New research has found the highly-contagious piscine reovirus — found in most farmed Atlantic salmon in B.C. — is linked to a disease in wild chinook salmon that ruptures red blood vessels and causes organ failure.

The smoking-gun research, led by Canadian scientists at the Strategic Salmon Health Initiative, established the long-suspected link and found infection from farmed salmon could seriously threaten B.C.’s shrinking wild salmon populations.

“It’s the same strain of virus,” Kristi Miller, a scientist for Fisheries and Oceans Canada and one of the authors of the paper, told The Narwhal.

But while B.C. continues to allow salmon farms to restock with fish that could be infected with piscine reovirus, or PRV, Washington State has prohibited Cooke Aquaculture from transferring 800,000 juvenile Atlantic salmon from a hatchery to ocean net pens because of disease risks.

The Washington fish were found to be carrying an Icelandic strain of the virus and presented an “unacceptable risk of introducing an exotic strain of PRV into Washington marine waters,” said Ken Warheit, a fish health manager with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

“This would represent an unknown and, therefore, unacceptable risk of disease transmission,” he said.

Washington has passed legislation to phase out open net fish farming by 2022 following the escape of about 240,000 Atlantic salmon from collapsed Cooke Aquaculture pens. Escaped fish caught by fishermen in Juan de Fuca Strait tested positive for the virus according to the Wild Fish Conservancy, a science and wild-fish advocacy organization.

Tests have found that the strain of the virus found in B.C. originates in Norway, meaning it is equally as exotic as the strain found in the Washington fish, independent biologist and wild fish advocate Alexandra Morton told The Narwhal. Morton questions how much more scientific evidence is needed before Fisheries and Oceans Canada moves the open net pens out of the ocean.

“Washington State is leading the way again with decisive action against the risk of PRV-infected farm salmon to wild salmon,” Morton said, emphasizing that Fisheries Minister Dominic LeBlanc is ignoring his mandate letter, which says he must use science to preserve wild salmon.

“His blind obedience to the needs of this dying industry has become an international embarrassment to Canadians and one of the biggest threats to wild salmon on this coast,” she said.

Morton won a 2015 lawsuit in Federal Court when Justice Donald Rennie said the minister must obey Fisheries General Regulations and ordered the ministry to begin testing hatchery fish to ensure they were not transferred to ocean pens if they had piscine reovirus.

But Marine Harvest, the largest fish farm operator in B.C, argued testing would severely impact the company. So far, mandatory disease testing has not taken place.

“I took the minister to court and I won and he refuses to acknowledge this decision so I am being forced to go through the process of taking him to court again,” Morton told The Narwhal.

“It’s an outright violation of the law. This is exactly how the North Atlantic cod went down. The government ignored their own scientists,” she said.

Morton’s second lawsuit and a lawsuit filed by the ‘Namgis First Nation, aiming to stop infected farm salmon from entering their territory, will be heard in September.

The fish farming industry in B.C. has recently been under siege, with increasing calls for the farms to be moved into closed-containment pens.

The Pacific Salmon Foundation, a partner in the Strategic Salmon Health Initiative, called for a move to closed containment following publication of the new scientific paper.

“The results of this study are significant because they show — for the first time — strong evidence that the same strain of PRV that causes heart and skeletal muscle inflammation disease in Atlantic salmon is likely to cause disease in at least one species of Pacific salmon,” said Brian Riddell, president of the Pacific Salmon Foundation.

“These findings add to the existing concerns about the potential impacts of open net salmon farming on wild Pacific salmon off the coast of B.C.”

ICYMI: Ancient Glass Sponge Reef Smothered By Salmon Farm Waste in B.C.

B.C. Salmon Farmers Association countered with an attack, calling the foundation’s recommendation to move to closed containment “premature and misguided.”

The research is not yet complete and does not show direct evidence that salmon farms are negatively affecting the health of wild salmon, the association said in a news release.

“Also the [Pacific Salmon Foundation] fails to consider the real-world reality that the technology to move to large-scale closed containment farming is still evolving…so this move would effectively shut our industry down,” said spokesman Shawn Hall.

Adding fuel to the debate, federal Environment Commissioner Julie Gelfand found in a highly critical report that Fisheries and Oceans Canada is not adequately managing risks associated with salmon aquaculture.

The ongoing problem of sea lice, first identified by Morton in 2001, sprang to prominence once again, with a recent epidemic of lice at Cermaq Canada farms in Clayoquot Sound sparking a Fisheries and Oceans Canada investigation.

All eyes are on the provincial government as it considers 22 licences in the Broughton Archipelago that are up for renewal in June.

‘Namgis hereditary chief Ernest Alfred told The Narwhal that the provincial decision will be a test of whether the province genuinely wants better relations with First Nations.

“We have given them little or no choice…But there is a very slim chance that the government might renew those licences and that really scares me,” he said.

On Friday, the B.C. Supreme Court ordered First Nations protesters, including Alfred, to leave the area where they have been occupying Marine Harvest’s docks, pending a June 25 hearing of an application by the company for a broader injunction.

The court has already turned down a request by the company for an injunction that would prevent the public from coming within 20 metres of its open-net pens, saying the order does not limit use of open water outside the company’s farms.

Alfred said the protests will continue from another area.

“They don’t own this land and they don’t own our waterways,” he said.

Marine Harvest spokesman Jeremy Dunn said in a statement that the company wanted the injunction to protect employees.

“Meaningful dialogue with First Nations in the Broughton Archipelago, where we have been operating salmon farms for 30 years, remains a priority for Marine Harvest. Unfortunately, our efforts to date have not been successful, but we remain hopeful,” he said.

Morton is pleased with the attention now being focused on salmon farms, but worries that action on getting fish farms out of the water where young fish migrate will not come soon enough.

“I just hope it’s not too late,” she said.

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.

By Stan Proboszcz. This piece was first published on Policy Options.

Does Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s (DFOs) science advisory process have integrity when tasked with answering questions on salmon farming? If there is any hope of changing the trajectory of many iconic but endangered wild salmon stocks, there must be a resolution to political and industrial interference that continues to influence fisheries science advice at the federal level.

Since 2001, a scientific debate has been active in British Columbia around parasitic salmon lice from open-net salmon farms and their impacts on wild fish. Two “camps” of scientific opinion have been obvious.

On one side, academics and NGO scientists have published articles in peer-reviewed journals detailing the negative effects parasites from salmon farms can have on migrating wild salmon. On the other, government and industry-supported scientists have published papers that cast doubt on these conclusions, thereby fuelling the debate and encouraging the continued operation of salmon farms on wild fish migration routes.

It is well established that manufacturing a scientific debate on the impacts of smoking and climate change benefits tobacco and petroleum companies. Some believe the salmon-farming debate is not very different.

DFO’s mandate to promote salmon farming

The DFO is the regulator of the salmon-farming industry, but it also promotes the industry and their products.

These dual roles were identified by the 2012 federal Cohen Commission on the decline of B.C. salmon stocks as a potential conflict of interest that may impede DFO’s ability to protect wild fish stocks. Justice Cohen recommended that the federal government remove industry promotion from DFO.

An expert panel of the Royal Society of Canada reached a similar conclusion — that DFO’s conservation of biodiversity may be impeded by its relationship with industry.

More recently, DFO scientist Kristi Miller broke ranks and testified to a parliamentary committee, raising concern the agency’s science may be influenced by the industry. Despite this, and a commitment by the prime minister to implement all of Justice Cohen’s recommendations, no known action has been taken to remove the salmon-farming promotional mandate from DFO.

Meanwhile, the salmon-farming debate continues. Evidence uncovered by the Cohen Commission rekindled the feud around the impacts of the industry. The subject this time: viruses.

DFO’s scientific stance seems to diminish the relevance of a particularly worrisome virus — piscine reovirus (known as PRV) — as a risk to wild salmon. As in the salmon lice debate, DFO appears to favour Scientific Certainty Argumentation Methods (SCAMs).

Environmental sociologist William Freudenburg, who coined the term SCAMs and studied their use in the climate change debate, wrote:

“Given that most scientific findings are inherently probabilistic and ambiguous, if agencies can be prevented from imposing any regulations until they are unambiguously ‘justified, most regulations can be defeated or postponed, often for decades, allowing profitable but potentially risky activities to continue unabated.”

Within the context of SCAMs, we can compare three conclusions from DFO’s 2015 Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat report on PRV with more recent published conclusions from academics, NGO scientists and Kristi Miller’s lab.

• 2015 DFO conclusion 1: “There is no evidence from laboratory studies in British Columbia and Washington State that PRV infection is associated with any disease state, including HSMI [heart and skeletal muscle inflammation]”
  • 2017 Wessel et al.: PRV can cause heart and skeletal muscle inflammation
• 2015 DFO conclusion 2: “HSMI has not been reported on B.C. salmon farms”
  • 2017 Kristy Miller’s lab: HSMI was reported on B.C. salmon farms in 2017
• 2015 DFO conclusion 3: The information suggests “a low likelihood that the presence of this virus in any life stage of farmed Atlantic and Pacific Salmon would have a significant impact on wild Pacific Salmon populations.”
  • 2017 Morton et al.: Salmon farms may spread PRV to wild salmon and impede their ability to migrate upstream and spawn.

Mirroring the salmon lice debate, DFO’s PRV conclusions appear to exploit the uncertainty around the evidence and steer away from exercising precautionary action to protect wild fish.

The 2015 DFO report ends with unsubstantiated platitudes about B.C.’s “robust” disease surveillance program that purportedly minimizes the threat of diseases spreading from farms to wild fish. It appears DFO’s premier peer-review science advisory process, CSAS, produced premature conclusions that coincidently aligned with industry conclusions, but that are now in question.

This raises the question: Is the salmon-farming industry influencing DFO’s Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat?

Independence of federal science advisory body in question

DFO is responsible for three oceans and thousands of lakes, rivers and species, and its decisions need to be informed by sound science.

The Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat, established in the early 2000s, is headquartered in DFO and coordinates science review processes throughout the country with the goal of providing high-quality scientific advice to the minister of fisheries and oceans, managers and other interested parties.

CSAS coordinates over 100 science advisory processes a year and responds to specific questions on various subjects, such as the state of fish stocks, species at risk and other fisheries issues. Federal scientists from DFO and other agencies typically comprise a significant segment of each advisory process; however, external experts are also invited to participate in the peer reviews.

The Cohen inquiry had significant implications. It identified pathogens from salmon farms as a risk to wild fish and made several related recommendations. Two of particular interest state that salmon farms located along a key wild salmon migration bottleneck should be removed unless the minister of fisheries is satisfied they do not pose more than a “minimal risk of serious harm” to wild fish.

The minister is also required to summarize the information relied on and include detailed reasons for the department’s decision.

Cunningly, these recommendations shift the burden of proof and place them firmly on the federal government, if it insists on allowing farms to operate.

When the minister needed “detailed reasons,” a new series of CSAS processes was initiated, examining the risk of various pathogens from salmon farms on wild salmon. The first examined the risk of infectious haematopoietic necrosis virus (IHNV), another salmon virus.

I was asked to sit on the steering committee as a representative of the conservation community. I accepted.

This CSAS meeting was held December 5-8, 2016, in Vancouver. It examined five technical papers.

The first four covered oceanography, salmon-farm disease management practices, Fraser sockeye salmon biology and IHNV. The fifth drew on information from the other four and purported to examine the risk to wild sockeye salmon from IHNV arising from salmon farms. The final Science Advisory report was published days before Christmas 2017, over six months late.

How to improve independence in aquaculture science in Canada

After participating throughout DFO’s CSAS process, I developed some recommendations for its future conduct.

1. Separate CSAS from DFO.

During the process, I witnessed several instances that suggested DFO scientists were hesitant to freely express views that might be unfavourable to industry. During the peer-review meetings, two DFO scientists quietly urged me to raise concern about the use of a confidential memorandum of understanding (MoU) among several salmon-farming companies.

Allegedly, the MoU detailed voluntary industry disease management practices. The shocking thing was that this MoU was being used to substantiate a final conclusion in the CSAS report that there is reasonable certainty that an IHNV outbreak on salmon farms in the Discovery Islands is very unlikely.

Yet an author of the report refused to provide access to review the MoU. The inability to review the details of substantiating information is contradictory to the fundamental principles of transparency and peer-reviewed science.

In another instance, a report author deferred to DFO aquaculture management staff several questions about possible constraints that may arise in their research due to the use of summarized farm data. I think that serious concerns arise when scientists do not feel free to answer questions about their research, whether it aligns with industry or not.

These two problems give rise to questions around political interference impeding good science advice, similar to those raised over the mismanagement and collapse of east coast cod stocks.

CSAS professes to follow the Government of Canada’s Science Advice for Government Effectiveness guidelines, yet seems to violate a stated core principle around transparency and openness.

Having a science advisory process that is at arm’s length from DFO could improve the integrity of the science advice produced on fisheries issues. Good advice is critical at a time when many salmon stocks are in decline.

2. Make potential conflict of interest disclosure explicit and mandatory.

After I experienced the CSAS process, it was apparent to me that some steering committee members, participants, report authors and reviewers had current or recent connections to the salmon-farming industry.

Unlike many scientific journals, CSAS does not have explicit requirements for the disclosure of potential conflicts of interest. As a steering committee member, I requested that it include explicit conflict-of-interest criteria but was assured by the chair and lead organizer (who both held current and recent high-ranking DFO aquaculture management positions) that this was unnecessary. I was also assured that all steering committee members and participants would be listed in the final reports. No such list was published that I can see.

CSAS is supposedly based on DFO’s Values and Ethics Code, which states government will take “all possible steps to recognize, prevent, report, and resolve any real, apparent or potential conflicts of interest between our official responsibilities and any of our private affairs.”

I witnessed no explicit steps during the process.

Aside from direct financial benefits, there are many potential sources of conflicts of interest in science communication. The CSAS process should immediately integrate strong conflict-of-interest disclosure requirements for all participants, authors and steering committee members.

The long-standing scientific debate around salmon farming and around CSAS and DFO’s potential conflicting interests requires immediate resolution.

In February 2018, it was announced that Minister of Science Kirsty Duncan has asked Canada’s chief science adviser, Mona Nemer, to lead an independent expert panel on the appropriate use of scientific evidence in decision-making around protecting the marine environment, as it relates to salmon farming. More recently it was revealed that the “independent” panel will be substantially supported by DFO staff.

Time will tell what Canadians will get from yet another investigation into the salmon-farming industry. Canada’s commitment to science-based decision-making and to iconic wild salmon are at stake.

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Wild salmon swimming past B.C. fish farms are at high risk of picking up a virus that causes weakness and affects their ability to reach spawning grounds according to new groundbreaking research published this week in the scientific journal PLOS One (Public Library of Science One).

The study found the percentage of wild salmon infected with piscine reovirus (PRV) was much higher in wild salmon exposed to a large cluster of salmon farms along the B.C. coast than in those that were not.

“In my view allowing piscine reovirus to flow from salmon farms into the marine environment will be viewed as an environmental crime of the highest order,” independent biologist and study author, Alexandra Morton, told DeSmog Canada.

ICYMI: Disturbing New Footage Shows Diseased, Deformed Salmon in B.C. Fish Farms

Morton’s concern that enough isn’t being done to protect wild salmon stocks is in line with concerns from some coastal First Nations, which in August occupied two fish farms on the Central Coast over their opposition to open-pen farms.* In early December, environmental group Pacific Wild released footage showing clouds of blood emanating from fish plants on Vancouver Island; subsequent testing revealed that that blood, too, contained the virus and other parasites.

The new study also found infected wild salmon were less likely to make it back to high-elevation spawning grounds.

“This study provides the first evidence that exposure to farmed Atlantic salmon is associated with infection of wild Pacific salmon with PRV, a virus of significant concern to both the aquaculture industry and wild fisheries management and that PRV infection may impair the capacity of wild salmon to complete a challenging spawning migration, with the potential for population-level impacts,” the study concludes.

Alarmingly Low Salmon Stocks in B.C. Stoke Fish Farming Concerns

The findings come at a time of alarmingly low salmon returns in B.C. and, adding weight to the concerns, are recent scientific findings that PRV is linked to heart and skeletal muscular disease (HSMI). Although HSMI has not been found in wild salmon it was found at a fish farm in the Discovery Islands between 2011 and 2013.

HSMI makes the fish lethargic — something that is not necessarily a problem for penned fish, but is usually fatal for wild salmon, which are in danger of being eaten by predators such as eagles, seals or killer whales if they lie around on the surface, independent biologist and study author, Alexandra Morton, told DeSmog Canada.

“And we know the fish don’t even have to get HSMI. PRV lodges itself in the red blood cells and affects the ability to carry oxygen from the gills to the tissues,” Morton said.

If the infection progresses, the salmon’s heart and swimming muscles become damaged leaving the fish very weak.

Salmon farming companies would not give Morton access to their fish, so the team of scientists bought 262 farmed salmon and 35 farmed steelhead from supermarkets. Tests found PRV in 95 per cent of the salmon and 69 per cent of the steelhead.

Farmed salmon tested for study. Photo: Alexandra Morton

Highest Density of Infected Wild Salmon Near Highest Density of Fish Farms

The scientists then looked at wild salmon infection rates and found that the highest percentages of infected fish were in high-density fish farm areas such as the Broughton Archipelago, where 45 per cent of the wild fish were found to have the virus.

Wild fish around the Discovery Islands — where the Cohen Commission concluded that diseases from farmed salmon could have an irrevocable impact on Fraser River sockeye returns — were found to have a 37 per cent infection rate and 40 per cent of returning salmon in the lower Fraser River were infected.

ICYMI: Ban on New Fish Farm Permits Sidelined as Escaped U.S. Farmed Salmon Increase in B.C. Waters

However, as Fraser salmon made it to the upper reaches of the river, the infection rate dropped by about 50 per cent.

“This suggests that salmon infected with PRV are less capable of swimming up through strong rapids in places like Hells Gate and therefore unable to reach their spawning grounds,” said study co-author Rick Routledge, Simon Fraser University professor emeritus.

In contrast, in areas furthest away from salmon farms, such as the Skeena and Nass, the infection rate dropped to five per cent.

This is the first study in the world to compare infection rates in wild fish to infection rates in farmed fish and the difference between the north and south is startling, said Morton, an outspoken opponent of open net pen fish farms.

One oddity found in the study was that in Cultus Lake, where, last year, sockeye were listed as endangered, 76 per cent of the trout were found to be infected.

That will need further study, but the hypothesis is that the trout were infected by salmon that travelled through the Discovery Islands and the virus was then incubated in the lake, Morton said.

“It’s a durable virus, a nasty little thing and it can exist for quite a long time outside the fish. It’s shed in the feces and urine,” Morton said.

A recent, video-gone-viral showing “blood water” being pumped into the ocean near Campbell River from Brown’s Bay Packing Company, a farmed fish processing plant, shocked British Columbians — and effluent samples analyzed by the Atlantic Veterinary College tested positive for PRV.

Morton said her research was completed before the video was taken, but effluent from the processing plant could be contributing to the high PRV rate in the Discovery Islands. The discharges are currently being tested by provincial investigators.

The peer-reviewed study is being strongly criticized by the B.C. Salmon Farmers Association which issued a press release accusing Morton of using weak correlational data to draw strong conclusions.

“This paper is part of a deliberate activist campaign led by Alexandra Morton and can hardly be taken as unbiased research,” said Jeremy Dunn, the association’s executive director.

The release says it is impossible to sample fish in a supermarket and make claims about the exposure of wild salmon to a pathogen.

BCSFA says that PRV commonly affects Atlantic salmon raised in open net pens around the B.C. coast, but say it is rarely associated with any sort of sickness and, although research is continuing, results so far show the virus “has little to no effect on an animal’s fitness.”

The presence of PRV has been linked to HSMI in farmed fish in Norway where the number of HSMI infected salmon farms rose to 181 by 2014. The presence of HSMI in Norway has caused fatalities in farmed fish according to company Marine Harvest.

But that same causal connection has not been proven in B.C. or replicated in laboratory settings, according to the industry association.

Morton said that, after the virus was first identified in Norwegian fish farms in 1999 it moved rapidly through the industry, appearing in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Chile. Most salmon-farming companies operating in B.C. are Norwegian-owned and previous research found the strain of PRV identified in her study originated in Norway, she said.

“This work is a strong indicator that [federal] management of salmon farms is not consistent with law, the precautionary principle or the mandate handed down by the Prime Minister of Canada that [the Department of Fisheries and Oceans] use science to manage fish stocks,” Morton told DeSmog Canada.

Morton and Ecojustice are currently arguing in Federal Court that the government is acting illegally by issuing licences allowing juvenile farmed salmon to be put into ocean pens without testing for the virus as transferring diseased fish into wild fish habitat contravenes the Fisheries Act.

Salmon-farming companies Marine Harvest and Cermaq have joined DFO in contesting the lawsuit and claim their businesses would fail if the court says they cannot put infected fish in the ocean.

* Correction Dec. 15, 2017: Due to an editor's error a previous version of this article stated First Nations occupied B.C. fish farms in October. They in fact began their occupation in August.

Image: B.C. farmed salmon. Photo: Tavish Campbell

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New footage released to DeSmog Canada shows deformed and disfigured salmon at two salmon farms on the B.C. coast — just as British Columbia reels from news of the escape of up to 305,000 Atlantic farmed salmon from a Washington salmon pen.

Wild salmon advocate and fisheries biologist Alexandra Morton said she was shocked by the footage.

“I was shocked and frankly disgusted,” Morton told DeSmog Canada. “These fish have open sores, sea lice, blisters all over their skin and a disturbing number of them are going blind.”

Morton said the footage also gives an indication of what is now travelling through Pacific waters after the escape of potentially hundreds of thousands of farmed Atlantic salmon in the San Juan Islands just east of Victoria. Atlantic salmon are considered invasive in Pacific waters.

“Now you have potentially 300,000 farmed salmon traveling with wild salmon. We know that is what they do.”

The footage was shot at two salmon farms owned by Grieg Seafood and located near Broughton Island, B.C., in the traditional territory of the Musgmagw Dzawada’enuwx Nation.

The nation has been vocally opposed to fish farming in its traditional waters for 30 years and has handed out eviction notices to fish farming corporations.

“These fish are really sick,” Ernest Alfred, member of the Nagmis and Lawit’sis from Alert Bay, says in the footage. “These fish are polluting the environment that we call home.”

Greig Seafood did not respond to requests for comment.

In a B.C. Salmon Farmers Association statement provided to DeSmog Canada, executive director Jeremy Dunn said, “abnormalities in farm-raised salmon are rare, but — as with any species — do exist for several reasons: growth deformities from birth, mechanical damage resulting in an injury, or poor performers that are outcompeted for food by more aggressive fish.”

Dunn added if individuals are displeased with farmed salmon brought to market he “recommend they return it to the place of purchase.” *

Alfred and Awahawoo Hereditary Chief George Quocksister Jr. shot the footage while travelling to fish farms aboard the research vessel Martin Sheen, provided by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

‘It’s a Mess Every Way You Look at It’

“When I say there is disease in these farmed salmon, this is not a guess,” Morton said. “Over 80 per cent of farmed salmon are infected with piscine reovirus.”

Morton is currently fighting the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Dominique Leblanc in court to prevent more Atlantic salmon infected with the virus from being placed in B.C. waters.

Morton said the fish pens are a highly concentrated source of waste and disease that threaten other species.

“From a biological point of view this footage gives you an idea of the scale of the pathogens coming out of these farms and we know that a single particle in this ocean can travel 10 kilometres in a short amount of time.”

It’s been a tough week for wild salmon.

While major salmon fisheries in the Fraser and Skeena rivers are closed due to low returns, a new study released this week revealed the federal government has failed to monitor the majority of struggling stocks on B.C.’s north and central coast.

Meantime, fishermen are being called on to catch as many of the escaped Atlantic farmed salmon as possible.

Morton expressed concern that fishermen will be mixed up with struggling Fraser sockeye salmon that may be caught as bycatch.

“It’s a mess every way you look at it.”

Farming Salmon On Land Reduces Risks

Aaron Hill, executive director of Watershed Watch Salmon Society, told the CBC an easy solution to the multiple problems posed by salmon farms is to move pens onland and out of wild salmon waterways.

“We can farm salmon on land where they’re not going to pose any risks to our wild salmon populations.”

Disturbing New Footage Shows Diseased, Deformed #Salmon in BC #FishFarms https://t.co/XIlbwq74ji #bcpoli

— DeSmog Canada (@DeSmogCanada) August 23, 2017

“Escapes aren’t the only risk,” he added. “There is growing evidence that these net pens spread diseases, viruses and parasites to our wild salmon populations that make it harder for many of our at risk populations to rebuild.”

Alfred said the window to protect wild salmon stocks in B.C. is closing.

“You know, when I think about our people’s history, I think about the colonization, the stripping of our rights, the stripping of our identity, the fact that our language is disappearing, the potlatch ban, the fish is all we have left and they can’t take our fish.”

“We don’t exist here without our fish.”

* Updated August 23, 2017 at 4:54 pm PST to include a statement from Jeremy Dunn of the B.C. Farmed Salmon Association.

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Members of the Musgamagw Dzawada’enuxw First Nation say salmon farms in their territory are destroying wild salmon runs and polluting clam beds and they must leave.

On Thursday and Friday a small flotilla of boats from Kingcome Village, Gilford Village and Alert Bay, with the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society’s research vessel “Martin Sheen” in the background, handed eviction notices to four Cermaq Canada salmon farms. Hereditary chiefs say notices will be issued to all 27 farms in their territory.

With chiefs in traditional robes, drumming and singing, the group ignored efforts by Cermaq employees to prevent them from landing, handed over the notice and then held a cleansing ceremony and wild salmon barbecue at one of the farms.

“Our people have spoken. We want salmon farms out of our territory,” said chief councillor Willie Moon, the first to pull into the farm off northern Vancouver Island.

Musgamagw Dzawada’enuxw consists of five nations, with 576 members, whose territory encompasses the Broughton Archipelago east of Alert Bay. Cermaq and Marine Harvest have farms in the area.

“I just told them they were trespassing and we had every right to be there. This land belongs to our people,” Moon said in an interview.

Last spring 40 per cent of young salmon leaving the territory were killed by sea lice, Moon said.

Beaches and clam beds are also being polluted, said Melissa Willie, Dzawada’enuxw councillor and fisheries coordinator.

“All that shit going into the water. I don’t believe it is being flushed out and the beaches are becoming muck. It’s our whole food chain. We want them totally out of our territory and I just hope someone is listening,” she said.

Musgamagw Dzawada’enux leaders, who say they have the support of many other coastal bands, are demanding that no more farm fish be transferred into their territory, all farm salmon should be removed within three months, that First Nations have access to the fish so they can assess what diseases exist and the right to have an observer present during harvest.

Two previous attempts to evict the farms have failed and, this time, the First Nation is sending a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asking him to live up to his promise to honour the rights of First Nations as a “sacred obligation.”

The letter reads:

“We, the Musgamagw Dzawada’enuxw view the destruction of wild fish by the fish farming industry as part of the long history of genocide forced on our people by the governments of Canada. Salmon are essential to our well-being and the well-being of our world.”

People are now ready to fight for their traditional way of life, Willie said.

“One of our youth said ‘are we prepared to die for this?’ I think we are now,” she said.

“The fight is on.. . . This is just the beginning.”

#FirstNations Hand Eviction Notices to #FishFarms #bcpoli #cdnpoli https://t.co/q53UMLJyJC

— DeSmog Canada (@DeSmogCanada) August 24, 2016

There has been no support from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans who, in 2015, allowed the number of salmon at several farms in their territory to almost triple, even though each tribe had rejected the applications, the leaders said.

After the first eviction notice was issued on Thursday, the leaders received a letter from Cermaq offering to meet them.

“But all they want to talk about are their operations and we are just talking about getting them out. That’s the bottom line, so I don’t think there’s much point,” Willie said.

Jeremy Dunn, B.C. Salmon Farmers Association executive director, said salmon farms in the area have a two-decade history of positive working relationships with First Nations and farmers have 20 social and economic agreements with B.C. bands

Those agreements cover 78 per cent of the salmon raised in B.C., he said.

“Thirty years ago there were no First Nations agreements and salmon farmers were one of the first to put together agreements to respect their territories and to share in the benefits of the activity,” Dunn said.

Cermaq is open to meeting with the First Nation to discuss the issue, but having the group landing on the farms has been disconcerting for staff, Dunn said.

“Imagine if 30 people came to your workplace when there are four or five of you in the middle of the ocean. It is challenging,” he said.

The eviction notices appear to be part of a campaign being orchestrated by Sea Shepherd, Dunn said.

The “Martin Sheen” crew are helping independent biologist Alexandra Morton on a virus-hunting voyage around salmon farms.

Morton is taking samples to investigate which diseases could be spreading from farmed fish to wild salmon.

Cermaq also suspects Sea Shepherd is behind the eviction notices.

“Over the past few weeks, our employees have been harassed by the Sea Shepherd Society and other activists,” says a statement on the Cermaq website.

But Musgamagw Dzawada’enuxw members say their only aim is to cleanse their waters for their children, future generations and ancestors.

“The people who are benefitting from these farms are benefitting over the suffering of our people,” said Dzawada’enuxw hereditary leader Farron Soukochoff.

Image: Hereditary chiefs and supporters from the Musgamagw Dzawada’enuxw First Nation hold a cleansing ceremony at a Cermaq Canada salmon farm  off northern Vancouver Island. The First Nation has issued eviction notices to four farms and say they plan to try to evict all 27 farms in their territory

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As federal Fisheries and Oceans Minister Dominic LeBlanc was in West Vancouver Tuesday, promising that his government would act on all 75 recommendations from the 2012 Cohen Commission into the decline of Fraser River sockeye salmon, independent biologist Alexandra Morton was sailing into friendly waters on northern Vancouver Island and casting doubt on the government’s intentions.

“There is no substance to it,” said Morton, pointing out that LeBlanc has avoided any commitment to act on the Cohen recommendation to separate promotion of aquaculture from its duty to protect wild salmon or to put the brakes on the salmon farming industry.

The progress report, delivered by LeBlanc, noted that Fisheries and Oceans  oversight of salmon farming meshes with the department’s mandate and LeBlanc said at the news conference that DFO has a responsibility to promote the sustainable use of “fish resources in a way that is good for the local economy.”

That does not go down well with Morton, a thorn in the side of the salmon farming industry and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans for decades.

In addition to the federal Liberal’s apparent reluctance to rein in the salmon farming industry, Morton is discouraged by government’s earlier decision to extend fish farm licences from one to six years, running counter to Cohen’s recommendations.

That is a decision that disrespects First Nations, said Morton in an interview from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society’s research vessel Martin Sheen as she sailed into Musgamagw Dzawada’enuxw territory, where one-third of B.C.’s salmon farms are located.

“I don’t understand how they can give the industry long-term licences and now (LeBlanc) says he is going to enact the Cohen recommendations,” said Morton, who is conducting sampling around fish farms to establish whether piscine reovirus (PRV) — a virus found in farmed fish — is present in wild salmon and whether there are hotspots of the virus around the farms. PRV has been linked to Heart and Skeletal Muscle Inflammation in fish.

Instead of making vague promises to talk to aboriginal groups, LeBlanc should be meeting with the hereditary leaders to find out what is happening to wild salmon runs around salmon farms, Morton said.

“The salmon farming industry has been in Musgamagw Dzawada’enuxw territory since the 1990s and they have never given them permission, but no one is compensating them and they are suffering,” she said.

Her words were echoed by Dzawada’enuxw councillor and fisheries coordinator Melissa Willie, who is also on board the Martin Sheen.

“There are 27 farms in our territory and we have never given them permission to be there. We just continue to write letters opposing them,” she said.

Damage from the farms is evident not only in declining salmon runs and the number of sea lice, but also in clam beds, Willie said.

“All that shit is going into the water. I don’t believe it’s being flushed out and the beaches are becoming muck. It’s our whole food chain. We want them totally out of our territory and I just hope someone is listening,” she said.

The Cohen Commission report languished on governmental back shelves for four years while the Conservatives were in power, but hopes were high that it would see the light of day under the Liberals and some, such as Willie, remain optimistic that there will be help, not only for the Fraser River sockeye, but for all B.C.’s salmon.

Willie is hoping that the secret weapon might be Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould, a member of the We Wai Kai Nation.

“Her grandmother was one of ours. We hope to get her involved,” Willie said.

However, salmon farming companies have economic agreements with many First Nations and at least two have denied the Martin Sheen permission to come into their territory.

That is a choice that is up to them, said Morton, who hopes they will not find they are importing diseases from the farmed Atlantic salmon into their traditional fishing grounds.

Bob Chamberlin, chairman of the First Nations Wild Salmon Alliance, found some encouraging aspects in LeBlanc’s progress report, although he said it lacked detail

“I found it positive that the minister spoke about looking after all species of salmon in B.C. and it was not just the restricted view of Fraser River sockeye and the Discovery Channel fish farms,” he said.

The emphasis on science and research, backed by an additional $197 million in funding announced last March, is good news, but the government should now be adhering to the precautionary principle until those science gaps are filled, Chamberlin said.

“That means stop expanding fish farms, stop creating new licences and stop setting the table for this industry. Science needs to be at the table,” he said.

What's Fishy About the Feds' Salmon Promises? https://t.co/eNULDlE8Rj #cdnpoli #bcpoli

— DeSmog Canada (@DeSmogCanada) August 11, 2016

Innovative programs such as tagging salmon smolts and genome science should be able to determine the major salmon stressors and pinpoint those industries causing grief to wild salmon, Chamberlin said.

But, until those scientific holes are filled, salmon farming industry expansion must be stopped, he said.

Jeremy Dunn, executive director of the B.C. Salmon Farmers Association, applauds the renewed emphasis on science and said LeBlanc has reinforced his government’s commitment to making science-based decisions for all Canadian fisheries.

But that does not mean curtailing the salmon farming industry and longer licence terms are necessary to provide security for the companies, he said.

“These licences could be revoked at any time if the farmers are not living up to their licence conditions,” he said, emphasizing that members of the Salmon Farmers Association work closely with government, scientists and academics and are concerned about the health of their own fish while being acutely aware of the importance of wild salmon.

Alexandra Morton’s virus-hunting patrols have added additional stress to salmon farmers and it is “important to distinguish between advocacy and science,” Dunn said.

Morton shows no sign of contrition and believes she is providing a voice to counteract the powerful lobby of Japanese and Norwegian-owned salmon farming companies.

“The industry is entrenched and everyone is afraid to say ‘this is not working,’ ” she said.

Instead of protecting those interests, government should be looking at rearing salmon in closed containment pens on land, which is being done by Namgis First Nation on northern Vancouver Island, Morton said.

Photo by Amanda Carroll, UNR Department of Art/Photography

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A new salmon farm in Clayoquot Sound on Vancouver Island was dismantled and hauled away this week after being occupied by members of Ahousaht First Nations and local supporters from Tofino.

“This is the very first salmon farm that’s pulled out of B.C. because of protesters,” said Alexandra Morton, an independent salmon research scientist who has documented the devastating impacts of salmon farms on wild salmon and other marine species. Morton was part of the two-week occupation.

Lennie John, an Ahousaht man, was the first to tie his boat to the floating fish pens in the long narrow channel near the eastern shore of Flores Island with its intact ancient cedar rainforest and many creeks supporting runs of wild salmon. This is also home of the Ahousaht First Nations. Cermaq, a Norwegian-based salmon farming company (recently purchased by the Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi) was granted permits this summer to install its 16th farm in Clayoquot Sound.

“We blocked Cermaq’s access and told them they were trespassing,” John, an Ahousaht tourism business owner, said.

“You wouldn’t want someone to come into your house and make a mess,” John told more than 100 people attending a Clayoquot Action event, called “Take a Stand for Wild Salmon,” in Tofino on Wednesday. Clayoquot Action is a local environmental organization.

John was soon joined by others who literally camped on the steel catwalks that frame large salmon net pens that can hold up to a million Atlantic salmon at a time when fully stocked. The group spent two weeks camped on the open water despite the very windy and wet weather the region is known for.

Occupation of Cermaq fish pen. Photo: Alexandra Morton.

“I’m tired of being told to keep quiet. A handful of warriors stopped this. Imagine what a Nation could do?” John said.

“We want to get rid of all the fish farms on our territory,” John Rampanen, a member of the Ahousaht First Nation, told DeSmog Canada. There have been serious declines in shellfish, salmon and herring since salmon farms appeared in the nation’s traditional territory around 1999.

According to Cermaq’s website there is an agreement with three chiefs of the Ahousaht First Nation that covers issues such as financial and social benefits and employment. However the nation’s traditional and elected leadership ended up supporting the occupiers, Rampanen said.

Salmon are the life-force that powers the ecology and economy of British Columbia, Morton said.

“We’d be fools beyond forgiveness if we cut this off for future generations,” she told the crowd at the Clayoquot Action event in Tofino.

Morton, among others, has published scientific reports and papers documenting the impacts of salmon aquaculture on B.C.’s wild Pacific salmon, which are in sharp decline almost everywhere farms are located.

With up to a million salmon jammed into small open-ocean enclosures, disease and parasites like sea lice are common, requiring chemical insecticides and antibiotics to keep the fish from dying. As young wild salmon pass underneath the pens they are showered by sea lice. A single louse can kill a young fish according to Morton’s studies.

Underwater ‘sound canons’ are used to keep seals away from the net pens but also drive away orcas and other whales because of the sound pollution, Morton added. Three or more kilograms of wild fish are required as feed to produce one kilo of salmon. The ocean bottoms under and around the open-ocean net pens are usually devoid of any life, buried under the excrement of up to a million salmon overhead.

Aquaculture is big business in B.C. with about 750 aquaculture operations producing salmon, other finfish and shellfish. The total harvested value was nearly $534 million in 2010, according to government statistics.

Last May a petition with more than 106,000 signatures called on B.C. Premier Christy Clark to place a moratorium on new farms. In July, Clark approved four new farms including the one near Flores Island. 

“Nothing has ever stopped these farms. Not science, lawsuits, protests or petitions. Now the blockade has stopped one. You have to put your body on the line,” Morton told DeSmog.

“We know salmon farming in the ocean is wrong. We have to do something,” Joe James Rampanen, another occupier, said.

There is widespread support for the occupiers within the Ahousaht First Nation and other communities. That support included those who have family working for Cermaq and other operators.

“They feel ashamed they’re involved but what choice do they have?” Rampanen told DeSmog.

The aquaculture industry could modify its practice of operating in pristine regions where wild salmon thrive. Rampanen said companies could raise their fish on dry land like the freshwater fish aquaculture industry does.

Image: Cermaq

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A report, published on July 11th of this year, reveals that the Piscine Reovirus (PRV) is decimating British Columbia salmon populations. This report, published in Virology Journal, was co-authored by researchers from the Atlantic Veterinary College at the University of Prince Edward Island, Centro de Investigaciones Biologicas in Chile and, and the Raincoast Research Society in British Columbia. The research shows that B.C. fish tested positive in both farmed and wild salmon sources.

Yet, despite the report’s findings, officials for the Canadian government’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) claim that the virus is no cause for alarm. As with any of the three deadly European viruses found on the coasts of B.C., the DFO doesn’t consider the appearance of a virus as a threat. They will only take action in the event of a major disease outbreak.

Twyla Roscovich sought to find out why in her Documentary, Salmon Confidential. In it, she asked Dr. Gary Marty, B.C. Health Vet, what his conclusions were about PRV contamination, in relation to the drastic decline in fish populations in the Fraser River and Rivers Inlet Sockeye. Dr. Marty said that he doesn’t know what the problem is, so the virus shouldn’t be blamed.

“When it was first reported in 2010, I was very concerned. So, we went and tested 625 fish and found it in just about every fish. We found it in healthy fish… So, I decided that I couldn’t provide any interpretation for what this meant and I decided it was probably not a major concern. “ – Dr. Gary Marty.

Farmed fish is a multi-million dollar industry in B.C. and salmon is what the province is known for worldwide. Scientists are concerned that the DFO and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA)—the governing bodies in charge of protecting the fish—are also responsible for the state of the industry. That “is a major conflict of interest,” said Dr. Larry Dill, professor of Biological Sciences at Simon Fraser University.

It is likely that the virus was imported to B.C. out of Norway, by way of the fish farming industry. Samples taken from the European virus and the B.C. virus show enough similarities to assume that they are from the same strain. Ninety-eight percent of the Pacific salmon fish farms in B.C. are Norwegian-owned.

The farms are crowded along the coast of the Discovery passage—the narrowest salmon route in the world and the DFO approved location of eleven fish farms. The only wild fish populations that are experiencing a decline in numbers are those that travel through the Discovery passage to spawn. Wild salmon that take a more westerly route and do not pass through the farms are showing no signs of disease. 

Biologist Alexandra Morton, along with many other scientists in Canada, Chile and Norway are convinced that the PRV virus is a very serious problem. PRV was first identified in Atlantic salmon farms in Norway in 1999. It is considered lethal to fish as it has proven to lead to the disease HSMI – heart and skeletal muscle inflammation.

According to the most recent press release by the Department of Wild Salmon, “HSMI can cause lesions in the heart and muscles and can make the heart soft, impeding the fish’s ability to swim and uptake oxygen.”

The 2012 Annual General Report by the Norwegian company, Marine Harvest—the leading salmon aquaculture company in British Columbia—cites HSMI as the second largest cause of fish mortality.

The inflammation of the heart and muscles makes tissues blood-logged and weak, which means that the fish are unlikely to have the athletic ability to swim against the strong current to spawning grounds. This decreased ability to swim upstream may be linked to the thousands of mysterious pre-spawn fish mortalities in recent years.

There are many papers written by Norwegian experts on the relationship between PRV and HSMI. One such paper by Gustavo Palacios et al. recommends that “measures must be taken to control PRV not only because it threatens domestic salmon production but also due to the potential for transmission to wild salmon populations.”

It has been very difficult for scientists to do proper research on farmed fish in Canada. Fish farm records are considered confidential which means they are not available to scientists or the public. The farmed fish samples used in the Department of Wild Salmon’s research had to be taken, primarily, from supermarkets.

Morton claims that her research is being slowed by her “lack of ability to go to the farms and test.” Out of necessity, Morton has been forced to conduct her research on supermarket fish, which have proven to be a viable source of the virus.

What Morton's team has found in Canadian supermarkets is appalling. A healthy salmon ought to be fat with dark orange flesh. The supermarket fish were skinny, grey-gilled, with deformities and visible lesions.

“A skinny fish is a sick fish,” Morton said and Dr. Marty agrees. “Sick fish,” he said, “don’t eat, and fish that don’t eat won’t grow. It is expected that fish that make it to market are healthy. They are also inspected by CFIA.”

Morton and Dr. Kibenge from the lab for fish viruses at the Atlantic Veterinary College at the University of Prince Edward Island “have found PRV in nearly 97% of the farmed salmon tested in B.C. supermarkets.” Since these findings the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has attacked the credibility of Dr. Kibenge's research, suggesting his international certification be revoked.

The province projects that the presence of the virus won't be a threat according to the Department of Wild Salmon, “there is no evidence to support the province’s theory.” 

In Morton's opinion, the main concern is that “the viability of wild salmon has been put at risk in favour of the viability of farmed salmon.”

*images and video courtesy of the Department of Wild Salmon.

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“Nobody knows what happens when you introduce a virus into a popluation that hasn’t been exposed to it before. It might be totally benign or it might have a devastating impact like smallpox on the Aboriginal popluations in North America.”

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British Columbia’s Fraser River was once the most productive sockeye salmon river in the world. In recent history, hundreds of millions of salmon would return to its tributaries, spawning along the thousands of kilometers of rivers and streams that serve as nesting grounds for this keystone species. 

During the early 1990’s scientists began to document a significant drop in the returning salmon to the Fraser River basin. With each passing year the number of returning salmon continued to fall. Over the years the cause of this enigmatic decline has been attributed to several different environmental happenings, but has largely remained elusive.

The new documentary film ‘Salmon Confidential,’ directed by filmmaker Twyla Roscovich and featuring biologist and wild-salmon advocate Alexandra Morton, tells the untold story of the biologists studying BC’s salmon while operating under gag orders imposed by the federal government. As the documentary uncovers, these researchers were prevented from informing the public of a new virus referred to as Salmon Leukemia Virus (SLV) and the proliferation of Infectious Salmon Anemia (ISA) in British Columbia’s wild salmon stocks.

In its current state, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans is mandated with the conflicting task of protecting wild fish stocks while at the same time fostering the development of an aquaculture (farmed-fish) industry. On a stage seemingly set by Kafka himself, numerous independent field researchers who discover the proliferation of (ISA) in British Columbian waters were forced to turn over their samples of ISA infected fish to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) who in turn astonishingly claimed that BC wild salmon tested ‘negative’ for ISA.  When three leading international laboratories released findings of ISA in British Columbian wild fish stocks the CFIA went on the attack and attempted to discredit scientists working at prominent research bodies such as the World Organization for Animal Health. 

Crucial to the story is the fact that international knowledge of contaminated salmon in BC would have a severe effect on the international trade of farmed salmon – a multi-million dollar industry (nearly $500 million in 2010 for salmon alone). Confirmed cases of ISA or SLV in BC fish would mean closed US and Asian borders for BC farmed salmon.

For this reason government and industry have worked overtime to obscure the existence of infectious diseases in British Columbian farmed salmon.

In the meantime, wild salmon stocks exposed to fish farms in the wild, are rapidly declining and suffering from dangerously high pre-spawn mortality rates. Fish migrating inland from the ocean were dying before the had the chance to release their eggs. Alexandra Morton traveled along BC riverbeds to document and study these mysterious deaths – much to the chagrin of government and industry. 

Not satisfied with their ability to solely control the testimony of scientists on the government payroll, in May 2012, British Columbia agricultural minister Don McRae introduced Bill C-37, the Animal Health Act, in an attempt to prohibit the disclosure of an outbreak of disease.  Specifically, section 16 of Bill C-37 states that “a person must refuse…to disclose…information that would reveal that a notifiable or reportable disease is or may be present in a specific place.”

This Act would impose a penalty of 2 years in prison and a $75,000 fine for naming the location where a person found a disease in an animal. Scientists like Morton suddenly found themselves at risk of imprisonment for their work on ISA and SLV.   After a substantial outcry the Bill was quietly withdrawn from consideration.  

In October 2012 the Honourable Bruce Cohen presented the final report of a Commission of Inquiry into the decline of Sockeye salmon in the Fraser River. 

Unable to find a ‘smoking gun,’ Cohen asserted that ‘Further research is crucial to understanding the long-term productivity and sustainability of the Fraser River sockeye salmon.’

The final Cohen Commission report noted several major issues were playing a role in salmon declines – including the conflict of interest at the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, climate change and the weakening of species protection in the recent Omnibus Budget Bill C-38. Over 70 recommendations for the recovery of salmon were made throughout the report. These recommendations have yet to be implemented.

But the story doesn’t end with a bleak forecast predicting the end of BC’s wild Salmon stocks. In fact, the story doesn’t really end at all.

The documentary wraps up with Alexandra Morton in the field instructing local individuals on the techniques necessary to properly preserve samples to be sent to labs for inspections and testing for pathogens and viruses.

According to Morton, it is up to citizens to create what she calls the “Department of Wild Salmon.” Monitor of the species needs to be done on the ground and by the people who live in closest contact with the fish, she says.

And the story, for that reason, continues to develop up until this very moment.

There are still multitudes of fish farms populating the coast of British Columbia, packing millions of fish into tiny pens that serve as ideal breeding grounds for the types of pathogens and superbugs that threaten wild fish stocks.

And there are still the champions of ecological sustainability – eco-heroes if you will – volunteers and concerned citizens acting against the government’s wishes by gathering samples and submitting them for testing.

These individuals, who together make up the newly-formed Department of Wild Salmon, are using science to resist a profit-propelled interaction with nature that, if not regulated by organizations that prioritize preservation over short term economic profits, will surely provide BC’s wild salmon a sordid chapter in the book of BC’s history.

—

To watch the documentary, go to the Salmon Confidential website where you can also find a calendar of showings throughout BC.

On April 18th, David Suzuki and Alexandra Morton will attend a screening in Vancouver. Tickets are available online.

In the words of Suzuki: “For years, Alexandra Morton has soldiered on providing evidence of and calling for action on the catastrophic state of wild salmon. Government and industries have thwarted her over and over again. This film clearly documents that governments do not put protection of wild salmon at the top of their priorities and Canadians should be outraged. I am."

Image Credit: Screen shots from Salmon Confidential, available online for free.

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