 January 15, 2003
The BC government recently lifted its seven year moratorium on new marine fish farm sites over the objections of Canadian and US citizens, the state of Alaska, and many First Nations tribes and Alaska Natives. It is anticipated that a large number of fish farms will be placed near the Alaska-Canada border. (1) In April 2002, a diverse coalition of fishermen, conservationists, government officials, Tribes, and scientists from Alaska, Canada, and the Lower 48 called on the Canadian government to safeguard wild fish stocks along the Pacific coast by sustaining the moratorium on new fish farm sites. A letter to Prime Minister Jean Chretien and President George Bush, signed by over 200 groups, scientists and political leaders, called on the Canadian government to maintain its current moratorium on ocean net cages, improve existing practices, and initiate a meaningful public process to evaluate the impact of industrial-scale finfish farming on wild fish stocks, fish habitat, and fishing dependent communities prior to further expansion at new or existing sites. In support of the coalition's efforts, petitions were circulated and in less than a week hundreds of people signed on. The state of Alaska last year issued strong statements in opposition to the moratorium lift. (2 & 3) According to Dale Kelley, Executive Director of the Alaska Trollers Association and board member of United Fishermen of Alaska, opponents of BC's fish farm policies consider ocean net cage farming to be a significant threat to wild fish and are frustrated by the lack of response to the public's concerns, "Several governments and corporations have turned a deaf ear on our concerns. The situation has forced people to resort to public protest to signal their outrage at the wholesale failure to adequately protect wild fish and the local economies that depend on them." Kelley points to the fact that many of BC's new farms will be located near the Alaskan border, which could put at risk Alaska's salmon and trout. Recent year government, scientific, and public reports, such as the provincially sponsored Salmon Aquaculture Review and a report by Canada's Auditor General, highlight the need for better research, monitoring, enforcement, and public involvement. "Only a handful of those recommendations have been implemented to date, yet the BC Government lifted the ban on new farms and is now permiting a behemoth hatchery facility smack in the middle of critical wild salmon habitat," said Kelley. The 2001 independent Leggatt Inquiry into British Columbia salmon farms resulted in a recommendation that net cages be removed from the ocean by 2005. The Inquiry revealed among other things that farmed fish commonly escape from net pens, invade wild fish habitat, prey on juvenile salmon, have the potential to transfer disease and parasites to wild fish. "Both Canada and Alaska are obligated to protect our shared fisheries resource under agreements like the Pacific Salmon Treaty. Lifting the moratorium and pumping up production of a non-indigenous species seems reckless when there are so many unanswered questions about the impact of fish farming on wild stocks," said Kelley.
"Conservation groups up and down the coast are very concerned about the negative effects fish farms have on the health of wild salmon and their habitats," stated Tim Bristol, Executive Director of the Alaska Coalition, "Healthy wild salmon populations are essential for both our communities' prosperity and a healthy environment." Non-indigenous Atlantic salmon have successfully reproduced in British Columbian rivers and are now being found in Alaska streams. For over a decade, fishermen in Alaska have caught Atlantic salmon in fisheries as far west as the Bering Sea. Since last year,there have been widespread disease outbreaks at multiple BC salmon farms. An increased presence of sea lice has been documented in areas near fish farms and identified as a potential cause of the recent year collapse of pink salmon stocks in the Broughton Archipeligo. An advisory issued just this week by Canada's Pacific Fisheries Resource Conservation Council linked sea lice to the Broughton crash and raised significant concerns over the potential impact of salmon aquaculture and sea lice. Alaskans fear that these problems may spread to wild fish in BC and elsewhere. (4) Says Gordon Jackson, spokesperson for Southeast Alaska Intertribal Fish and Wildlife Commission, "We are opposed to the new policy of BC to increase the farmed salmon industry. We protest this move and object to it in the strongest terms possible! We believe the farmed salmon will ultimately affect the integrity of our wild salmon. We worked really hard to being back those stocks and do not want them exposed to this foreign element." "People in coastal communities throughout Southeast Alaska remain alarmed that the Canadian federal and provincial governments are ignoring our concern - and that of many people, including scientists in British Columbia - that the decision to expand fish farming is poor public policy," said Bob Weinstein, Mayor of the City of Ketchikan and Chair of the Southeast Conference of Mayors. "The decision will result in economic and environmental harm to people and communities throughout Alaska, and sends the wrong message for future U.S.- Canada cooperation. Our state and federal officials should insist once again that Canada take immediate steps to safeguard wild salmon along the North Pacific Coast - beginning with keeping reinstating the moratorium on new fish farms."
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