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B.C.'s salmon feedlots need to be closedThanks to Alaskans for fighting against factory fish farming. Alaska is the last bastion of healthy wild salmon runs, but the forces against nature are closing in on all sides. Alaskan fishermen are leading salmon's last stand against the greedy corporations who want to turn the North Pacific into an oil tanker pipeline and highway to China, a gigantic gold mine and feedlots of farmed salmon. It is shocking to read that a deadly exotic disease from Europe has now been reported in wild Pacific salmon in British Columbia and could spread North to Alaska and South down the Pacific coast. Infectious Salmon Anaemia (ISA) is a fish farm flu which is a 'listed' disease requiring notification to the World Organization for Animal Health -- like bird flu, swine flu, rabies and mad cow disease. How this lethal disease was allowed into North Pacific waters is a lesson in madness and greed. Farming Atlantic salmon in the Pacific is clearly illogical and against the laws of nature. The only sensible solution is to immediately slaughter all the Atlantic farmed salmon stock on the Pacific coast and let wild salmon have free passage. It is heartening to see the removal of dams in the Pacific Northwest and the ban on salmon farms in Alaska -- now it is time for salmon farms in British Columbia to get out of the way and stop spreading infectious diseases. Salmon farms may not be allowed in Alaska but their impacts could be felt with the spread of ISA to sockeye salmon and other species. We heard at the salmon inquiry in Canada earlier this year that a single Atlantic salmon farm spreads 60 billion viral particles in one hour during a disease outbreak -- and that those pathogens spread over large distances. Escaped Atlantic farmed salmon have already been caught in Alaskan waters and clearly do not respect international borders. Hence there must be pressure exerted by the Alaska and U.S. governments on Canada to clean up disease-ridden salmon farms. And that means closing the Canadian border to imports of Atlantic salmon eggs from the North Atlantic and closing down all Atlantic salmon farms as a matter of precaution. Since the majority of salmon farmed in British Columbia is exported to the United States, consumers can send a strong signal to the Canadian Government by refusing to buy farmed salmon. People need to go wild for salmon and tell the Norwegian companies to go back home to Norway (92 percent of B.C.'s salmon farms are owned by Norwegian multinationals). It is time to make a choice between wild and farmed salmon -- and that means buying wild salmon from Alaska not diseased salmon from Canada. Don Staniford is a part of an international, non-governmental advocacy network based in British Columbia, the Global Alliance Against Industrial Aquaculture, which is dedicated to advancing environmentally and socially responsible aquaculture and believes that salmon, shrimp, tuna and 'Frankenfish' farming jeopardizes sustainable and safe seafood production. The views expressed here are the writer's own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch. Alaska Dispatch welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, e-mail commentary(at)alaskadispatch.com. Another article from the Juneau Empire: apparently disease and genetic mutation is no mystery in hatchery fish... Oregon conference discusses protecting wild salmon PORTLAND, Ore. - Biologist Rich Lincoln worries that the fragile balance of endangered salmon runs are threatened by an outdated hatchery system. Fishery managers have known for years that hatchery-raised salmon aren't as robust as wild fish, and that their lack of genetic diversity means whole fisheries may collapse under unfavorable ocean conditions. But an international conference of scientists and fisheries managers meeting in Portland this week is looking at less-studied impacts - disease, predation and competition for food - and how to overhaul a hatchery system that may hurt wild salmon more than it helps. "There is alarm," said Lincoln, director of the Portland-based nonprofit, State of the Salmon, which organized the conference. "The question is, do you need to see the results of the inevitable to see the collaboration that nations need to take?" Five billion hatchery fish are pumped into the northern Pacific yearly and account for as much as 90 percent of the young fish entering the ocean. Almost the entire Japanese fishery comes from hatcheries, and the percentage is rising from Alaska to California. The Columbia River basin relies heavily on hatchery fish, especially chinook. And regions that still have fairly healthy wild runs - the Gulf of Alaska and Russia's Sea of Okhotsk - are being overfished, said Peter Rand, a conservation biologist with State of the Salmon. "Salmon are going to need every chance they can get to make it in these environments," Rand said. A report by Oregon State University last year showed that hatchery fish can cause genetic problems in their wild-born cousins, so that even fish that survive to reproduce in the wild have fewer offspring. Lincoln said he hoped the conference would produce policy recommendations for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which oversees recovery for endangered salmon species on the Pacific coast. Possible recommendations could include a stronger effort to keep hatchery fish separate from wild salmon in spawning streams and reducing the number of wild salmon caught in fisheries. "We have the opportunity to address things now," Lincoln said. "There isn't a magic or easy answers. But there's a way to look at costs and benefits together." There are several very deadly diseases that are very common in the hatcheries in Alaska. Here is one reported example from the Juneau Empire. (Check out the last paragraph): Snettisham wages war on fish virus A federal grant has helped reduce the chances of disease sweeping through young hatchery fish intended for a growing and lucrative commercial sockeye salmon fishery near Juneau. The Snettisham sockeye hatchery, about 30 miles south of Juneau, is owned by the state but has been run by Douglas Island Pink and Chum since 1996. Its fish returns are expected to greatly increase the local commercial gillnet catch in coming years. "It's going to be pretty exciting," said gillnetter Kevin McDougall. Snettisham also helps incubate sockeye eggs for wild runs in Chilkat Lake, near Klukwan, and for wild runs shared by Canadian and American fishermen, and it stocks a personal-use fishery near Sweetheart Creek. But hatchery sockeye must be killed if they are affected by a virus common among the fish. Four years ago, the hatchery lost all the smolts because of a virus, said DIPAC Executive Director Jon Carter. Glad to hear that the infected fish were destroyed. Sadly, the Tahltan First Nation on the Stikine River are having their fish "enhanced" at this same facility. The BC First Nation would like to husband their own fishery, through stream enhancement rather than producing hatchery fish. However, since DFO is a Canadian Federal agency, they the Tahltan have little say in this transboundary fishery. While i am certain that those farmed fish are a very bad idea, it seems as though our "Ranched" salmon are just as risky. With much respect to you, the problem lies in bringing in new organisms which heretofore have not existed here. Therefore, there may be little natural defenses in our anadromous fish, so it may be that it impacts our sport fishery as much or more than our commercial fisheries. Not an exciting prospect. Our hatchery fish seem to bring out the worst in the old organisms such as IHN which I understand exists naturally. We're not going to get rid of these miscreants but I'd rather our fish are exposed to the the virus they already know, than one which our fish have no known natural defenses. Apparently, the fish biologist whom has been examining this was banned in Canada from disclosing the information contained in yesterday's New York Times article on the subject. Now that the cat is out of the bag that Frasier River Sockeye have been infected by this pathogen, I understand that it is fair game in Canada. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/29/science/pacific-salmon-virus-raises-worries-about-industry.html?_r=1 Don't get me wrong here, I do not want to support farmed salmon. I believe that they and the methods that are used to rear them are both very significant threats. It's just that the hatcheries that operate in Alaska are very likely to be just as big a threat and of course since they have a lot of money at stake and are also paid to operate the hatcheries the commercial salmon fishery in Alaska likes to ignore the threat they are introducing here. And on a separate but related note; In Juneau today, in the case next to the $23.99 a pound halibut was LIVE MAINE LOBSTER at $9.99 a pound... yep I am still boycotting halibut. So how would positive tests for this Atlantic Ocean virus be fear mongering? Certainly, it may prove to be a false positive at best. But at worst, should it be positive and there are negative consequences for our wild salmon fishery, then heads should roll in the BC Salmon farming industry. I'll certainly wait for a fair assessment, but let's not wait too long. This virus wiped out Chile's farmed salmon stock, I'm told. There is much to examine, closely. The Fraser River runs took a pretty big hit a few years back. I hope not due to any invasive non-local virus. Insofar as manipulation, the same could be said of anyone seeking to lessen any reasonable amoun of alarm about this. Why not be on heightened alert to possible new pathogens coming into North Pacific waters. Two words, fearmongering and manipulation. Hmmm, I wonder if Mr Staniford cares to comment on Alaska's Salmon Ranching program? So where is the comparison between bringing in exotic species and native salmon husbandry? Two completely separate issues. Certainly it could be argued that genetic manipulation by man with hatcheries is a bad deal - that I'll concede. I think we should close down most hatcheries, because they are a sorry substitute for the real McCoy. The difference is that we're talking about two or potentially more invasive organisms for the cost of one. The cost of the second one may be far and above the first. Not a two for one deal that I want! We're having a "Happy Seven Billionth Person on the Planet" party on Halloween Night. Want to come? |
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