resource Conservation Council stated “there is extremely suggestive circumstantial evidence that sea lice are associated with salmon farms,” and the council said it believed that sea lice were associated with this year’s decline in the Broughton Archipelago run of pink salmon. John Fraser, a former federal fisheries minister, heads the council.

“But the provincial government, which has decided to allow unfettered expansion of salmon feedlots on the BC coast, now weighs in and says senior scientists are wrong and that farms should take the lowest-risk option for industry but not for the environment,” said Lynn Hunter, the Foundation salmon farming specialist.

Bud Graham, spokesman for the BC Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, told the news service Intrafish that the province does not agree with the conclusions drawn by the Conservation Council, and that the province will hold workshops to determine an action plan.

The scientists who wrote the council report say all farms in the Broughton area should be fallowed or emptied of fish by mid-January until April when the pinks next go to sea. Instead, the province wants minimum or no fallowing and the use of chemical lice treatments.

“So their answer to wild salmon collapse is to apply more chemicals and to hold workshops when better options are available. Ultimate responsibility for protecting wild salmon lies with the federal government so the Department of Fisheries and Oceans needs to show leadership and urge the province to follow the advise of the Conservation Council,” said Ms. Hunter.


For more information, please contact Lynn Hunter at 250-479-0937
or Jean Kavanagh at 604-732-4228.