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On a clear August morning, Skookum John maneuvers his fishing boat, Sweet Marie, out of the Tofino harbour and into the deep blue waters of Clayoquot Sound on Canada’s west coast. 

On shore, the late summer sun shines on visitors from all over the world who have flocked to Tofino, a bustling fishing town on Vancouver Island, to wander in and out of surf shops, art galleries and restaurants and pile into small boats in the hope of glimpsing orca, humpback and grey whales.

“You’ll never find this anywhere in the world,” John says, gesturing through Sweet Marie’s window at the mosaic of islands and mountains, cloaked in thick green rainforests, that form part of the Clayoquot Sound UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. 

The Sweet Marie motors deeper into Clayoquot Sound, past a web of inviting channels and inlets, and cruises past a raft of sea otters resting in the gentle swells. Once hunted nearly to extinction, sea otters are one of the iconic species found in the biosphere reserve, along with sea lions, seals, wild salmon and bald eagles.

John, a member of Ahousaht First Nation, makes his living on the water, where he helps train Coast Guard members in marine rescue, ferries passengers to islands and hot springs and takes visitors on whale watching tours. Today, John is taking members of Clayoquot Action, a local conservation organization focused on protecting wild salmon, to the site of one of the area’s more controversial industries: open-net pen salmon farms.

Aboard his boat, the Sweet Marie, Skookum John ferries members of Clayoquot Action to salmon farms in the Clayoquot Sound UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, where they collect data and monitor the farms’ operations. Photo: Jérémy Mathieu / The Narwhal

Dan Lewis, the co-founder and executive director of Clayoquot Action, is incredulous that industrial salmon farming is allowed to take place in a globally recognized protected area.

“Why are we doing this here?” he wonders, gesturing at the rich waters, home to a colourful array of sea life that includes giant rock scallops, tufted anemones in green, pink and white, dark green kelp forests, red sea urchins and purple-tinged Dungeness crabs.

Clayoquot Sound is also home to some of the last 60 salmon farms left on Canada’s west coast. For decades, as many as 100 farms in Canadian waters have raised mostly non-native Atlantic salmon in pens in the Pacific Ocean. 

But now the salmon farming industry, blamed for contributing to the collapse of wild salmon stocks, faces an uncertain future. In June, the Canadian government announced open-net pen salmon farming will be banned from coastal waters in July 2029, as part of a commitment “to protecting wild salmon and promoting more sustainable aquaculture practices.”

Concerns about the industry’s impact on wild salmon played a major role in the closure of about three dozen farms in the province of British Columbia over the past seven years, after Clayoquot Action and other groups documented sea lice outbreaks and other diseases such as piscine orthoreovirus in farmed fish, including at farms along migration routes for wild salmon. 

Wild, juvenile salmon, captured near open-net pen Atlantic salmon farms, are infested with sea lice. A single sea louse, which will feed on tissue, mucus and blood, is enough to kill a juvenile salmon. Photo: Tavish Campbell

Sea lice are parasites that feed on fish, causing stress and damage to their immune systems and making them more vulnerable to disease, while piscine orthoreovirus causes damage to the heart, liver, spleen and other internal organs in salmon.

The decision to ban all remaining British Columbia farms, lauded by conservation groups and wild salmon advocates, has been soundly criticized by Canada’s salmon farming industry, which largely consists of multinational corporations that farm salmon around the world, including in the U.K. The industry says moving salmon farming to closed containment systems on land or in the water, as the government suggests, is not logistically feasible and would be prohibitively expensive. 

For John, who has been campaigning against salmon farms since 2015, the Canadian government’s new 2029 deadline may just be an empty promise, following its earlier, unfulfilled commitment to remove open-net pen salmon farms by 2025.

“I won’t believe anything that the government says until I see it happen,” John says as the Sweet Marie slowly circles a floating salmon farm nestled into a small bay, barely a stone’s throw from the seaweed-strewn shore.

John’s skepticism is shared by Hasheukumiss, a Hereditary Chief of the Ahousaht Nation and president of the Maaqutusiis Hahoulthee Stewardship Society, which manages economic development for the nation. But the two men have very different perspectives on the salmon farming industry, mirroring broader divisions about whether open-net pen farms should be allowed to operate in Canadian waters.

Are B.C.’s open-net pen salmon farms closing — or not?

In 2010, the Ahousaht Nation inked an agreement allowing Cermaq Global, a Mitsubishi subsidiary that also farms salmon and trout in Norway, Chile and Scotland, to operate in its territorial waters. The agreement was subsequently renewed with changes, according to Hasheukumiss, also known as Richard George.

“One of the things that I wanted to address was the environmental concerns because we are the true stewards of our backyard,” he says. “It was the sea lice and the pathogens that were the biggest concerns we had.”

According to Hasheukumiss, Cermaq was responsive and worked with the nation to address that concern. 

Hasheukumiss’ assessment of the Canadian government’s handling of fish farms is less rosy. Since he inherited his title in 2020, he says he has discussed the issue with three different fisheries ministers, yet has seen little in the way of consultation with his nation.

A five-year transition away from open-net pen farms is not a realistic timeline for the industry to achieve a paradigm shift, he maintains. “In five years, there is no way this industry — or any industry — can go to fully contained systems.” 

B.C.’s salmon farming industry, often blamed for contributing to the collapse in wild salmon stocks, faces an uncertain future. Photo: Jérémy Mathieu / The Narwhal

As the Sweet Marie noses slowly towards a rectangle of floating walkways bordered by black net fencing, John stands, slips the engine into neutral and flips back the tarp that tops the modest cabin. He calls out to one of the overall-clad salmon farm workers, jokingly asking why he’s pretending to be busy. It’s his nephew, who recently started working at the Cermaq farm, one of 13 facilities in Clayoquot Sound that employ about 20 Ahousaht members. 

The two banter while Lewis stands at the Sweet Marie’s bow, peering through the nets to get a view of the interior of the pens, as part of the group’s regular monitoring of the industry’s operations. 

At an unstocked salmon farm nearby, the Cermaq’s delousing boat, Aqua Service, towers over the Sweet Marie from its berth. The vessel has a large back deck outfitted with a patented water-based delousing system. The system pulls fish from the pens and uses seawater to flush off the lice. The treatment process takes just 0.2 seconds, aiming to reduce stress and fish death.

The Aqua Service, a delousing boat owned by salmon farming giant Cermaq, removes sea lice from farmed salmon. Photo: Jérémy Mathieu / The Narwhal

In Ahousaht territory, Cermaq has been experimenting with technology to reduce the industry’s impact on wild salmon. A semi-closed containment system — consisting of a semi-permeable bag that stretches 25 metres below the water — is used to raise young salmon smolts while reducing their exposure to sea lice. The bag draws water from deep in the water column where sea lice can’t survive. 

Fewer sea lice on the farmed smolts make it less likely wild salmon swimming past the farms will pick up the parasites. After one year, the young salmon are moved to open-net pens to grow to marketable size.

The semi-closed containment system Cermaq is trialling is expensive — running it costs $20,000 per month in diesel alone. Brian Kingzett, executive director of the BC Salmon Farmers Association, representing Cermaq and other companies, says there is little appetite to make big investments and navigate the time-consuming licensing process for new technology, especially with the future of the industry in limbo.

“There’s lots of reasons why farmers want to go to closed containment for that first year; Cermaq has been trying to do it,” he says. “It took them six years to get a licence. We only have a five-year window.” 

Cermaq is trialling a semi-closed containment system in Clayoquot Sound, aiming to reduce sea lice exposure among farmed salmon smolts. The young fish can be raised in the system for one year but have to be moved to an open-net pen to reach marketable size. Photo: Jérémy Mathieu / The Narwhal

Kingzett says the industry was “completely gobsmacked” by the Canadian government’s decision to remove open-net pen salmon farms by 2029, calling closed containment “an unfeasible option.” 

Setting up enough land-based salmon farming capacity to replace current open-net pen production could cost $1.8 billion, according to a 2022 report commissioned by the British Columbia government. The report’s authors said it was difficult to estimate the costs of setting up medium and large-scale farms because there are no land-based salmon farms in the world that are reliably producing large amounts of fish.

B.C.’s first land-based salmon farm, Kuterra, is now raising steelhead trout, after achieving barely one-third of its production target, according to the B.C. government report. Another land-based venture, West Creek, has stopped farming salmon altogether. And on the other side of the country, near the Atlantic Ocean, the land-based salmon farm Sustainable Blue suffered a mass die-off in November 2023 and is now in receivership. 

But Lewis says closed containment systems on land are the only option if the Canadian government is serious about protecting wild salmon stocks.

“To our understanding, there is nothing that can actually have zero discharge that’s in the water,” Lewis says. “What we want to see in the next five years is all the farms come out of the water. We don’t believe there are any in-water solutions.”

Clayoquot Action co-founder Dan Lewis doesn’t believe open-net pen salmon farming, linked to the decline of wild salmon stocks, has a future in B.C. waters. Photo: Jérémy Mathieu / The Narwhal

Kingzett says closing down open-net pen salmon farms will harm small coastal communities. Any land-based containment systems will need to be close to plentiful power and water supplies, not to mention customers, he notes.

If B.C.’s salmon farms disappear, Kingzett is confident farmed salmon will still be sold in the country’s supermarkets – but it will come from places like Chile and Norway.

Inside the Sweet Marie’s cabin, John has placed a sticker with the hashtag #FishFarmsOut near the helm. He is eager for the industry to leave Ahousaht territory, even if it means the money fish farming has brought to the community goes with it.

“Wealth isn’t money,” he says. “What we have in our territory, what we have in the ocean, what we have in the air, that’s wealth.”

Updated on Oct. 8, 2024, 4:50 p.m. PT: This story has been updated to clarify that the three cabinet ministers Hasheukumiss met with were fisheries ministers.

Story updated on Oct. 22, 2024, at 10:49 a.m. PT: This story has been updated to remove reference to a medium-sized land-based farm costing $1.8 billion to set up, according to a report commissioned by the B.C. government. In fact, the B.C. government report stated that setting up enough land-based salmon farming capacity to replace current open-net pen production could cost $1.8 billion.

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.

Along the west coast of British Columbia, dozens of fish farms are raising salmon in what are known as open-net pens. Each pen can contain hundreds of thousands of fish — largely non-native Atlantic salmon that are doused with pesticides and given antibiotics when sea lice or disease are present.

Now, a deadline is looming for the federal government to release its promised plan to transition away from open-net pen salmon farms in B.C.

One First Nation is taking the federal department that oversees the farms, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, to court, while close to 100 nations have expressed frustration with the federal government’s sluggish response to threats facing wild salmon, including disease, habitat loss and climate change. They accuse Fisheries and Oceans Canada of breaking promises, making decisions based on inaccurate science and putting industry priorities ahead of the health of wild Pacific salmon stocks. 

Wild juvenile salmon are particularly vulnerable to parasitic sea lice, which weaken their immune systems and leave them more susceptible to disease. Photo: Tavish Campbell

At the same time, proponents of fish farms say modernizing practices — such as using integrated pest management to tackle sea lice — can help reduce risk to wild salmon. They’re asking for fish farm licence extensions of up to six years to put those practices into place.

Last year, then-federal fisheries minister Joyce Murray shuttered fish farms in the Discovery Islands, a group of islands between Vancouver Island and the mainland, as a precaution to protect the health of wild salmon. Further north, multiple fish farms in the Broughton Archipelago had already closed following an agreement between First Nations and the B.C. government. The remainder closed last year after Broughton First Nations (ʼNa̱mǥis, Kwikwasut’inuxw Haxwa’mis and Mamalilikulla) said they did not consent to the continued operation of the farms in their territories.

B.C. salmon farms in Broughton Archipelago shuttered after First Nations’ decision: ‘we’re over the moon’

But that still leaves dozens of open-net pen salmon farms in operation in B.C. All 85 fish farm licences are set to expire at the end of June — and holders of 66 licences are seeking renewal. 

In May, ʼNa̱mǥis First Nation announced it is resuming a 2019 lawsuit against Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) in an effort to compel the department to test salmon for disease before stocking open-net pen farms in B.C. 

“The ʼNa̱mǥis has lost all faith in the DFO, the minister and the prime minister to implement the prime minister’s mandate to remove the net pen feedlots from British Columbia waters. We believe the only way to protect our rights and the wild salmon is to go back to court,” ʼNa̱mǥis First Nation Chief Victor Isaac said at a May press conference. “We will again prove that the DFO’s consultation with us was a sham and they ignored the peer-reviewed policy science.”

Fisheries and Oceans Canada has yet to release any details about a transition plan. In April, Fisheries Minister Diane Lebouthillier told Ha-Shilth-Sa, Canada’s oldest First Nations newspaper, that no aquaculture facilities will be forced to close in 2025.

Interactions with wild salmon are unavoidable at B.C.’s open-net fish farms, like this one in Clayoquot Sound, where a school of wild smolts swims just outside a pen. Photo: Tavish Campbell

What’s happened to the promised salmon farm transition? 

Read on. 

What are open-net pen salmon farms?

Almost all B.C.’s farmed salmon are raised in open-net pens up and down the coast, in sheltered bays where the tide flushes away part of their waste. 

Some salmon farms are along migration routes for Pacific salmon, where scientists have raised the alarm about the transfer of sea lice to vulnerable wild juveniles. Sea lice are a parasite that feed on fish, causing stress and damage to their immune systems and making them more vulnerable to disease. 

‘Serious scientific failings’: experts slam DFO report downplaying threat of salmon farms

Most open-net pen fish farms in B.C. raise non-native Atlantic salmon. They sometimes escape into Pacific waters, where it’s feared they could breed. 

Washington state banned open-net pen salmon farms in 2022, leaving B.C. the last jurisdiction on North America’s west coast to allow them.

In December, B.C. Premier David Eby said the social licence for open-net pen salmon farms “is expired in British Columbia.”

“We know that those have to move into closed containment systems,” the premier said. 

About six-dozen land-based salmon farms are operating, planned or in construction around the world. But B.C. has fallen behind other jurisdictions in making the transition to farming salmon in facilities on land.

What exactly was the B.C. salmon farm transition promise? 

In 2019, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made an election campaign commitment to transition away from open-net pen salmon farming in B.C. waters by 2025. 

But the mandate letter Trudeau gave then-fisheries minister Bernadette Jordan had slightly different wording. It asked the minister to create “a plan to transition” away from open-net pen salmon farming by 2025. The letter also asked the minister to work with the B.C. government and Indigenous communities.

Around the same time, ʼNa̱mǥis First Nation launched legal action over Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s policy of not testing salmon for a deadly disease known as piscine orthoreovirus before restocking open-net pen salmon farms. Research shared by Wild First, a non-profit organization dedicated to moving open-net salmon pens out of Pacific waters, says the virus is commonly found in farmed salmon and is “extremely contagious,” spreading through water to wild salmon near fish farms. The virus, according to Wild First, is linked to issues with the heart, liver, spleen and other internal organs in salmon.

The ʼNa̱mǥis First Nation put its legal action on hold in 2021, following further confirmation from the Trudeau government it intended to carry through with the promised transition away from open-net pen salmon farms. 

Additional confirmation came the following year, in a Fisheries and Oceans Canada transition plan framework, released after an engagement process. 

Is the federal government going to keep its promise? 

In June 2023, following pressure from the salmon farming industry, Fisheries and Oceans Canada announced it would extend consultations and delay the final transition plan decision to an unspecified date.

In an email to The Narwhal, a spokesperson for Fisheries and Oceans Canada said the government remains “committed to work on a responsible plan to transition from open-net pen salmon farming in coastal British Columbia waters by 2025.”

Fisheries and Oceans Canada says it remains committed to a transition plan away from open-net salmon farming. It’s unclear if Ottawa will meet its promised deadline. Photo: Jonathan Hayward / The Canadian Press

The spokesperson also said the government has not made any decisions about the 66 fish farm licences up for renewal this month. 

Clayoquot Action, a Tofino-based conservation society dedicated to protecting the biocultural diversity of Clayoquot Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island, questions whether the federal government’s salmon farm transition promise is sincere.

The group points to Ottawa’s recent approvals of salmon farming company Cermaq Canada’s applications to expand tenure size and associated infrastructure for farms in Clayoquot Sound. 

The new permits allow Cermaq to expand capacity at existing facilities, which Clayoquot Action says is equivalent to adding almost two new fish farms in the Clayoquot Sound biosphere reserve region, a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) site. 

The company has yet to receive permits to increase fish production, but has applied to do so at three locations.

“So, is the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) removing fish farms from B.C. waters by 2025 (ie. this year)?,” Clayoquot Action recently asked on its website, referring to the federal government’s original pledge to remove farms by 2025. “Or are they planning to expand the industry, locking the coast in for another six years of parasites and pathogens?” 

Why do some First Nations want to keep salmon farms in the water? 

While a majority of coastal First Nations want to see an end to open-net pen salmon farming, some First Nations point to “economic reconciliation” as a reason to keep the farms open. 

Dallas Smith, spokesperson for the Coalition of First Nations for Finfish Stewardship and a member of Tlowitsis Nation, said reconciliation “can’t just be about the stopping of things.”

“It has to be about how we develop opportunities together, just like the 94 recommendations in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report.”

The finfish stewardship coalition is made up of 17 First Nations — mostly unnamed — that support aquaculture and salmon farming. The coalition is asking the federal government to “uphold its commitment to reconciliation and the rights of Indigenous Peoples,” and to follow through with its promise “to support the participation of First Nations in the management of ocean resources, including fisheries and aquaculture.”

What do most First Nations say about open-net pen salmon farms?

Those advocating for an end to open-net pens say wild salmon don’t have time to wait. They point out wild salmon are already suffering significant declines due to increased stressors from climate change, human activity and farming operations. 

“The time for bold action to protect wild salmon is here, and it’s now,” Bob Chamberlin, chair of the First Nation Wild Salmon Alliance and former elected Chief of Kwikwasut’inuxw Haxwa’mis First Nation, said at the ʼNa̱mǥis press conference. 

Wild salmon is a critical food for many B.C. First Nations. Most are advocating for an end to open-net salmon farming because of its documented impacts on wild fish. Photo: Matt Simmons / The Narwhal

Chamberlin said accommodation of Aboriginal Rights comes first and economic reconciliation happens downstream.

The threat to wild Pacific salmon — a keystone species of great importance to Indigenous culture — is enough to close the farms, he said, adding any measures that could possibly eradicate wild salmon are a move away from reconciliation. 

“If you protect salmon — you rebuild salmon — you are accomplishing province-wide reconciliation,” Chamberlin said. “You are working towards food security, which is a component of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. You are strengthening the opportunity for traditions and culture that’s consistent with the [Truth and Reconciliation Commission] report.”

The Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs is also calling on the federal government to fulfill its commitment to phase out open-net pen salmon farms by 2025, urging both Ottawa and the B.C. government to protect wild salmon habitat.

Did the federal government silence scientists who were researching threats to wild salmon?

Fisheries and Oceans Canada officials are being investigated by the public sector integrity commissioner over allegations senior officials attempted to silence scientists researching open-net pen fish farms and their threats to wild salmon, according to The Globe and Mail.

At the press conference, ʼNa̱mǥis councillor Kelly Speck said she hopes the investigation leads to fundamental changes in Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

“The allegation is they suppressed [scientific information] and then misled parliamentary committees. This is unacceptable,” Speck said.

What do First Nations who support salmon farming say about risks to wild salmon?

Smith said the Coalition of First Nations for Finfish Stewardship questions both DFO science and the science used by fish farm opponents.

The coalition, along with the BC Salmon Farmers Association and the BC Centre for Aquatic Health Sciences, recently released a 500-page “textbook” on salmon farming. Copies of the textbook were sent to dozens of First Nations across the province, according to a news release. (Smith chairs the board of the BC Centre for Aquatic Health Sciences, which builds research and diagnostic capacity in fisheries and aquaculture.) 

He said First Nations in Campbell River have taken over the governance of the BC Centre for Aquatic Health Sciences, an internationally accredited and independent marine laboratory, and will undertake pathogen studies to determine what risk fish farms pose to wild salmon.

The Coalition of First Nations for Finfish Stewardship says salmon farming is part of “economic reconciliation” — and questions some of the science on risks to wild fish. Photo: Paul Wright / The Canadian Press

“If there are concerns around science, let’s sit down and collaboratively have a side discussion. Let’s have the First Nations sit down with the government and say, ‘Okay, here’s the science that we need to do to either prove or disprove the myth on either side of the table around pathogens and bacterias,’ ” Smith said.

Smith said First Nations should be trusted to protect wild salmon — just as other First Nations are embarking on resource-based projects related to forestry or liquefied natural gas (LNG). 

“Because of this aquaculture issue being so contentious, we’re not given the benefit of the doubt to put our mitigation plans in place and show how we’re managing the future protection and enhancement of wild salmon.” 

What’s the next step for B.C.’s fish farms?

Fisheries and Oceans Canada has yet to release any details about a transition plan for open-net pen fish farms. In an email, a spokesperson said a fourth round of consultations with First Nations, the province, industry, environmental non-governmental organizations and British Columbians closed on March 15 and no final decisions have been made.

Stan Proboszcz, senior scientist and policy analyst with Watershed Watch Salmon Society, said he’s worried the transition plan will be greenwashed, given the language the ministry is using.

In its email, Fisheries and Oceans Canada said “protecting wild Pacific salmon is a key priority and one element of that is ensuring our aquaculture industry is sustainable, innovative and minimizes interactions between farmed and wild fish.”

“They’ve been saying that for decades, that’s not a new line. That is not a new plan,” Proboszcz said.

He said it’s time to take drastic measures, since maintaining the status quo could be detrimental to wild salmon stocks.

“It’s something we have control over, and potentially control over, immediately — as opposed to something like trying to fix climate change and warming waters.” 

ʼNa̱mǥis Chief Victor Isaac said Fisheries and Oceans Canada was given 90 days’ notice, set to expire Aug. 13, of the nation’s intention to resume legal action.

“We’ll be ready to fight to protect our rights,” he said at the press conference. “We will again prove that DFO’s consultation with us was a sham.”

— With files from Shannon Waters

Updated on June 20, 2024, at 1:53 p.m. PT. This story has been updated to clarify that the remainder of the fish farms in the Broughton Archipelago closed in 2023 after Broughton First Nations said they did not consent to the continued operation of the farms in their territories. 

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.

Months before releasing a stark scientific assessment of the impact of fish farms on Atlantic salmon, federal officials grappled with how they would share the conclusions with industry and provincial regulators, according to internal correspondence obtained by The Narwhal.

The March 2024 report was the first to formally assess the threat of interactions between wild salmon and escapees from the fish farms that dot the coastline in Atlantic Canada.

According to internal correspondence, Fisheries and Oceans Canada originally aimed to publish the science advisory report in December 2023, following a June 2023 national review meeting of federal scientists, foreign government scientists and non-governmental organizations. There was no indication of the reason for the delay in the documents, but advocates say it is not unusual. 

The assessment summarizes scientific evidence of ongoing risks of interbreeding between farmed and wild salmon populations, as provincial and federal regulators contemplate an expansion of aquaculture in Atlantic Canada. But a few months before its release, senior officials with Fisheries and Oceans noted the task ahead of engaging with industry and the provinces about the findings.

Protesters demonstrated in Halifax after Cooke Aquaculture received approval in 2011 to expand its fish farm operations in St. Mary’s Bay, off the coast of Newfoundland. Photo: Andrew Vaughan / The Canadian Press

“There is a hard conversation in here about management decisions for the population of salmon as a whole,” the regional manager, aquaculture management wrote in an October 2023 email to the regional director, released through access to information legislation.

A month later, the regional director of aquatic ecosystems, Newfoundland and Labrador region, wrote to the regional director for science in that region to ask about plans for the assessment’s publication. “I am anxious to ensure that there is sufficient lead to ensure engagement with key partners, in advance of publication, particularly the provincial government and industry association,” she wrote. “We have invested considerable time to strengthen dialogue and relations, and if we do not provide sufficient time and space to engage appropriately in advance, it could be very damaging. Done well, it could provide a valuable opportunity to build trust, dialogue and identify common ground.”

The warnings in the emails highlight internal divisions within the federal department, where some see their role as protecting wild fish, and others have devoted their careers to developing the aquaculture industry, according to an advocacy group that promotes the restoration and conservation of Atlantic salmon.

“I don’t think it’s surprising that there would be some trepidation from those quarters of the department,” Neville Crabbe, executive director of communications at the Atlantic Salmon Federation, told The Narwhal in an interview.

When wild Atlantic salmon breed with farmed fish, their offspring face decreased rates of survival. Photos: Kelsey Taylor / Atlantic Salmon Federation; Lewis Hinks / Atlantic Salmon Federation

The internal emails suggest there was concern over the potential impacts of the report, despite the fact the assessment did not take into account one area of crossbreeding that could further exacerbate the poor state of wild salmon: the use of foreign strains in aquaculture. Though it was out of the scope of this specific assessment, documents reviewed by The Narwhal show federal officials have grown increasingly concerned with this risk in recent years.

Nonetheless, Crabbe says he’s “very confident that what’s contained in that risk assessment will weigh heavily on future decisions about expansion.”

“I think the positive, if there is one, is that they did conduct a risk assessment, and they did publish it,” Crabbe added.

When what happens on the salmon farm doesn’t stay on the salmon farm

While farmed and wild salmon in Atlantic Canada are the same species, they’re separated by a gulf of domestication. 

Farmed salmon — which primarily come from a strain that originates in the Wolastoq or Saint John River — have been bred to grow faster, and are more aggressive. When these fish interbreed with the region’s wild salmon, their offspring are less likely to survive and are less able to adapt to climate change or other pressures.

The new risk assessment, which examined the likelihood of interbreeding and the consequences for wild populations, suggests a high risk for salmon in areas where there’s a concentration of salmon farms, including in the Bay of Fundy in southeastern New Brunswick and along Newfoundland’s southwest coast.

“Where we have lots of salmon in cages, that’s where we have elevated risk of these sorts of interactions,” says Ian Bradbury, research scientist at Fisheries and Oceans Canada and one of the authors of the risk assessment (speaking as a scientist, not as a representative of the department).

In a response to questions about industry reaction to the risk assessment, Jamie Baker, executive director of the Newfoundland Aquaculture Industry Association, said in an email that it is well established that salmon populations have been declining since before salmon farming started. He said salmon producers have responded to the potential risk to wild fish “by practically eliminating fish escapes through investments in technologies and training that effectively and safely contain their salmon.”

But risks go beyond escapees from domestic strains of salmon. 

Introduction of European genes put Atlantic salmon at greater risk

Fisheries and Oceans’ science advisory report did not explicitly consider the additional impact of farmed fish that originate in Europe, but Bradbury says European genes elevate the risk. 

European Atlantic salmon have evolved separately from North American Atlantic salmon for thousands of years, producing genetic differences associated with processes like immunity or navigation. 

Fertile European salmon are not authorized for use in aquaculture in Atlantic Canada and have never been approved. Yet European genes have been detected in wild and farmed populations in the Atlantic for years. Internal documents suggest the presence of these genes has sparked suspicion.

A 2013 Fisheries and Oceans Canada report released through access to information legislation mentions requests from two aquaculture companies to import “alternative Atlantic salmon bloodlines that could potentially increase Canadian aquaculture industry competitiveness.” These were Norwegian-origin salmon, which documents noted were sought for their improved performance over domestic fish. 

Those requests were denied. 

A farmed female salmon full of roe — or eggs — was intercepted at the Magaguadavic River fishway in New Brunswick. Aquaculture escapees can often be identified on sight by their fins, frayed from rubbing against enclosures, and their larger size. Photo: Cailey Fernie / Atlantic Salmon Federation

Yet in response to a 2021 analysis by Fisheries and Oceans Canada that showed the presence of European genes in both aquaculture salmon and in wild fish, a memo for the minister noted that “results suggest either the recent importation or the maintenance of European-origin salmon by the aquaculture industry.”

Department scientists’ further analysis of farmed salmon and escapees in Newfoundland found European genetic ancestry as high as 40 per cent; in one instance, scientists captured two fish with 100 per cent European ancestry as part of a recovery effort following an escape event.

While the risk of European genetics are not mentioned in the published risk assessment, a slide in a 2023 draft internal presentation on the assessment stated that “some salmon farmed in Atlantic Canada have been significantly and continuously interbred with European salmon,” with “implications for non-compliance by the industry.” 

European ancestry has also been found in recent escapees, including fish intercepted at the Magaguadavic fishway, near the Maine-New Brunswick border. In late 2023, 63 escapees were detected at the fishway.

Samples of those fish have been tested at Bradbury’s lab in Halifax. Results indicate continued and potentially elevated presence of European genes, compared to what scientists have observed previously, Bradbury said.

As officials struggle to respond to the impacts of existing farms and interbreeding, they also face industry attempts to bring new sources of genetic material to the region. 

Fish farm escape puts Bay of Fundy wild salmon in jeopardy

In 2023, Fisheries and Oceans Canada officials circulated an email on a “significant” request from Cooke Aquaculture, one of the major aquaculture companies in the region. To make up for a shortfall of eight million domestic-origin eggs, the company proposed importing sterile Norwegian-strain eggs (also known as triploid eggs), as well as fertile eggs from Tasmania, with an eye toward incorporating the latter into long-term production. 

Federal scientists’ advice was that the potential importation of Tasmanian eggs (from a strain believed to originate in a river in Nova Scotia, but which has been domesticated in Tasmania for decades) was “directly analogous” to past requests for fertile European eggs, where scientists had identified a risk to wild populations and recommended against the introduction.

Documents describe Cooke’s intention to place salmon born of those Tasmanian eggs in pens in Spring 2024.

More than 60 escaped aquaculture salmon were captured at Magaguadavic River fishway after a breach at a Bay of Fundy fish farm in 2023. Photos: Cailey Fernie / Atlantic Salmon Federation; Jonathan Carr / Atlantic Salmon Federation

When contacted by The Narwhal to ask whether this request had been approved, and for a response to the risk assessment, Cooke Aquaculture spokesperson Joel Richardson declined to comment.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada did not respond to a question about whether or not the request for Tasmanian eggs had been approved. In a statement, a spokesperson said the department works with other federal departments and federal regulators on decisions of mutual interest, such as the importation of salmon eggs, and that in 2023, a licence was issued to Cooke Aquaculture for triploid European-origin eggs for anticipated use in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. 

Managing the risk to Atlantic wild salmon after fish farm assessment

Regardless of the origin of farmed fish, scientists and advocates say the risk assessment highlights the need for additional mitigation measures to protect the genetics of wild populations. This could include improvements to net pen systems, and requirements for industry to use sterile eggs.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada scientists have also developed a test to detect European ancestry, which has been available for more than a year.

In an emailed statement, Fisheries and Oceans said the report provides an improved understanding of the risks of interbreeding between wild and farmed salmon, which will help inform advice to provinces considering new or expanded aquaculture sites.

The statement also said the Atlantic provinces are responsible for overseeing the containment of farmed salmon and preventing escapes, and referred those questions to provincial governments.

When asked for comment on the apparent trepidation about the release of the risk assessment reflected in internal emails, the department provided a statement reading that it “fully respects the authority of Atlantic provinces in their management of aquaculture.” 

In the meantime, Crabbe says the growing evidence of the effects of interbreeding underscores the risk of industry expansion, including on Nova Scotia’s south shore and on southern Newfoundland, where two companies are planning to add millions of salmon to sites along a mostly undeveloped stretch of coastline. 

“We frequently hear from provincial leaders, even the federal minister, that this industry and wild fish can coexist,” says Crabbe. “This assessment is a heavy weight on the already tilted scale that says they cannot.”

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In a conference room at an oceanfront hotel in Sooke, B.C., surrounded by Hereditary Chiefs wearing regalia of white ermine headdresses, red and black button blankets and cedar bark garlands, Rick Johnson picked up a pen to sign a declaration.

The elected and Hereditary Chief of the Ḵwiḵwa̱sut’inux̱w Ha̱xwa’mis First Nation, whose territory lies several hundred kilometres north of Vancouver, on B.C.’s remote mid-coast, had travelled to Sooke for a three-day “estuary to old-growth” gathering of 20 First Nations. As more than 80 people met on Nov. 16 to discuss old-growth logging deferrals and Indigenous stewardship, Johnson and his nation seized the moment to demonstrate their authority over what happens on their territory, declaring Hada and Kakweikan (Bond Sound and Thompson Sound) an Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area (IPCA).

The unilateral declaration invokes the nation’s inherent rights and title, jurisdiction and decision-making authority to protect more than 41,000 hectares of its land and waters, “from mountaintop to seafloor,” that are a breadbasket for its people. 

For far too long, the Chief said in an interview, the nation’s territory has been impacted by overfishing — and the declaration notes the depletion of cherished and culturally important species such as eulachon, littleneck clams, Pacific herring and Pacific salmon. 

Rick Johnson, the elected and Hereditary Chief of the Ḵwiḵwa̱sut’inux̱w Ha̱xwa’mis First Nation, has witnessed the depletion of salmon stocks in the nation’s territory. Photo: Ryan Wilkes / The Narwhal

“It’s like we’re invisible,” Johnson told the gathering. “We watch industry pass by on a daily basis [while] we suffer with Third World conditions in our village,” Gwa’yasdams, on Gilford Island in the Broughton Archipelago. Drinking-water quality and housing are below Canadian standards, the Chief pointed out. “And we don’t profit a penny from the resources that are extracted from our lands.”

These are the conditions, Johnson said, that led the nation to declare the protected area “and reclaim what is already ours.” The protected area includes salmon-bearing watersheds, traditional villages and other sites representative of the nation’s rich cultural heritage. 

Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas are gaining recognition worldwide for their role in preserving biodiversity and securing a space where communities can actively practice their ways of life. A number of First Nations in B.C., including the Gitanyow, have declared protected areas without support from the B.C. government, serving notice that Indigenous people remain the true stewards of their lands. While Indigenous Peoples protect and conserve lands and waters in many forms, IPCAs are a form of conservation that has gained great momentum since 2018.

The future of conservation in Canada depends on Indigenous protected areas. So what are they?

The newly declared IPCA, supported by the Musgamagw Dzawada’enuxw Hereditary Chiefs, is part of a wave of First Nations declaring protected areas under their own jurisdiction and outside the designation of any Crown government. It’s adjacent to the 10,416-hectare protected area that the Mamalilikulla First Nation declared in 2021. The same year, Gitanyow Hereditary Chiefs unilaterally declared the 54,000-hectare Wilp Wii Litsxw Meziadin Indigenous Protected Area in northwest B.C. Last year, Kitasoo Xai’xais issued its own declaration protecting a 3,350-hectare marine protected area. In March, the Simpcw First Nation declared the Raush River watershed an IPCA, signalling their intention to protect the Raush Valley in southern B.C. and exercise their right to control what happens there. 

In its IPCA declaration, the Ḵwiḵwa̱sut’inuxw̱ Ha̱xwa’mis First Nation said its stewardship of the area will focus on culture and language, protecting habitat and archaeological resources, food security and generating a sustainable economy. 

The declared Hada and Kakweikan Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area encompasses 41,500-hectares of land and water in the territory of Ḵwiḵwa̱sut’inux̱w Ha̱xwa’mis First Nation. Map: Carol Linnitt / The Narwhal

The nation invited the federal and provincial governments to support its IPCA — but asserted the declaration is protected under pre-existing Ḵwiḵwa̱sut’inux̱w Ha̱xwa’mis law, and affirmed by First Nations’ rights enshrined in the constitution.

In an emailed statement in response to questions, the B.C. Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship said the government respects and acknowledges the efforts of Ḵwiḵwa̱sut’inux̱w Ha̱xwa’mis First Nation to protect ecosystems within their territories “and care for the water, land, animals and other natural resources that their communities have relied on for millennia.”

The ministry said it is committed to working together with First Nations on a co-managed approach to land and resource management. “Where possible, our preferred approach is for Indigenous-led stewardship interests, such as IPCAs, to be addressed through government-to-government collaborative processes like modernized land use planning,” the ministry said. “This ensures that economic, environmental, social and cultural values are considered, that collaborative processes can be built with First Nations and that robust engagement can be undertaken with stakeholders, local government and the public.” 

The ministry said the government welcomes the opportunity to work with Ḵwiḵwa̱sut’inux̱w Ha̱xwa’mis First Nation “to better understand and share our collective perspectives and to jointly develop an approach to land stewardship.”

In a statement to The Narwhal, Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) said it supports the creation of IPCAs but was not directly involved in the creation of the Hada and Kakweikan protected area. The department stated it “does not determine what is, or is not, an Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area (IPCA) and ECCC does not designate IPCAs.” The federal government can participate in the establishment of Indigenous-led protected areas through funding or co-management agreements but the department confirmed the Ḵwiḵwa̱sut’inux̱w Ha̱xwa’mis First Nation did not receive funding for this current initiative.

Nation wants government commitments to rebuild salmon stocks

Numerous provincial and federal crown tenures and land-use designations — including for log-handling, commercial recreation and commercial and sport fishing — are in place throughout the declared IPCA. The nation said it will review existing parks, conservancies, tenures and other designations issued by the Crown for “the use of our lands, waters and ma’mikas (natural resources) within the IPCA without the free, prior and informed consent of the Ḵwiḵwa̱sut’inux̱w Ha̱xwa’mis First Nation.”

In an interview following the declaration ceremony, which included a traditional salmon dance, Chief Johnson spoke about the alarming depletion of salmon stocks in the territory. “It’s going to take a commitment from both the federal and provincial government to rebuild our stocks, a serious commitment,” he said. 

Members of the Ḵwiḵwa̱sut’inux̱w Ha̱xwa’mis First Nation celebrated the signing of a declaration creating a protected area on the nation’s territory. Photo: Ryan Wilkes / The Narwhal

The Atla River supports pink, chum, coho and a small run of sockeye salmon, while the Kakweikan River was once a spawning ground for all five species of Pacific salmon. 

Working with other First Nations in the Broughton Archipelago, the nation recently succeeded in removing Atlantic salmon pens from waters in its territory. The IPCA declaration is the next step in protecting all salmon migratory routes and ensuring the safety of all wild salmon populations, the nation said in its declaration. 

Johnson described Hada as “a very sacred place to us,” where the nation’s first ancestor Hawilkwalal (Cedar Dancer) was born and lived and built his first Big House, and Kakweikan as “another absolutely beautiful place, very important to the Ḵwiḵwa̱sut’inux̱w Ha̱xwa’mis people.” 

“The declaration is going to give us the ability to have a say in what we want there, what we want to put there.” 

In Hada (Bond Sound), the nation has established a language and cultural revitalization centre, the Chief pointed out. “Our kids are going back, learning the language, building their self-esteem, finding out who they are . . . The crime rate has come down. The alcohol abuse has come down. Kids have a purpose now, they’re understanding who they are. For us to have a say in what goes on in Bond Sound, for instance, is a tremendous step forward as Ḵwiḵwa̱sut’inux̱w Ha̱xwa’mis people.” 

The next step is to look at other areas urgently in need of conservation, the Chief said. “There are watersheds that are in deep trouble in our traditional territory, in deep, deep trouble for a lot of reasons — from climate change, overfishing, et cetera.”  The nation may also eventually declare adjoining Viner Sound an Indigenous protected area, he said. The river in the sound used to be filled with chum salmon, “and now we’re down to a handful.” 

Johnson said the nation also needs an Indigenous Guardians program. Indigenous Guardians are trained experts who serve as the “eyes and ears” on traditional territories, helping nations care for their land and water through initiatives that include managing protected areas, restoring wildlife and monitoring development. “We need Guardian programs in order to protect the area, to make sure the nation knows what’s going on in our traditional territory, because who better to monitor traditional territory than the people that live there? That’s the key.” 

Members of the Ḵwiḵwa̱sut’inux̱w Ha̱xwa’mis First Nation will protect and steward their lands and waters through a new Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area. The nation also aims to establish an Indigenous Guardians program. Photo: Ryan Wilkes / The Narwhal

The nation said the declaration reflects “our good faith efforts” to assist Canada and British Columbia in achieving targets for land and marine protection and conservation. Both the federal and provincial governments have pledged to protect 30 per cent of lands by 2030, joining global efforts to protect nature and reverse biodiversity loss. 

To help meet that target, the B.C. government said it would support Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas. “Indigenous partners in this critical work can bring their expertise, knowledge and priorities to the table to ensure this effort lasts for generations,” B.C. Premier David Eby wrote in a December 2022 mandate letter to B.C. Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship Nathan Cullen. Yet the provincial government has not announced support for any IPCAs since then. First Nations advancing IPCAs are doing so under their own sovereignty and jurisdiction.

Speaking to the gathering, Ḵwiḵwa̱sut’inux̱w Ha̱xwa’mis Hereditary Chief Mike Willie said the chiefs are working together to start a movement to take control of their territories. 

“This land is ours, the water is ours. We’re here to protect it,” he said. “Our purpose here today, as a people, is to look after those resources, to ensure that we are going to be the stewards.”

— With files from Steph Kwetásel’wet Wood

Updated Nov. 17, 2023 at 4:00 pm PT: This story was updated to include comment from Environment and Climate Change Canada.

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Twenty-five years ago, after the collapse of the Atlantic cod fishery, Jeffrey Hutchings, a preeminent fisheries scientist and professor at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, sounded the alarm that Canada’s federal fisheries department was allowing “nonscience influences” in critical decision-making. Writing at the time, he said, “There is a clear and immediate need for Canadians to examine very seriously the role of bureaucrats and politicians in the management of Canada’s natural resources.”

Today, a new crop of researchers is once again imploring Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) to change its ways. At the core of their concerns is a number of systemic and structural ways in which Fisheries and Oceans Canada gathers, parses, and handles scientific information, and how that advice is passed on to decision-makers.

“DFO has a legal duty to protect and conserve fish for Canada,” says Gideon Mordecai, a researcher at the University of British Columbia who specializes in fish viruses. “We’re saying that legal duty is not being met.”

In a new paper, Mordecai and his colleagues lay out their critiques of how Fisheries and Oceans Canada handles—or mishandles—scientific advice.

One of their prime criticisms is aimed at the Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat, which coordinates scientific peer review and science advice for Fisheries and Oceans Canada, including on fish stocks, marine ecology, and aquaculture. The problem, according to Mordecai and his colleagues, is that industry representatives sit on the secretariat and participate in debates on science advice to government. The fear, the paper states, is that “vested interests can manipulate the science policy process,” including “by seeding doubt about scientific consensus.”

The researchers are clear that science should not be the only consideration in fisheries management. “We understand that someone like the fisheries minister has a really difficult job,” Mordecai says. “But our thesis is that the science that leads into that process needs to be unfettered,” adding, “there’s always going to be a need for some involvement from industry with their data, with their knowledge, but it’s that vote at the table we take issue with.”

Gideon Mordecai, a researcher at the University of British Columbia who specializes in fish viruses, records data during salmon sampling in Quatsino Sound. Mordecai and his colleagues have outlined concerns in a new paper about how Fisheries and Oceans Canada handles science advice. Photo: Amy Romer

Researchers call for new, independent science advisory body

To highlight long-standing concerns that the federal government is failing to ensure it is making decisions with scientific “quality, integrity, and objectivity” free of political influence, the scientists put special focus on British Columbia’s highly controversial salmon aquaculture industry.

In particular, they highlight Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s long-criticized dual mandate. The department is tasked with both protecting wild salmon and promoting salmon farming. In British Columbia, where the presence of open-net-pen salmon aquaculture is associated with the spread of disease and pests, these two mandates can butt heads.

Mordecai and his colleagues’ concerns have a precedent: in 2012, a federal inquiry report recommended Fisheries and Oceans Canada focus on meeting its “paramount regulatory objective to conserve wild fish” and no longer promote “salmon farming as an industry and farmed salmon as a product.”

Similarly, a 2018 report by the Office of the Auditor General of Canada said Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s “commitment to advancing aquaculture” raises questions about precautionary fisheries management and how much risk the government deems acceptable to wild stocks. The litany of concerns continues. Mordecai and his coauthors also critique the aquaculture industry’s funding of federal salmon aquaculture research, which they argue can lead to biased results. “The research within DFO that is funded or coauthored by the salmon farming industry has often painted the activities of the industry in a positive light or as posing low risk,” the scientists write.

That Fisheries and Oceans Canada senior aquaculture officials and other staff routinely switch jobs back and forth with the salmon farming industry—the researchers describe it as a “revolving door”—“raises obvious questions about the impartiality of DFO employees charged with regulating an industry in order to safeguard wild fish populations,” they write.

Mordecai and his colleagues have recommendations they think could help resolve the problem.

Creating a new advisory body—a “politically independent organization of fisheries scientists” with a strict conflict of interest policy—would help, they say, in offering impartial, evidence-based, transparent, and independently reviewed scientific advice.

As a model, Mordecai points to the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada, a body chaired by the late Hutchings from 2006 to 2010. This independent science group advises government on the conservation status of wild species. While its recommendations are not always adopted by the federal government, Mordecai says the presented science is at least sound and defensible.

Juvenile salmon are caught in a seine net to be sampled for sea lice in the Discovery Islands. One of the primary concerns about the impact of fish farms on wild salmon is the potential transfer of parasites and viruses. Photo: Amy Romer

Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s scientific processes have faced longstanding concerns

Not everyone agrees Fisheries and Oceans Canada should be keeping industry experts at arm’s length, however. That’s the stance taken by Brian Riddell, a science adviser with the Pacific Salmon Foundation — a British Columbia–based nonprofit focused on protecting and restoring wild Pacific salmon.

Riddell spent 30 years working in fisheries science at Fisheries and Oceans Canada, including in salmon aquaculture. He was not involved in Mordecai’s paper, but the Pacific Salmon Foundation currently employs or funds three of the paper’s five authors.

Barring industry participation in Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s scientific processes, Riddell says, “would continually call into question the balance and objectivity of a council that excluded that perspective.” If industry scientists commit to accepted scientific research procedures, they should be allowed to sit on an advisory board, he says.

Riddell also opposes Fisheries and Oceans Canada separating its dual mandate, though he does have some stern advice for the agency’s current employees. With aquaculture one of the many pressures on wild salmon, he says it’s something the government must address. (The Canadian federal government already has plans to end open-net-pen salmon farming in British Columbia by 2025.)

Other experts who were not involved in the paper support Mordecai and his colleagues’ assertions that Fisheries and Oceans Canada has structural problems, though they’re skeptical of the government’s determination to take strong action.

The paper’s authors “are spot on,” says Marvin Rosenau, a former provincial fish biologist and instructor at the British Columbia Institute of Technology who has offered expert fish testimony for and against Fisheries and Oceans Canada over the years in court cases ranging from gravel extraction to dam water releases.

“We need these independent reviewers, independent mechanisms to force the agencies to do the right thing,” he says.

Asked for comment, Brenda McCorquodale, Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s senior director of the aquaculture management division, referred questions to the department’s media relations office. In an emailed statement, the office says that “the department continuously reviews its peer review processes to ensure objective, impartial, and evidence-based science advice. This includes reviewing the recommendations in this study.”

The Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat involves “expert review and critical evaluation” of scientific information, and hears from a range of experts both from within and outside the government, the statement says, noting as well that Fisheries and Oceans Canada continues to “reinforce transparent, impartial, and evidence-based peer review and scientific advice for decision-makers.” To this end, in June, the department launched the Registry for External Science Experts, inviting authorities in relevant fields who do not work in government to participate in the review process.

“Debate among researchers is a normal and healthy part of the development of scientific knowledge and helps contribute to better research outcomes,” the statement says. In conclusion, Fisheries and Oceans Canada “continues to stand behind its science.”

Still, pressure is mounting to bring major changes to Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s foundations, including from politicians.

In March 2023, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans made 48 recommendations related to Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s handling of science, including requests for the department to engage in “robust peer-reviewed, non-biased science”; for all Fisheries and Oceans Canada research and data to be publicly available; and for an investigation into the extent to which management is influencing the work of departmental scientists.

It all harkens back to Hutchings and his coauthors. In 1997, they wrote that a body of independent fisheries scientists operating outside of Fisheries and Oceans Canada represented a “timely idea that merits immediate, serious, and open debate.”

A quarter century later, researchers are still waiting.

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Several more fish farms are set to be removed from coastal waters after three First Nations chose not to consent to their continued operation in the Broughton Archipelago.

Fish farms in this region between the north end of Vancouver Island and the mainland require the Nations’ consent to continue operating under a 2018 agreement between the ‘Namgis, Kwikwasut’inuxw Haxwa’mis and Mamalilikulla First Nations and the B.C. government.

With removal of the farms, “each flood tide that comes in and each ebb tide that goes out our waters will get cleaner,” Kwikwasut’inuxw Haxwa’mis Hereditary and Elected Chief Tlakuglus, Rick Johnson, said in an interview.

“For us it’s all to do with our wild salmon, the survival of our wild salmon,” he said. “We’re salmon people.”

“Sadly, we have been witnessing the devastating decline and collapse of wild salmon and other marine species in our territories that have been the foundation of our food, culture and way of life for millennia,” Johnson said in a press release this week.

Wild salmon populations across B.C. are struggling under the combined weight of climate change, habitat loss and over-fishing. The risk of pests and pathogens from open-net pen salmon farms is one more threat with which these fish must contend. Photo: Louis Bockner / The Narwhal

With the decision to end salmon farming in the region, he said the nations can start to rebuild those populations.

“We’re over the moon,” he told The Narwhal.

The two salmon farming companies affected by the decision, Mowi Canada West and Cermaq, have agreed to respect the First Nations’ decision, according to the press release.

A spokesperson for Mowi Canada West, said the decision was “not unexpected.”

“We have planned for this outcome and no additional business impacts are anticipated. We can now turn our energy and attention to areas in which our farming operations are welcomed by Nations,” the spokesperson said in a statement to The Narwhal.

Cermaq did not respond to The Narwhal’s request for comment by publication.

End of salmon farming in the Broughton Archipelago years in the making

It was in the wake of extensive protests, including the occupation of fish farms by First Nations members and chiefs, that the ‘Namgis, Kwikwasut’inuxw Haxwa’mis and Mamalilikulla First Nations entered into talks with the B.C. government about the future of salmon farming in the Broughton.

After months of negotiations, an agreement was announced in December 2018 that would see 10 of 17 salmon farms operating in the area close by the end of 2022. The seven remaining farms would be allowed to continue operating after that point only with the consent of the three First Nations.

“We, the Broughton First Nations have long held concerns about the locations and operations of fish farms in the Broughton Archipelago, especially in relation to the threats facing wild salmon,” the three Nations said in a joint press release dated March 7.

“When making our decisions, we considered our sacred responsibilities to past, present and future generations to protect the lands, waters and resources of our territories,” the statement said.

In a statement to The Narwhal, a spokesperson for the B.C. Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship said the provincially-issued tenures that allow salmon farms to operate in the area will not be renewed for these seven farms and the farms will be decommissioned.

“We recognize the importance of First Nations decision making about open-net pen salmon farming within their territories,” the spokesperson said.

Many First Nations, scientists and conservation groups have raised significant concerns over the years about the threat fish farming poses to wild salmon through the spread of pests and pathogens.

The farms use net pens which allow water and other organisms to flow freely — a particular concern for young salmon journeying past on their migration from freshwater out into the open ocean.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada scientists conducted risk assessments for nine pathogens from aquaculture operations in the Discovery Islands and found they pose minimal risk to wild salmon. However, studies since then have found the farms do pose a threat, including through the spread of viruses, which can thrive in pens packed with fish.

Some scientists have also raised concerns about the state of aquaculture science within the federal department, something that is currently under examination by a parliamentary committee.

The remaining salmon farms operating in the Broughton Archipelago will be closed after three First Nations decided not to allow continued operations. Map: Carol Linnitt / The Narwhal

“This is a very important decision for our Nations, for our people, and for wild salmon,” Mamalilikulla Chief Winidi, John Powell, said of the Broughton decision in the press release.

“For over 30 years, we have been raising concerns about these fish farms in our respective territories,” he said. “To have our decision-making authority recognized on an issue of such importance to us, and to all of British Columbia is very meaningful.”

Future of salmon farming in B.C. in question

The Broughton announcement comes on the heels of a February decision by Fisheries and Oceans Canada Minister Joyce Murray to end salmon farming in the Discovery Islands, a wild salmon migration route south of the Broughton Archipelago. Murray was ordered by the Federal Court to reconsider a decision to phase the farms out of the area by her predecessor Bernadette Jordan after salmon farming companies won a legal challenge. The court ruled Jordan’s decision breached the companies’ right to procedural fairness.

Last month, Mowi reacted with dismay to Murray’s decision, calling it “a further blow to B.C.’s largest agricultural export and for all of the coastal British Columbia communities that rely on salmon farming as a primary economic driver.”

In an interview with The Narwhal in February Murray said she took a precautionary approach given uncertainty about the impact of salmon farms.

Given the importance of wild salmon and the “dire straits” that many populations are in, Murray said she “needed to make a decision that protects their future.”

“It’s not just one thing that affects the wild salmon,” she said, “there are a number of stressors.”

The high densities of Atlantic salmon in B.C. salmon farms promote the spread of pathogens and parasites like sea lice. Photo: Tavish Campbell

And, “when there were so many risks that we are unable to manage, it was that much more important that we managed the ones that we can,” she said.

Many First Nations and conservation groups welcomed Murray’s decision, after advocating for years for the industry to be pulled from the waters over risks to wild salmon already burdened by climate change, habitat loss and overfishing.

But some First Nations that rely on the industry for jobs and economic advancement worry about the repercussions as more farms are shut down.

Speaking at a press conference in Ottawa on March 7, Wei Wai Kum First Nation Chief Councillor Chris Roberts called the decision to close salmon farms in the Discovery Islands without the consent of his nation “disrespectful and damaging.”

“Her decision has threatened right-holder First Nations’ ability to pursue their self determination and their right to economic reconciliation by allowing outside influences to make decisions in our territories,” he said.

Roberts, who is part of the B.C. Coalition of First Nations for Finfish Stewardship, said the coalition no longer trusts Murray to “deliver a thoughtful and unbiased transition plan for the remaining salmon farms in our sovereign territories.”

“Every sector, every single activity in our territories, has an impact and it’s our responsibility to understand what those are, to determine if we can come to grips with them and manage them in a way that’s sustainable,” Roberts said.

“We know that there are divergent views on salmon farming among First Nations on the coast of British Columbia,” he said. “That’s their right, but it’s also our right as First Nations to be able to say yes.”

Several First Nations chiefs with the B.C. First Nations Wild Salmon Alliance were also in Ottawa this month meeting with political leaders to advocate for a transition away from open-net pen salmon farms.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada is expected to release a final plan to transition the industry away from open-net pen farms this year.

The spokesperson for B.C.’s Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship said the government will “advocate for communities and First Nations who depend on the sector for jobs and economic security” as it works with Fisheries and Oceans Canada on its transition plan.

At the same time, the B.C. government is working to develop the province’s first Coastal Marine Strategy to “improve stewardship of coastal marine environments, advance reconciliation with First Nations and foster community resilience,” the spokesperson noted.

Updated on March 8, 2023 at 8:32 p.m. PT: This story has been updated to include comments from the B.C. Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship.

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Sean Godwin was walking down Commercial Drive in Vancouver when he got a text from a colleague.

“It said something like, ‘you won’t believe what just came out,’ ” he said.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada, commonly called DFO, had released a report that found “no statistically significant association” between the level of sea lice that attack juvenile wild salmon and infestations of the parasite at nearby salmon farms. What that implies, the report continues, is that sea lice on wild juvenile Pacific salmon “cannot be explained solely” by sea lice larvae from farms.

The industry association that represents salmon farmers in B.C. sent out a press release lauding the report as “comprehensive.” 

Godwin was baffled.

“It is one of the worst pieces of science I’ve ever seen come out of a government agency,” Godwin, a post-doctoral fellow at Simon Fraser University, told The Narwhal.

He’s not alone in his concern. On January 30, he and 15 other academic scientists wrote to Fisheries and Oceans Minister Joyce Murray to share their “professional dismay at serious scientific failings” in the report.

“This report falls far short of the standards of credible independent peer review and publishable science,” the letter, which was made public Thursday, says.

Sean Godwin, a post-doctoral fellow at Simon Fraser University, left, and Andrew Bateman, an ecologist with the Pacific Salmon Foundation, right, are both signatories to a letter to Fisheries Minister Joyce Murray raising serious concerns about a recent DFO report that found no significant association between sea lice on farmed and wild salmon. Photo: Amy Romer

“There are over 30 peer-reviewed scientific papers from B.C. that link sea lice on wild juvenile salmon with salmon farms, and many more papers internationally,” the scientists note.

The DFO report “in no way overturns the accumulated scientific evidence that salmon farms are one of the primary drivers of sea louse infestations on nearby wild juvenile salmon,” they write.​​

In a statement to The Narwhal Brian Kingzett, the executive director of the BC Salmon Farmers Association, an industry lobby group, said, “so far, our analysis is that it was a comprehensive study.”

“When we have a chance to review scientific criticisms, we will look at them in detail and in an objective manner,” he said. 

Minister Murray’s office and Fisheries and Oceans Canada did not respond to The Narwhal’s questions prior to publication. 

Salmon face ‘death by 1,000 cuts’ — sea lice are one threat that could be controlled

Sea lice are naturally occurring in the ocean and the BC Salmon Farmers Association noted in a statement to The Narwhal that farmed salmon are free from lice when they enter their pens. 

But in the same way that viruses like COVID-19 spread more easily in big crowds of people, once sea lice get in they flourish in farms teeming with fish.

Exposure to lice is a particular concern for the juvenile salmon that migrate past infested farms on their way out into the open ocean. Lice eat away at salmons’ skin, mucus and blood, leaving them with open sores and weakened immune systems. A single louse can cause enough damage to kill a juvenile salmon.

Godwin, who has spent the past decade or so studying the interactions between farmed and wild salmon, said the young wilds infested with more sea lice struggle to compete for food, grow more slowly and are more vulnerable to predators.

“Wild salmon are suffering from death by 1,000 cuts right now,” he said. But sea lice are “definitely a big issue and one of the only ones that is actually kind of manageable.”

Researchers from Salmon Coast count sea lice by placing each fish in a see-through bag. Once finished, they remove the sea lice before releasing the fish back into the ocean. Photo: Amy Romer

“Salmon farmers in B.C. are as concerned as any other coastal resident about wild salmon,” Kingzett said in a statement to The Narwhal. 

Sea lice are a problem that has long plagued the B.C. salmon farming industry. Salmon farmers relied on chemical treatments to control sea lice outbreaks but the pests are becoming increasingly resistant to pesticides. Farms have also used freshwater and pressurized water treatments to control lice and other methods to prevent lice from entering pens. But farms have found it difficult to control sea lice outbreaks and in recent years, salmon farms have been found to be above the legal limit for lice during key migration windows for young salmon. A study Godwin conducted in 2020 found the amount of sea lice is regularly underreported at salmon farming operations.

Kingzett noted that “studies have shown wild salmon become infected with sea lice before even passing salmon farms and transfer sea lice to farmed salmon.”

DFO’s sea lice report’s conclusion is “important in the discussion regarding sea lice and farmed salmon. However, BC Salmon Farmers will continue to reduce any potential risk,” he said.

For years, scientists, many First Nations and conservationists have urged Fisheries and Oceans Canada to remove net-pen salmon farms from coastal waters.

Now, as the federal department is considering how to transition the industry away from open-net pen farms and Fisheries Minister Murray faces a more imminent decision on the future of salmon farming in the Discovery Islands region, the quality of scientific advice she’s getting from her department is a pressing concern.

Some scientists warn the recent sea lice report is just one example of many that illustrate major problems with the way science is done at Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

Scientists raise ire over ‘flaws’ and ‘unsupported conclusion’ in DFO report

In their letter, the scientists point to internal government documents obtained through an access to information request, that indicate the federal scientists only reported select results from their analyses.

Godwin said the documents show the federal scientists ran their analysis “multiple times in multiple different ways,” and excluded results from the report that showed a significant association between the level of sea lice on farms and wild salmon.

Martin Krkosek, a Canada Research Chair in marine epidemiology based at the University of Toronto and another signatory to the letter, noted there’s also a discrepancy between the reported results of the analysis and the conclusions that suggest there’s no problem with sea lice from salmon farms.

“The results in the paper themselves actually reinforced the connection that salmon farms are a primary driver of lice on juvenile salmon,” he said.

Very simply, the federal scientists used models to analyse the relationship between juvenile salmon infected by sea lice and the level of sea lice infestation on nearby farms in four separate regions. 

Their results were very close to a statistical threshold that would signal there is a significant association between the level of lice on farms and the level of lice on wild salmon swimming past, Krkosek explained.

Martin Krkosek, a Canada Research Chair in marine epidemiology based at the University of Toronto and a signatory to the letter, said a key concern is the quality of scientific advice the fisheries minister is getting. Photo: Amy Romer

Wild salmon smolts swim past the open nets of a fish farm in Clayoquot Sound. Photo: Tavish Campbell

With results so close to the threshold it begs the question is there really no association or is the analysis just too weak to detect it, Krkosek said. “And we think it’s more the case of the latter,” he said.

The academic scientists found that when the department’s reported results for each of the four regions are combined into a meta analysis there is a clear association between the lice infestation on farmed and wild salmon.

The 16 academic scientists are calling for the department to release the entire dataset it relied on so a fulsome, independent analysis can be done.

“Our primary concern is that the science advice that’s going up to the minister isn’t really the best advice,” Krkosek said. 

Kingzett said the data is publicly available through DFO’s website and through smolt monitoring reports salmon farm companies release.

“This report is unique because it looked into the relationship between extremely comprehensive data sets,” he said. One looks at lice and production levels collected by veterinarians and the other, collected by a consulting firm, looks at out-migrating salmon, according to Kingzett’s statement.

Krkosek said the smolt monitoring data could be compiled by combing through individual reports, but said a key piece of missing information is the number of fish at each farm. Without that, the infestation pressure from the farms can’t be calculated, he said.

He added that the scientists also want the exact data sets compiled by DFO to ensure that the results can be reproduced and so external scientists can do further analysis.

Sea lice report latest in string of examples that raise questions about industry bias at DFO 

In their letter, the academic scientists also note the contributors to the report are largely DFO officials involved in aquaculture management or aquaculture regulatory science. 

Numerous concerns have been raised over the years about DFO’s competing mandates to both promote the aquaculture industry and protect and conserve wild salmon. 

“We know that people have strongly suggested that DFO has a potential salmon farming industry bias,” Stan Proboszcz, senior scientist with the non-profit Watershed Watch Salmon Society.

He pointed to the findings of the 2012 Commission of Inquiry into the Decline of Sockeye Salmon in the Fraser River by Justice Bruce Cohen. In it, Cohen wrote that “DFO faces conflicting roles in having to tell the world that Canada’s farmed salmon products do not threaten the sustainability of wild salmon, yet at the same time credibly examining the possibility that such products are not safe.”

The recent sea lice report isn’t the first time DFO’s conclusions about the risk of salmon farms have been questioned, Proboszcz said. “All you have to do is Google suppression of science,” he said.

Kingzett said the industry was not involved in analyzing the data or developing the report.

Researchers approach an open-net fish farm where they will sample the surrounding sea water for microbial pathogens. Photo: Amy Romer

“The report was developed by leading federal researchers in Canada and international experts, each with decades of research on sea lice biology,” he said. He chalked concerns about the report up to “anti-salmon farming activists who do not agree with the results are trying to claim the process is flawed or compromised by industry.”

To Gideon Mordecai, a viral ecologist at the University of British Columbia and signatory to the letter, the sea lice report is “very reminiscent of the way aquaculture management division has handled other science review processes,” 

Mordecai points for instance to the department’s record of undermining scientific studies that showed a link between piscine orthoreovirus or PRV and disease in wild salmon. Despite this research, including from one of its own scientists, a DFO report concluded that because PRV can be found in healthy fish, it can’t cause disease, he said.

“Now, after the COVID-19 pandemic we all understand that a virus can be in a healthy individual and they’ll not have any symptoms, but in others it can cause severe disease,” Mordecai said.

In May, Mordecai presented his concerns about the lack of independent science at DFO in a written and oral testimony to a parliamentary committee tasked with studying the state of science in the department.

In an interview this week, he said “the idea that policymakers can’t trust the science advice that they’re being given, that’s a worrying thing.”

Godwin agrees. “The minister has these incredibly important decisions to make that will affect the future of ecosystems and people that depend on these iconic fish and she just deserves to be able to trust the science advice that was given to her by her department,” he said.

“She can’t possibly do that right now given a shoddy report like this.”

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Biologist Stan Proboszcz remembers Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s 2019 election campaign commitment clearly: to develop a plan to get fish farms out of B.C. waters and pursue closed-containment systems by 2025.

But that Liberal Party of Canada promise has gotten murkier and murkier in the years since, according to Proboszcz. He says slippery language is clearly demonstrated in internal documents from Fisheries and Oceans Canada, which he obtained through an access to information request and which were reviewed by The Narwhal. 

To Proboszcz, the documents show staff tasked with carrying out Trudeau’s original promise to transition away from fish farms strayed from the language of the very mandate they were assigned to accomplish, starting in their first meeting. The subtle but potentially significant change in language is not directly spoken about in the documents, and it’s not clear whether the change came from direction from senior officials.

In 2021, Trudeau mandated the fisheries minister to “work with the province of British Columbia and Indigenous communities on a responsible plan to transition from open-net pen salmon farming in coastal British Columbia waters by 2025.” A nearly identical mandate was issued to the fisheries minister in 2019. 

But in documents obtained by Proboszcz, those mandated timelines are seemingly interpreted differently, and mention multiple times a commitment to “develop a plan by 2025,” rather than committing to make the transition by that year.

The Strategic Oversight Committee for the B.C. Aquaculture Transition Plan, a group made up of federal, provincial and First Nations representatives tasked with meeting Trudeau’s mandate, met for the first time on Oct. 16, 2020. 

In the terms of reference for that committee, which was led by Fisheries and Oceans Canada regional director general Rebecca Reid, the purpose of the strategic oversight committee was described this way: “The Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Canada has been mandated by the Prime Minister to work with the Province of British Columbia and Indigenous communities to create a responsible plan to transition open-net pen farming in coastal B.C.”

Proboszcz, who works with Watershed Watch Salmon Society, says this word change is subtle but it confuses the goal — if the province is not transitioning from open-net fish farms, then what is it transitioning to?

“They’re not talking about a transition from open-net salmon farms anymore,” he says of this instance. “They’re talking about just producing a plan by 2025, to transition existing open nets into some other open-net form, that may or may not reduce interactions with wild fish.”

“They have changed the meaning of the promise.”

Wild juvenile salmon infested with sea lice on the B.C. coast. Salmon farms can increase disease-causing sea lice populations, putting wild salmon stocks at risk. Photo: Tavish Campbell

Proboszcz fears this is evidence the government is set on protecting fish farms. He worries the ongoing fish farm consultation process — which will run into 2023 — will result in a continuation of the “status quo,” leaving migrating wild salmon at risk of picking up disease and sea lice from fish farms.

In an email to The Narwhal, a spokesperson for the minister said “[Fisheries and Oceans Canada Minister Joyce] Murray’s mandate is to continue to work with the province of British Columbia and Indigenous communities on a responsible plan to transition from open net-pen salmon farming in coastal British Columbia waters.”

The statement did not answer any specific questions about the documents in question or the strategic oversight committee. It did not respond directly to The Narwhal’s questions about Proboszcz’s concerns that there is a discrepancy between language used internally (transition open-net fish farms) versus language used publicly (transition from open-net fish farms).

Galagame’, Bob Chamberlin, chair of the First Nation Wild Salmon Alliance, agrees with Proboszcz’s concerns about the implications of the subtle changes in language. He says he’s disheartened by the change in language around the commitment and fears the public engagement process has a “foregone conclusion.”

“How is it that the prime minister of the country can write in your mandate letter to transition from [open-net fish farms], then have that change to transition planning, and then [Fisheries and Oceans Canada] is here figuring out how to keep the status quo going?” he asked. 

“I don’t understand that.”

Murray told The Narwhal in an interview in August that the government wants to keep farmed salmon away from wild salmon, but she didn’t set a deadline.

“I’m not pre-judging that,” she said when asked when the last open-net pen farm would be removed from B.C. waters.

Court decision muddied the waters of original fish farm promise

Proboszcz says the backtracking has been a gradual process. Trudeau’s mandate letters were already a step back from the campaign promise, since the letters did not directly mention moving to closed-containment systems. Then, internal documents suggested the department would “develop a plan by 2025,” instead of open-net pen fish farms being removed by 2025 — another step back from the campaign promise, he says.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada released a framework for an “open-net pen transition plan” in July 2022, which mentions Trudeau’s original mandate to transition from open-net pen fish farms by 2025. Likewise, in a 2021 report summarizing the results of the initial engagement process on the “open-net pen transition plan,” the parliamentary secretary for Fisheries and Oceans Canada specifically referenced the original mandate to “work with the province of British Columbia and Indigenous communities to create a responsible plan to transition from open net-pen salmon farming in coastal British Columbia waters by 2025.” But Proboszcz says what he sees as altered language being used behind closed doors is significant.

Proboszcz believes some of the softer language he’s been seeing more recently may be due to the court challenge filed against the ministry by the salmon farming industry. Industry proponents argued former fisheries minister Bernadette Jordan breached the industry’s rights to procedural fairness when she ordered the immediate closure of fish farms in the Discovery Islands. The Federal Court of Canada issued a ruling in their favour in April 2022, overturning Jordan’s order.

Chamberlin says the government and industry are proposing new technologies, while some critics of fish farms are proposing an external science panel. But all of these things will take years, and with many salmon populations on the south coast plummeting, “salmon today don’t have that luxury,” he says.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada Minister Joyce Murray is expected to announce a transition plan for open-net pen fish farms on the B.C. coast in June 2023. Photo: Clayoquot Action

Murray is currently “consulting on the transition away from open-net aquaculture,” a spokesperson for the minister said in an email. “Nothing is being ruled out. Industry must work to completely eliminate, or minimize interactions between wild and farmed fish as quickly as possible. In the meantime, we will hold industry responsible to progressively minimize these interactions.”

Proboszcz says the goal of reducing interaction between farmed fish and wild fish is little comfort to him because minimizing interaction has always been the goal, and it hasn’t been effective.

Piscine orthoreovirus, known as PRV, is a disease found in 80 per cent of farmed Atlantic salmon that is linked to a host of fish health problems, including heart and skeletal muscle inflammation and haemorrhages in internal organs. 

Laboratory testing by the B.C. government showed the underwater effluent in Clayoquot Sound was contaminated with the virus.

In spring 2022, one farm was found to have sea lice levels five times the limit during critical wild fish migration. The limit is three lice per fish, and during an audit Fisheries and Oceans Canada officials detected 14 lice per fish at Bawden Point, a fish farm on the west coast of Vancouver Island owned by the global salmon producer Cermaq.

Fisheries department promoting aquaculture and protecting salmon simultaneously is ‘flawed’: Chamberlin

In August, Murray told The Narwhal the key point is the department is “developing a transition away from open-net pen salmon aquaculture and my goal is to greatly minimize or eliminate interaction between farmed and wild salmon.” But at the same time, she said the government is aiming for “long-term growth of sustainable aquaculture in B.C.”

Chamberlain points out the “problematic” tension of trusting a department to protect salmon when that department also has a mandate to promote aquaculture. 

“You can see, without looking too deeply, that this is a horribly flawed process,” he says.

In 2020, $566 million worth of farmed Atlantic salmon was exported from B.C., making it the province’s top export in the agriculture, seafood, food and beverage category that year. 

‘They never said a word’: DFO told B.C. salmon farmers, but not First Nations, about mouth rot infestation

Chamberlain wants to see the minister make use of the precautionary principle in the Oceans Act, which states that in the absence of concise science, the federal department must err on the side of caution.

He wants Murray to utilize that principle, and “if not, explain why she won’t.”

Chamberlain says he has seen the transition process carrying on without meaningful consultation with First Nations, and he gets the sense the decision has already been made. He wants to see recognition of Indigenous Peoples’ constitutionally protected rights as well as of the provincial and federal governments’ enactment of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

He poses the question: “Do you understand the difference between the privilege from a licence and a right?”

“What we’re talking about is constitutionally protected Aboriginal rights.”

What’s next for B.C. fish farms?

Following consultation with First Nations and industry, a final decision on the closure of fish farms in the Discovery Islands is expected in January, according to a Fisheries and Oceans announcement this summer.

This June, Murray will present a transition plan “which will give industry a full year to prepare for stronger, new regulations that will come into force,” the minister’s spokesperson said.

One of the committees Proboszcz asked about in his access to information request made a first action item in an early meeting in autumn 2020: to get clarity on the definition of “transition.”

“Clarity needs to be provided to the committees and the public about what is meant by ‘transition,’ ” the minutes said.

The department is “to seek further direction on this point from senior management and provide speaking points for clarity to promote a common understanding and consistent messaging,” the November 2020 action item stated.

Approximately six months later, while 26 out of 28 action items were completed, that first action item remained “in progress.” It’s unclear if it has been resolved since.

That lack of clarity is still in issue, and Chamberlin says there is still time to take bold action. Otherwise, if the process continues with the proposed new licensing regimes and exploring new technologies with the hopes they make a difference, no meaningful change is coming for wild salmon, he says.

“What we’re looking at, if all this becomes true, is about six years of status quo with new ribbons on it,” he says.

“There’s nothing new here.”

Proboszcz is holding out hope for the transition process.

“I just hope the minister and her office staff will adjust the trajectory of this transition and get it back online to what they initially promised.”

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The federal government is using “slippery language” in its proposal for a fish farm transition that casts doubt on whether it is going to protect wild salmon, says a B.C. conservation group.

In December, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau directed Fisheries Minister Joyce Murray in her mandate letter to develop a plan to transition away from open net pen farms by 2025, reiterating a 2019 campaign commitment. On July 29, the federal department launched a new consultation outlining the government’s options. 

After reading through the proposal, Stan Proboszcz, a senior scientist with Watershed Watch Salmon Society, worries the government may be “losing its resolve.”

Murray told The Narwhal in an interview that the government wants to keep farmed salmon away from wild salmon, but she isn’t setting any deadline.

“I’m not pre-judging that,” she said when asked when the last open net pen farm would be removed from B.C. waters.

“The key here is that we are developing a transition away from open net pen salmon aquaculture and my goal is to greatly minimize or eliminate interaction between farmed and wild salmon,” she said.

Many wild salmon populations in B.C. have experienced dramatic declines in the face of numerous threats, from habitat destruction to climate change. Salmon farms, which can be breeding grounds for pests and viruses, are seen as an added burden, particularly to juvenile salmon migrating from their home streams out into the open ocean. 

The commitment to transition away from open net salmon farms was made in response to growing concerns about the threat they posed to wild salmon.

“We need to take action on the things we can manage and the risk from aquaculture is one of them,” Murray said.

The government is also aiming, however, for “long-term growth of sustainable aquaculture in B.C.”

Salmon farming, which can pose a particular risk to juvenile salmon migrating out into the ocean, is big business in B.C. In 2020, the province exported $566 million worth of farmed Atlantic salmon. Photo: Tavish Campbell

Murray’s comments about minimizing interaction between farmed and wild salmon, rather than eliminating it entirely, are similar to the language the government used when it outlined its options. But that’s another red flag for both Proboszcz and Bob (Galagame’) Chamberlin, the chair of the First Nation Wild Salmon Alliance.

Chamberlin said it suggests salmon farms could remain in coastal waters.

The government has said the transition could involve incentivizing the adoption of technology to protect wild salmon. 

Semi-closed containment systems are mentioned as one option — a shift from the Liberals’ 2019 campaign pledge to transition the industry to fully contained systems. If the Liberals had kept their promise, this would have forced industry to adopt practices that completely separate any farmed salmon from wild salmon.

One type of semi-closed system that was developed in B.C. and has been used by Grieg Seafood has barriers that can be put in place during periods of wild salmon migrations and removed at other times to allow the ocean water to flow through the farm. While a fully contained system would be permanently cut off from fresh waters, the bottom netting of this semi-closed system remains open to the ocean at all times.

On its website, Grieg Seafood said the semi-closed system helped to reduce sea lice levels on the farms. 

The company plans to install semi-closed systems at all three of its Esperanza Inlet farms early next year, a spokesperson said in an email to The Narwhal.

Cermaq, meanwhile, stopped a trial of another type of semi-closed containment early after a technical issue led to the deaths of fish in the farm.

“[Semi-closed containment system] is immature technology under development, therefore it is not surprising when you are trialing new technology you will run into challenges,” Peter McKenzie, Cermaq’s director of fish health, said in a press release about the trial cancellation last year.

Cermaq did not respond to a request for comment by publication.

But Chamberlin said “it’s too late” to be trying out new technologies with wild salmon already in “dire straits.”

“It’s time to start making substantive changes to protect what little wild salmon we have left,” he said.

Sea lice, which occur naturally in the ocean, can be amplified by salmon farms and pose a risk to juvenile wild salmon swimming past. Grieg Seafood says its semi-closed containment system reduced sea lice levels on its farms during trials. Photo: Tavish Campbell

The federal Fisheries department also proposes a number of new regulatory tools and metrics to manage the salmon farming industry going forward, including enhanced monitoring of wild salmon and co-ordinated approaches to disease and sea lice treatment.

“They can make regulations all that they want, but if there are no consequences, as is the case today, other than a strongly worded letter on file, they’re useless,” Chamberlin said.

The government notes salmon farming is important for both food security and economic reasons.

In 2020, $566 million worth of farmed Atlantic salmon was exported from B.C., making it the province’s top agriculture, seafood, food and beverage export that year. 

Wild salmon, meanwhile, are vital to First Nations food security across B.C. as well as to wildlife, like bears, eagles and wolves, and to the health of the trees and plants that grow along the riverbanks.

Importantly, all First Nations that rely on wild salmon, both in coastal and inland areas, are being consulted on the transition plan for salmon farms.

“All the interior nations are finally going to be able to express their point of view on fish farms and impacts and infringement to their Aboriginal rights,” Chamberlin said.

While some First Nations support salmon farming in their territories, Chamberlin said more than 100 First Nations across the province want to see the farms transition out of the water.

The public will soon be able to provide input on the salmon farm transition plan through an online survey until September.

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Fisheries and Oceans Canada Minister Joyce Murray says her goal over the coming year is to develop a plan for salmon farming that both protects wild salmon and provides opportunities for a sustainable aquaculture industry in B.C.

Murray’s comments to The Narwhal come the day after she announced a two-year extension for dozens of salmon farm licences on B.C.’s coast that were set to expire at the end of June. 

The primary aim, Murray said, is to protect wild salmon, which means the industry, moving forward, will “need to greatly reduce or eliminate the interaction between wild salmon and the fish farm salmon,” she said in an interview Thursday.

While most salmon farm licences were renewed, the industry will still not be allowed to operate in the Discovery Islands region, off the northeast coast of Vancouver Island, which is a part of a key migratory route for wild salmon.

The two-year extension for farms in other areas will give the government time to consult with First Nations, environmental groups, communities and industry to transition away from open-net pen systems, which create the potential for pathogens and parasites to spread to wild fish.

While Timothy Kennedy, the chief executive officer of the Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance, said the typical six-year licence renewal would have better reflected the industry’s production cycle, Murray said the limited two-year extension reflects the urgent concerns about the risks to wild salmon.

“This is essentially a crisis with the wild Pacific salmon,” she said.

Though salmon farm licences have been renewed for a limited time, the news that the federal government is moving forward with the development of a plan to transition farms out of the water was welcomed by long-time opponents of the industry.

“I’m really happy to see that the department of Fisheries and Oceans is actually beginning to take meaningful steps to implement the transition,” said Bob (Galagame’) Chamberlin, the chair of the First Nation Wild Salmon Alliance.

“Of course, I wish that this was happening quicker than it is,” he said. 

Chamberlin added that it’s significant that First Nations on the coast, as well as in the interior, will be able to provide input on the transition plan. He said First Nations along the Fraser River haven’t been consulted on the salmon farming industry previously, despite their reliance on wild salmon that travel past farms on their migrations.

“They’re going to be able to actually speak to the protection of their Aboriginal rights, their culture, traditions and food security,” he said.

In a joint statement, biologist Alex Morton and the environmental organizations Watershed Watch and Clayoquot Action also expressed some optimism in response to the decision, but warned there will continue to be risks to wild salmon as long as fish farms are allowed to operate in the ocean.

“By not renewing the Discovery Island licences and limiting all other salmon farm licences to two years, government has signalled that open-net salmon farming in B.C. is coming to an end,” the organization said in a news release Wednesday.

In a separate statement, Kilian Stehfest, a marine conservation specialist with the David Suzuki Foundation, said “we’re particularly relieved that the minister has recognized the extraordinarily high risk farms pose in the Discovery Islands.” 

“However, the two-year renewals for licences must be the last time Canada extends the timeline on Atlantic salmon farms. It gives industry plenty of time to complete their existing production cycle,” Stehfest said.

Wild salmon smolts swim past the open nets of a fish farm in Clayoquot Sound, an area where sea lice have posed a recurring challenge for industry. Photo: Tavish Campbell

Former fisheries and oceans minister Bernadette Jordan announced a plan to phase out salmon farming from the Discovery Islands 18 months ago. The move was quickly challenged in court by four companies. Earlier this year the Federal Court ruled Jordan had breached the companies’ right to procedural fairness, essentially putting the decision in the hands of her successor.

Now, alongside work to develop the broader transition plan, Fisheries and Oceans Canada said they will also undertake consultations with First Nations and salmon farmers about the industry’s future in the Discovery Islands specifically. A final decision is expected in January.

Salmon farming is big business in B.C. In 2020, $566 million worth of farmed Atlantic salmon was exported from B.C., making it the province’s top agriculture, seafood, food and beverage export that year.

At the same time, the industry supports the equivalent of almost 6,500 full-time jobs through direct employment at farms, indirect employment at businesses that supply goods and services for the farms, and induced employment from the income employees spend, according to the BC Salmon Farmers Association.

In response to Wednesday’s announcement, the industry association that represents salmon farmers in B.C., said the industry poses minimal risk to wild salmon, but expressed support for the path forward outlined by the government.

In a news release, Ruth Salmon, the interim executive director for the BC Salmon Farmers Association, said the announcement will ensure there’s time for the industry to work with First Nations and the federal and provincial governments towards a future that supports coastal communities, meets global demand for seafood, and protects wild salmon.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada said it expects the final transition plan to be released in the spring of 2023. 

In the meantime, renewed salmon farm licences will be subject to stronger rules, including sea lice management plans and monitoring of wild salmon, the department said.

Here’s what you need to know to understand this decision:

How do fish farms impact wild salmon?

Salmon farms are an added burden for wild salmon, already threatened by everything from habitat destruction to pollution to climate change.

A 2019 report on the state of Pacific salmon in Canada found that northern salmon populations, those that enter rivers north of Vancouver Island, are faring generally better than southern populations. But some species, such as Chinook, are declining throughout B.C. and Yukon. Many populations of sockeye and coho salmon are also declining in their southern ranges. 

The effects of declining salmon abundance ripples throughout ecosystems. Salmon are food for bears, eagles, sea wolves, endangered southern resident killer whales and even the forests that surround the streams where they spawn.

Salmon are a key source of food for grizzly bears in B.C. Photo: Mick Thomson / Flickr

For many First Nations, salmon are culturally significant as well as an important food source.

During a session on wild salmon at the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs council meeting in early June, Shackan Indian Band Chief Arnie Lampreau (Swakum) spoke of the significant decline in salmon in his territory.

“My uncles and my grandfather and family, we thrived on fish,” he said. “We never had to go anywhere for fish, there was so much fish in the Nicola Valley at one time, that there’s pictures of my field full of drying racks, in the community of Shackan.”

Salmon were used for food and ceremony and trade. “It was part of everything that we did within our whole lifecycle,” he said.

Today, the salmon populations have dropped to the point where Shackan had to buy fish to feed their communities, Lampreau said.

“We’ve never had to buy fish,” he said. “It was around $750,000 for fish just for our eight communities.”

In an interview earlier this month, Chamberlin, who is also the former chief councillor of Kwikwasut’inuxw Haxwa’mis First Nation, said he was grateful Lampreau spoke up in that meeting. 

Industry always “puts a dollar value on the job loss,” Chamberlin said. Lampreau offered some insight into the dollar cost to a First Nation of not being able to exercise inherent and constitutionally protected rights to fish. 

“And that’s just one First Nation on the Fraser,” Chamberlin said.

Many populations of wild sockeye salmon are declining in their southern ranges of B.C. Wild salmon face myriad threats from development to climate change. Salmon farms are seen as an added burden. Photo: Tavish Campbell

Though salmon farms are located in coastal waters, salmon split their lives between freshwater and saltwater. Salmon that return to rivers like the Fraser, migrate past salmon farms as juveniles and again as adults returning to spawn.

There are “sea lice and other diseases and viruses that the wild stocks pick up as they’re swimming through them waters,” Lampreau said in an interview. “They’re unhealthy waters now.”

How did Jordan’s decision to phase out farms in the Discovery Islands affect wild salmon?

Sea lice have “virtually vanished” from the Discovery Islands, said Alexandra Morton, a biologist and longtime opponent of ocean-based salmon farms.

For years, Morton, who is also a science advisor to ‘Na̲mg̲is First Nation, has been monitoring sea lice levels among young wild salmon travelling through the region during their out-migration into the ocean.

Sea lice are parasites that latch onto small juvenile fish, eating into their skin and making them more vulnerable to both infection and predation. While farmed salmon don’t have sea lice when they enter the ocean pens, they can be a breeding ground for the pests.

Of 370 juvenile pink and chum salmon Morton examined this spring, 88 per cent had zero lice. The average infection rate was 0.16 lice per fish, she said. It was a major change from the spring of 2020, when Morton said more than 95 per cent of the wild salmon she examined were affected and she was seeing an average of about seven lice per fish.

Biologist Alexandra Morton inspects a juvenile salmon for sea lice in her home on Gilford Island. Morton has been monitoring sea lice in the Discovery Islands for years and this year observed a marked decline in lice affecting wild juvenile salmon. Photo: David Moskowitz

To see so few lice this year? “It’s really hard to explain that feeling,” she said. “It’s joy, hope.”

Researchers at the Hakai Institute, a scientific research institute, have also been monitoring sea lice in the region since 2015 and noticed a drop in 2022. 

Brett Johnson, a biologist who leads the institute’s juvenile salmon program, cautioned that the finding isn’t “statistically significant” at this point. Basically, the team hasn’t been able to collect enough data to determine whether salmon farm closures have affected sea lice levels because of the low number of out-migrating sockeye salmon moving through the Discovery Islands this year, he said. 

When asked for comment on Morton’s findings, Michelle Franze, the communications manager for the BC Salmon Farmers, pointed The Narwhal to a report the industry association published last year that refuted claims there had been any decrease in sea lice levels in the wake of salmon farm closures in the Discovery Islands.

Third party consultants have monitored sea lice on out-migrating wild salmon at 29 sites in the Discovery Islands region since 2017, capturing salmon before, during and after possible exposure to salmon farms, the report notes.

“During the five years that this monitoring program has been conducted, sea lice levels have remained low. There has been no trend of increase in sea lice levels in wild salmon after sea lice have migrated past salmon farms in the region,” it says.

While Johnson said the Hakai team hasn’t collected enough data to determine the effect of Jordan’s decision, he did note that “this notion that we see fewer sea lice on wild salmon when there’s fewer salmon farms, that’s well supported in the peer-reviewed scientific literature and that’s what we would expect to see.”

Beyond sea lice, how else do fish farms put wild salmon at risk?

Salmon farms can also be hotbeds for viruses.

In the same way that COVID-19 spread easily among crowds of people, viruses can thrive on farms where a high density of fish are confined to net pens, according to Gideon Mordecai, a viral ecologist at the University of British Columbia.

Much of Mordecai’s work has focused on the piscine orthoreovirus, or PRV, which has been shown to cause disease in both Atlantic and Chinook salmon.

“It causes the blood cells of the Chinook salmon to rupture or explode, which leads to damage in the liver and kidney,” he explained.

Through his own research Mordecai found the virus is being transmitted from farms to wild salmon.

He not only detected the same variants of PRV in both farmed and wild salmon, he also found that wild Chinook salmon found close to farms are more likely to be infected with PRV.

Why are there concerns about Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s management of fish farms?

A few years ago, Fisheries and Oceans Canada completed nine risk assessments of pathogens, including PRV, at salmon farms in the Discovery Islands and the risk they pose to Fraser River sockeye salmon.

“All of the assessments concluded that the pathogens on Atlantic salmon farms in the Discovery Islands area pose no more than a minimal risk to Fraser River sockeye salmon abundance and diversity under the current fish health management practices,” the department says on its website.

But the impact of sea lice was not assessed and the process overall has been heavily criticized as being too industry friendly. 

Juvenile Atlantic salmon can be seen through the open net pen of a fish farm in B.C. Viruses can spread easily among large numbers of fish in a confined space. Photo: Tavish Campbell

Since the end of April, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans has been holding hearings into the state of science at the federal department. Several scientists who participated in the risk assessment process have appeared before the committee to raise concerns that the department had disregarded key research and minimized the risks to wild salmon, The Tyee has reported.

“There is no validity in First Nations that I speak to — and I speak to a lot of them — about those science papers,” said Chamberlin said earlier this month.

More than 100 First Nations support transitioning the salmon farming industry out of coastal waters, he said.

There is a “great body” of science that stands in contrast to Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s conclusion that fish farms pose minimal risk to Fraser River sockeye salmon, he said.

“This all just begged for the precautionary principle, which means no farms, erring on the side of wild salmon,” he said.

Fraser River salmon migrate through the Discovery Islands area, which means all First Nations along the Fraser River are affected, but they’re not being consulted, Chamberlin said.

Can Fisheries and Oceans Canada protect wild salmon and industry? 

For years, there have been concerns about the federal department’s dual mandate to both protect wild salmon and promote the aquaculture industry.

A decade ago, Bruce Cohen warned in his final report of the Cohen Commission of Inquiry into the Decline of Sockeye Salmon in the Fraser River, that as long as Fisheries and Oceans Canada “has a mandate to promote wild salmon farming, there is a risk that it will act in a manner that favours the interests of the salmon-farming industry over the health of wild fish stocks.”

In a statement, Claire Teichman, Murray’s press secretary, said the minister is “committed to transitioning away from open-net pen salmon farming in coastal British Columbia waters.”

“Work to do so is already underway; last spring, former parliamentary secretary Terry Beech concluded engagements on a plan to phase out open-net pen fish farms, which was published in July 2021,” she said.

“As always, continued and close collaboration with Indigenous communities, the Province of British Columbia, industry, scientists and other stakeholders will be key to developing a responsible plan and successful transition process,” the statement said.

What are the economic risks of banning ocean-based salmon farming?

In March, Premier John Horgan wrote to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about concerns in coastal communities over the impact of a decision not to renew the dozens of salmon farm licences that were set to expire this month.

That would be a decision, Horgan warned, that would “eliminate hundreds of jobs” and “undermine the economies of dozens of communities,” the Canadian Press reported.

He urged the federal government to ensure support for workers and industry in any plan to transition the industry out of the water.

There were concerns that a decision not to renew dozens of salmon farm licences would mean hundreds of jobs lost. Image by Thomas Bjørkan via Flickr.

In February, the BC Salmon Farmers released an economic analysis that found 4,700 jobs could be lost in B.C. coastal communities, including Courtenay, Comox, Port Hardy, Ucluelet, Port Alberni and Metro Vancouver, if the 79 licences were not renewed. 

Some First Nations on Vancouver Island also called for the licences to be renewed. In a March press release, a group called the Coalition of First Nations for Finfish Stewardship said salmon farming “injects money into our communities, creates meaningful employment for our members, provides opportunities for First Nations-owned business to supply the sector, and funds projects that contribute to the wellness of our people and wild salmon.”

“Re-issuance will give us time to further engage with our members on the positive transition and diversification of the salmon-farming sector,” the release said.

“This process should be led by First Nation governance, economic development, and environmental stewardship resulting in a tangible expression of reconciliation,” it said.

Updated on June 23, 2022 at 12:45 p.m. PT: This story has been updated to include comments from Fisheries and Oceans Minister Joyce Murray and additional reaction to the government’s announcement on open-net salmon farm licences.

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Sea lice counts at a fish farm in Clayoquot Sound were roughly five times the legal limit during a critical window for out-migrating wild salmon, according to internal government emails shared with The Narwhal.

Cermaq’s Bawden Point and Ross Pass farms exceeded the limit of three motile, or adult, free-moving lice per fish, which is in place during the the period when juvenile salmon travel out into the ocean.

During a March 2 audit at Bawden Point, officials with Fisheries and Oceans Canada, or DFO, detected sea lice levels of 14.22 lice per fish, according to an email from a veterinarian with the department’s aquaculture management team. This was at the very beginning of what the department considers to be the out-migration period, which runs from March 1 to June 30.

“This looks like a violation,” the veterinarian wrote, noting that sea lice are required to be below the three-lice threshold during the first count of the out-migration season.

Sea lice levels of 11.53 lice per fish — almost four times the federal threshold for treatment — were also detected during a March 7 count at Cermaq’s Ross Pass farm, according to a separate email from an aquatic biologist with the federal department.

“Young salmon are streaming past these farms continuously,” said Alexandra Morton, a biologist and long-time opponent of open-net pen salmon farms, who obtained the emails through an access to information request.

Biologist Alexandra Morton inspects a juvenile salmon for sea lice in her home on Gilford Island. Photo: David Moskowitz

“These fish are tiny,” she said in an interview. “You get a lice on them and they just eat through their skin, they open them up to infection, they drain their resources.”

Across B.C., salmon are struggling to overcome myriad threats, from habitat destruction and industrial projects to climate change. Salmon farms, which have been shown to be breeding grounds for pests, such as sea lice, and viruses, are an added risk to already burdened wild populations.

Lice can kill these small juvenile salmon outright, but they can also slow them down, making them prime targets for predators, Morton explained.

“And, yet, DFO’s allowing it to happen,” she said.

In a statement provided to The Narwhal Monday, a spokesperson for Fisheries and Oceans Canada said “sea lice are parasites that have lived in BC’s coastal waters for thousands of years. Farmed fish are free of sea lice when they enter the ocean but can pick them up in the marine environment.”

The department requires farms to keep lice levels lowest during the out-migration period, but says, “the goal is not to eradicate sea lice,” which it notes “are a natural part of the ecosystem.”

Instead, the goal is to keep a check on the numbers to “limit harm to wild salmon.”

The spokesperson said in most years, sea lice levels at more than 90 per cent of fish farms are below the limit during the out-migration period.

This year, eight fish farms entered the out-migration period either with lice levels above the limit or did not count their lice levels during the first week as is required, the statement said.

Four Cermaq sites were affected by an algal bloom during this period and were exempt from the count, it said. 

“After the algal bloom subsided, the affected sites counted sea lice and undertook active sea lice management as soon as they were able to do so,” the DFO spokesperson said.

The other four facilities, meanwhile, were not affected by any such conditions that would have prevented them from counting or treating sea lice.

“These files have been referred to DFO Conservation and Protection for further assessment. The names of these facilities remain confidential while still under investigation,” the statement said.

“Enforcing the conditions of licence relating to sea lice and the outmigration of salmon smolts is a high priority for fishery officers,” it said.

Cermaq did not respond to The Narwhal’s request for comment.

Researchers find ‘relatively high’ sea lice on out-migrating juvenile salmon

As of June 6, Cermaq reported that lice levels at its Bawden Point farm were down to an average of 1.67 lice per fish. The Ross Pass farm was listed as inactive, suggesting it was not in operation at that point.

A review of archived versions of the company’s sea lice reporting page suggest it has struggled in some cases to keep sea lice levels below the three-lice threshold over the last few months of the wild salmon out-migration period.

On March 21, the company reported lice levels of 5.62 lice per fish at Bawden Point and was planning mechanical delousing. No information was provided for Ross Pass. By March 28, the company reported that delousing was underway at Bawden Point and lice levels were down to 1.57 lice per fish. Ross Pass was listed as inactive, and lice levels at three other farms were over the limit.

By April 18, sea lice levels at Bawden Point were back up to 4.58 lice per fish and further delousing treatment was planned. All the while, researchers at the non-profit run Cedar Coast Field Station in Clayoquot Sound were monitoring sea lice levels among juvenile wild salmon.

A microscopic image of a sea louse. Photo: Clayoquot Action

“We had high lice levels on farm and so right away we were seeing relatively high abundance of sea lice on the smallest juvenile salmon,” Mack Bartlett, the station’s research coordinator, said of their early season findings.

Some of the juvenile salmon at this stage are just 30 mm in length, he said.

“They don’t have scales yet, they don’t have any body mass,” he said. “Those are the ones that you’re most concerned about trying to basically deal with the sea lice infestation on them.”

Cermaq applied to expand fish farm where sea lice are a recurring challenge

Sea lice became more of a challenge for farms in Clayoquot Sound around 2018 as the parasites developed resistance to the parasiticide commonly used to fight infestations, Bartlett said.

“Since then, they’ve been trying to figure out systems to control sea lice down to below the three lice per fish federally licenced limit and every year they’ve gone over on a number of farms, multiple times throughout the season,” he said.

The situation is a little better this year than previous years, in part because the farms put in a “big effort” to keep lice levels down, Bartlett said.

Despite those efforts, however, a number of farms exceeded the federal lice limit.

An aerial view of Cermaq’s Fortune Channel salmon farm in Clayoquot Sound. On June 6, 2022, the company reported 0.63 lice per fish at this farm. Photo: Clayoquot Action

“I’m concerned that they don’t actually have a good strategy to get their lice numbers under control,” Bartlett said. And, DFO seems to be doing little to enforce its rules, he added.

For farms that exceed the lice limit, “there are no actual repercussions,” he said.

Now there are concerns the issues with sea lice could get worse if Fisheries and Oceans Canada approves Cermaq’s application to increase its production levels at its Bawden Point farm from a peak of 2,640 tonnes to 3,960 tonnes of fish. 

That application is under review, according to Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s website. 

“They can’t control their lice now and so there’s nothing that really indicates that they’ll be able to control it with more fish in the water,” Bartlett said.

Salmon farm licences across B.C., including for Cermaq’s farms in Clayoquot Sound, are set to expire at the end of this month. Fisheries and Oceans Canada Minister Joyce Murray is now faced with the decision of whether to renew some or all the licences and how that decision aligns with her government’s commitment to transition away from open-net pen salmon farms by 2025.

Updated June 13 at 4 p.m. PT to include a statement from Fisheries and Oceans Canada provided after publication.

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