News/Letter: Monday, April 28: Fish farm critics repeat myths
Robert Wager, Vancouver Sun , April 28, 2014
Re: Federal fish farm support is unhealthy, Letters, April 25
There are several often repeated myths about fish farms in the letter by Norbert Greinacher.
The first myth is “Fish farms routinely use antibiotics to keep their penned salmon healthy.” Official records demonstrate about three per cent of fish in fish farms are treated with antibiotics. There is no evidence antibiotics in fish farms contribute to antibiotic resistant human bacterial pathogens.
The second myth involved the alleged threat from escaped Atlantic salmon. Few know that in the mid 1900s almost 10 million Atlantic salmon were intentionally released into Pacific Northwest waters. None survived. Atlantic salmon cannot successful reproduce outside their native territories in the Atlantic Ocean. The much smaller numbers of escaped Atlantic salmon do not threaten Pacific salmon stocks.
The Cohen Commission and the Pacific Salmon Forum both clearly stated there was not convincing evidence of sea lice from fish farms harming Pacific salmon. Over a decade of research has not found any evidence of this myth. Yet the myth persists.
The feed conversion rate for farmed salmon is closer to 1.2 to 1 not 6 to 1 as stated. Salmon farming is the most efficient form of meat protein production in the world.
Early returns predict another massive Sockeye run this year. Pink salmon runs are at historic highs. The models that predicted collapse of salmon caused by fish farm have failed to be supported by real world data.
It is clear the federal government is following the science and supports well regulated fish farm development as a sustainable way to increase the supply of health salmon. I never understood how we can save the wild salmon by eating only wild salmon.
ROBERT WAGER, Nanaimo
Here is the Letter Robert responded to:
Friday, April 25: Federal fish farm support is unhealthy
NORBERT GREINACHER, Vancouver Sun, April 25, 2014
The Cohen Commission report released this week recommends exploring the connection between fish farms and reduced sockeye salmon stocks.
Re: Red-tape reductions in works, April 17
When there is considerable evidence, based on scientific studies, about the shortcomings of fish farming, why is the federal government proposing to boost fourfold the B.C. fish-farm industry by 2030?
Crowded conditions in fish farms provide ideal conditions for the incubation of disease. Fish farms routinely use antibiotics to keep their penned salmon healthy. Aren’t we concerned about the overuse of antibiotics?
Antibiotic resistant bacteria have been found in farmed fish. Scientists have shown these resistant bacteria can move from fish farms to humans. Such resistant strains can lead to human diseases that cannot be treated with conventional antibiotics. At a time when land-based farming is moving to ban antibiotics, why expand an industry that depends on antibiotics to prevent disease in crowded fish pens?
Wild salmon are fundamental to our coastal ecosystems, from feeding seals, porpoises, dolphins, whales, eagles, wolves, bears and many other species, to providing nutrients and directly influencing forest health within salmon watersheds.
Farmed Atlantic salmon have been known to escape their pens and then compete directly with wild Pacific salmon. Sea lice and disease from fish farms are spread to wild salmon.
Finally, the environmental effect of fish farms goes far beyond our waters. For every pound a salmon in a net pen gains, it requires three to six pounds of commercial food processed from fish like anchovy and herring. Salmon farming uses more fish protein than it produces.
I cannot understand why this federal government thinks it needs to relax the regulatory framework to make it easier for a large multinational industry to expand, at the expense of our health and the health of our coastal environment.
NORBERT GREINACHER, Vancouver
Link to Vancouver Sun Article that generated Letters to the Editor
Ottawa to slash red tape for fish farms
Federal government hopes changes will lead to huge expansion of B.C. fish farms, but farm critics appalled
By Peter O'Neil, Vancouver Sun April 16, 2014 4:20 PM
OTTAWA — The Harper government is laying the regulatory groundwork for a resurgence of the controversial B.C. fish farm industry.
Bureaucratic hurdles and legal uncertainty are being swept away as part of an attempt to help the Canadian industry, which has stagnated for years, to take advantage of rising global demand for seafood, according to testimony by top officials before a Senate committee...
http://www.farmfreshsalmon.org/ottawa-slash-red-tape-fish-farms
