The Narwhal | News on Climate Change, Environmental Issues in Canada

Wild Salmon Advocate Ordered to Pay Fish Farming Giant More than $75,000 in Defamation Suit

Erin Flegg — Thu, 01 Aug 2013 19:29:24 +0000

The truth will set you free, but only if you footnote it correctly.

The BC Supreme Court ruled last September that activist Don Staniford’s 2011 campaign against a Norwegian fish farming company falls under the right to fair comment legislation, protecting Staniford from defamation charges.

The decision, however, has just been overturned by the BC Court of Appeals which ordered Staniford to pay $75,000 in damages to Mainstream Canada, a subsidiary of the Norwegian company Cermaq, in addition to a portion of the company's legal fees.

In 2011 Staniford, who returned to Britain after overstaying a visitor’s permit, posted images on his blog that resembled cigarette package health warnings, inscribed with slogans such as “Salmon Farming Kills,” “Salmon Farming is Poison” and “Salmon Farming Seriously Damages Health.” The original BC Supreme Court ruling said that, while Staniford’s comments were defamatory, they were protected under the right to fair comment protection which states individuals have a right to offer opinion on matters of public interest. According to Canadian law a fair comment statement must meet several criteria: it must pertain to a matter of public interest; it must be the party in question’s honest opinion; and that opinion must be based on facts. The BC Supreme Court judge said that, while Staniford spoke maliciously, his campaign reflected his true opinions about salmon farming, and his desire to see the industry change was his primary motivation. Those reading Staniford's words were free disagree with him and come to their own conclusions about the issue. The BC Court of Appeal, while defending his use of fair comment, took issue with Staniford's use of facts. Although his facts were not found to be inaccurate, the court found they were not adequately cited on Staniford's blog. “This opens up a whole new line of attack by these Norwegian multi-nationals to muzzle free speech,” Staniford told the CBC, speaking from Ireland.

Norway owns 98 percent of the Pacific salmon fish farms in BC.

The decision includes an injunction against repeating the claims – which extends beyond Staniford himself – to include anyone who knowingly publishes the statements deemed defamatory:

“Any person who has already published or cause to be published the Defamatory Words shall, upon receiving notice of this Order, forthwith make all reasonable efforts to remove from the internet and any other medium upon which they are published, the entirely of any and all of the Defamatory Words.” This likely means news outlets who have reported on the case will be expected to remove the specific statements once the injunction kicks in on August 1.

In one of the definitive texts on defamation law across English-speaking countries, Gatley on Libel and Slander, the right of fair comment is described as, “one of the fundamental rights of free speech and writing … and it is of vital importance to the rule of law on which we depend for our personal freedom. The right is a bulwark of free speech.” And the very nature of free speech is precisely what Staniford's case calls into question. In this case it appears free speech lost out on a technicality: the missing footnote. Although there is ample science to defend Staniford's position on salmon farming, the BC Court of Appeal found he did not adequately cite the research defending his claims.

The ruling comes as another blow to wild salmon advocates working to demonstrate the negative effects of salmon farming in Canadian waters.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) recently worked to discredit the research of Dr. Frederick Kibenge of the world-renowned Atlantic Veterinary College of Prince Edward Island. After Kibenge found Infectious Salmon Anemia virus in fish in BC, CIFA – the same governing body responsible for the fish farming industry in Canada – disregarded Dr. Kibenge’s work and asked that his lab’s international certification be revoked. Amidst a troubling lack of transparency surrounding the fish farming industry in Canada, emerging research suggests virus strains related to farmed fish are threatening wild salmon populations. Marine biologist Alexandra Morton recently studied samples of both wild and farmed salmon sold in BC supermarkets and discovered high levels of Piscine Reovirus (PRV), a disease originating in Norway that severely weakens salmon hearts. In her recently published paper Morton demonstrates the virus traveled from Norway to BC and has now migrated to salmon populations near Chile.

Further study revealed that wild salmon who pass through Discovery Passage on the west coast of BC, the narrowest salmon route in the world and home to 11 fish farms, are contracting the disease as well.

Studies showing the health risks of farmed salmon, both to the species and its consumers, are not new. An extensive study conduction by the University of Indiana on fish across North America, Chile and Europe almost ten years ago documented significantly elevated levels of toxins in farmed salmon over wild salmon. For people in numerous major cities, including Vancouver, the study recommended eating farmed salmon no more than twice a month. Staniford plans to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada. Image credit: Stephen Rees via Flickr

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Fresh, PRV-Infected, B.C. Salmon: Now Available at a Supermarket Near You

Elizabeth Hand — Fri, 19 Jul 2013 17:20:43 +0000

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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The CFIA’s PR War On Salmon: Internationally Renowned Canadian OIE Research Lab Loses The Battle They Shouldn’t Have to Fight

Elizabeth Hand — Sat, 06 Jul 2013 15:46:17 +0000

Early detection of a lethal virus in salmon won’t win you any gratitude in Canada, but it could get you internationally discredited. That’s what happened Dr. Frederick Kibenge and associates at his lab at the Atlantic Veterinary College of Prince Edward Island when he positively identified the presence of the Infectious Salmon Anemia Virus (ISAv) in samples taken from B.C. fish. Dr. Kibenge, internationally renowned expert on the ISA, runs one of only two independent research labs recognized by World Organization for Animal Health (OIE). His lab is responsible for diagnosing Chile’s fish farms with the ISA in 2007. The virus was tracked back to eggs originating in Norway. When he detected the ISA virus in B.C. salmon, he found that he was up against more than just a lethal epidemic—he had to fear for his scientific credibility. Because of his findings, “Dr. Kibenge was subpoenaed to testify at the Cohen Commission. In December 2011, he told he Commission about the positive test results for ISA virus sequences he obtained from Rivers Inlet Fraser River Salmon.” The CFIA claimed that because his lab could not recreate the original results, his international certification ought to be revoked.

Simon Fraser University’s Dr. Rick Rouledge, Professor and Fisheries Statistician started the ball rolling in 2011 when he noticed that the River’s Inlet Sockeye populations were very low. He suspected something like a virus and sent some samples in for testing. The tests came back positive for the ISA virus. In order to be absolutely certain, he and his colleague, biologist Alexandra Morton, sent the samples away to the two most credible research labs in the world for ISA virus testing—Dr. Kibenge’s lab in PEI and Dr. Are Nylund’s lab in Norway.

Once the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), a governing body responsible for public food safety, got wind of the announcement that the lab found ISA in B.C. fish, they rushed to the scene to conduct their own tests. The tests the CFIA ran found no trace of the virus. However, according to Morton, the tests they used “[have] never worked to identify ISA.” In her documentary, Salmon Confidential, she maintains that the technique “virus isolation” is only useful if the virus is found alive and is cultured. Samples would have to be from an active disease outbreak “on a farm where the fresh sample of a farmed salmon could be rushed to a lab very quickly.” Of all of the labs that conducted tests on the fish samples, the government tests were the only ones to come back entirely negative. Because the virus that Dr. Kibenge identified is a precursor to the full-fledged outbreak of ISA, his results are not evidence of the virus in the eyes of the CFIA. His lab found pieces of the virus in the Fraser River samples, which indicates that the fish are carriers for the virus. Unless an outbreak is identified through virus isolation, “Canada does not even see these samples as suspect,” Morton said in a recent blog post. The CFIA decided to audit the lab after the findings were made public at an SFU press conference in October 2011. The lab was audited again in August by a government appointed independent panel and the OIE. The Globe and Mail reported that CFIA requested that the OIE “place the reference laboratory status at the Atlantic Veterinary College in abeyance.” Dr. Kibenge stands by his research, however, and feels that he is being penalized for producing inconvenient results. “What they are doing here is essentially punishing me for having testified at the Cohen Commission and trying to suppress the findings that we’ve been finding. It’s an attack on my credibility,” he said. “There is nothing here that I can see that I’ve done wrong.” This early detection could prevent a major ecological disaster, but it won’t protect the salmon feedlot industry from trade disruption. British Columbia is known for salmon. The Fisheries Statistics for 2008 estimate that salmon had a total farmgate value of about $428 million per year. It’s well known that international trade of this product would be shut down by documention of ISA in farmed and wild BC salmon. The US and China are massive markets for B.C. Salmon and these countries explicitly reject the importation of diseased animals. It’s clear that industry is the main consideration. The CFIA’s, Kim Klotins’ Cohen Commission testimony sheds light on the agency’s primary concerns and what they think their “role” is. “So if, lets say, we do find ISA in B.C.,” she said. “And all of a sudden markets are closed, our role is to try to renegotiate market access to those countries. If we can’t meet [their requirements] then there will be no trade basically.” During the Cohen Commission, an internal email revealing the PR intentions of the CFIA was leaked. The email clearly states that once Kibenge’s lab lost its OIE credibility the agents responsible were self-congratulatory. The email reads: “One battle is won, now we have to nail the surveillance piece and we win the war, also.” Dr. Kibenge and Alexandra Morton didn’t know that they had taken up the pursuit of a war, but it appears they aren’t the only opposition in a war that had been waged against science. “Three Canadian government labs: Ms. Nelle Gagne, DFO’s lab at Moncton, N.B.; Dr. Kyle Garver and Dr. Kristi Miller, DFO lab in Nanaimo; and Dr. Are Nylund at the University of Bergen in Norway have also reported finding ISA virus sequences in B.C. salmon during the Cohen Commission.” These scientists’ findings were also disregarded. An outbreak of ISA in B.C. could hurt more than just our pocketbooks. Unlike Chile, which suffered a primary financial crisis due to the ISA virus, salmon is a large part of the local ecological food chain in B.C. A threat to the viability of the fish puts many other species at risk. Dr. Routledge, for one, is fearful of what this virus will do to the unique local ecology.

“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.”

*images used with permission from Alexandra Morton

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