A petition has been signed by more than 100,000 people calling on the British Columbia (BC) government to stop federal government and industry plans for open-net salmon farming in BC, Canada.

More than 100,000 people have signed the petition to stop open-net salmon farming in BC, Canada. Photo: Lloyd Guenther/Marine Photobank

More than 100,000 people have signed the petition to stop open-net salmon farming in BC, Canada. Photo: Lloyd Guenther/Marine Photobank

Despite decades of controversy and recommendations to the contrary from the CAD$37m Cohen Inquiry – an inquiry into the decline of sockeye salmon in the Fraser River – the federal government wants to move ahead with industry expansion plans. However, the BC government has the power to curb that growth by withholding approvals for new farm sites and amendments to existing farm tenures that would see them grow in size.

This renewed attention has gained on the back of a recent federal court decision that raises concerns about disease impacts on wild fish from this industry and recent reports of outbreaks of sea lice on juvenile wild salmon now migrating past salmon farms on their way out to sea.

“Millions of wild juvenile salmon are now migrating through an area that contains the highest density of fish farms on our coast, from Campbell River to Port Hardy,” said Karen Wristen, executive director, Living Oceans Society. “We are calling on Premier Clark to protect BC’s iconic wild salmon from federal recklessness and stop the planned expansion of this industry.”

Since assuming responsibility for the management of salmon farming in 2010, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) says it has been working on revised criteria for siting farms. But they are far from completing that task and First Nations and conservation groups say they have been acting without the broad scientific and public consultation needed.

Meanwhile, they have permitted farms, like the one at Sir Edmund Bay, which is currently reporting elevated levels of lice levels, to triple their production.

Key information has also been unavailable from DFO. “We have asked DFO several times to share information on the current status of sea lice on fish farms in affected areas so that we can assess whether existing management strategies are working, but they have refused,” said John Werring, David Suzuki Foundation senior science and policy advisor. “Their failure to respond on an issue of such immense public importance is simply unacceptable.”

The petition has received the endorsement of more than one hundred conservation organisations, industry associations, independent business owners and the Tofino-Long Beach Chamber of Commerce.

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