Aquaculture improving?..The Fish Farm Thread

We all can choose to believe the reports and science we choose to.
Some will take your posting from the BC Salmon Farm Association as honest news.
Then again some take everything Donald Trump say as honest news
.
 
Returns are returns. They are posted by DFO and others. Fact is there have been many large returns while farms have been operating and even very low returns in years way before farms were there. The companies do not estimate the returns. For those systems in the Broughton its DFO or Salmon Coast (which AM is part of). Look at the return numbers and make up your own mind.
 
Commercial and the Sport Fishing Community have taken a BIG HIT in order to help the return of wild salmon, That's a fact!
Fish Farms are working hard to control their sea lice and disease because they know they are killing wild salmon.
Another fact is Fish Farms kill wild salmon. That's what I choose to believe.
sea lice.jpgfish farm disease.jpg
 
as I mentioned on the previous page that the scale of the changes this year for at least sockeye are much larger than the Broughtons.

Not yet sure what the status of the pink runs are in the Broughtons, and if those expected run sizes exceed what the past few years have been "normal". I am on the fence so far until escapement numbers come in from an accurate source.

The BCSFA news release that HG provided is also misleading - as intended - the same thing the BCSFA PR people blame Bob of being. The metric to gauge risk/impact is not necessarily the "number of active farms", but instead the NUMBER OF SEA LICE on outmigrating smolts for that brood year. If there were any smolt fences operating enumerating smolt outmigration numbers - and adding in sea lice levels - then looking at ocean survival rates from accurate escapement assessments would cinch it one way or another.

I noticed they were very careful to give no analysis of that when comparing years and returns. Typical "look over there" distractions from the PR firms.
 
Last edited:
The metric to gauge risk/impact is not necessarily the "number of active farms", but instead the NUMBER OF SEA LICE on outmigrating smolts for that brood year. If there were any smolt fences operating enumerating smolt outmigration numbers - and adding in sea lice levels - then looking at ocean survival rates from accurate escapement assessments would cinch it one way or another.

So you would concede then , either way, if sealice # were up (and had no negative impact) or down (those dam multinationals must be improving) when outmigration of smolts was happening and ocean survival rates/returns from accurate escapement assessments are good then this thread is finally settled from which the op started
"Aquaculture ; Improving?" Answer is yes
 
Despite corruption and collusion behind the scenes w upper DFO management and before that with the Province - the industry has been forced since circa 2002 to attempt to deal with sea lice - yes. That success was largely due to independent researchers and a change in the Provincial Regulators when Stan Hagen had to take over for Van Dogen because Van Dogen had to step aside when he was under investigation on collusion with the industry. The feds continued the focus on sea lice after they took over the regulatory program from the province circa 2010.

The 1st response strategy was using slice until the sea lice became resistant to it then the industry successfully lobbied DFO to get exemption to the deposit of a deleterious substance so they could use bath treatments which they knew was coming all the time claiming there was no problem with lice getting resistant to Slice.

Once they got the exemption they still routinely go over the permitted sea lice levels, but at least they look at the sea lice levels on their fish. Typically, monitoring sea lice levels on adjacent outmigrating juvenile salmon is ad hoc - if any monitoring is done at all.

But even today DFO, CFIA and the industry all hide critical information on disease outbreaks such as real-time reporting & geographic co-ordinates from the public. They denied both the initial source, risk and publication of effects on many pathogens like PRv/HMSI, mouth rot and others for many years.

They also deny that juvenile salmon have very defined and dependable early life history marine foreshore rearing habitat and refuse to perform actual assessments that take scoping (determination of geographic boundaries of effects) into account, including modelling of pathogens.

So yes - there have been improvements forced onto the industry after many years struggles. I wouldn't credit the industry for that outcome.

And we can only do so much since the technology remains basically the same - open net pens - where the water flows in and out and the industry keeps getting free pumping, free sewerage disposal and free real estate.
 
"Aquaculture ; Improving?" Answer is yes
I think we can agree that Fish Farms control of Sea Lice has improved from it's tragic past.
It's like a baseball team starting 35 losses and no wins improving to 6 wins and 24 more losses at the end of the season.
We all would agree, that's an improvement.
Have Fish Farms solved the problem of Sea Lice.. Hell No...they are still killing wild salmon. They know it and need to be put on dry land.
It has been stated before returns will vary greatly based on a number of factors and Fish Farms are a factor.
 
I think we can agree that Fish Farms control of Sea Lice has improved from it's tragic past.
It's like a baseball team starting 35 losses and no wins improving to 6 wins and 24 more losses at the end of the season.
We all would agree, that's an improvement.
Have Fish Farms solved the problem of Sea Lice.. Hell No...they are still killing wild salmon. They know it and need to be put on dry land.
It has been stated before returns will vary greatly based on a number of factors and Fish Farms are a factor.
They are the biggest factor to declining wild salmon numbers.
Pink numbers up in the Broughton this year as no Fish farms around. Not just a coincidence but we will see if the Pinks numbers stay up what reason the Farm Pundits can come up with for their increase. If it was just due to no commercial fishing etc. the Pinks numbers will stay low.
Let’s see what happens.
 
They are the biggest factor to declining wild salmon numbers.
Pink numbers up in the Broughton this year as no Fish farms around. Not just a coincidence but we will see if the Pinks numbers stay up what reason the Farm Pundits can come up with for their increase. If it was just due to no commercial fishing etc. the Pinks numbers will stay low.
Let’s see what happens.
There are numerous farms in the Broughton operating and they were operating near Campbell River (DI) on this years out-migration and still are operating around Hardy and all three or these areas are having good pink returns this year. The Broughton had one of the largest returns ever while all of the farms were there. Believe what you want but the return data is all there. AA raised some interesting comments re lice levels which would be interesting to explore. There is more at play than just fish farms.
 
it's most likely still too early yet to come up with final escapement numbers by watershed for pinks. Maybe in a month or so - one could assume we are at the end of the adult returns for pinks 2022. Not sure what is the best index stream with accurate escapement data from a fence/DIDSON/ARIS, etc. Glendale or Kakweiken perhaps? These are the types of analysis that need to be completed:









and location/sea lice levels are also important:

Fish-farms-red-circles-rivers-and-place-names-in-the-Broughton-Archipelago-and.png



and of course that is only looking at sea lice and not other pathogens. Other methodologies that can and should be repeated on the pinks in the Broughtons include
the SSHI models populated with as many years of infectious data available to reveal associations between agents and proximity to farms (e.g. as they did for PRV-1 for Chinook salmon and T. maritimum for Sockeye salmon).
 
Last edited:
There are numerous farms in the Broughton operating and they were operating near Campbell River (DI) on this years out-migration and still are operating around Hardy and all three or these areas are having good pink returns this year. The Broughton had one of the largest returns ever while all of the farms were there. Believe what you want but the return data is all there. AA raised some interesting comments re lice levels which would be interesting to explore. There is more at play than just fish farms.
Meanwhile, there are anecdotal reports of fairly robust pink salmon returns in the Broughton Archipelago area, leading to speculation by some that the removal of open-net salmon farms from that area in 2019 and 2020 might have something to do with this year’s better returns.

“This year’s significant rebound in pink salmon returns present compelling evidence that it is the salmon lice sloughed-off from open-net salmon farms that was (and remains) the primary cause of critical declines in the returns of wild salmon,” the First Nations Wild Salmon Alliance (FNWSA) said in a press release.

Unlike other species of Pacific salmon, pink salmon live for only two years. The pinks returning now would have migrated to sea in 2020, after some salmon farms in the Broughton Archipelago had been removed.

Whereas pink salmon in that area returned in the hundreds in 2020, there is anecdotal evidence of pink salmon returning now in the thousands, said Bob Chamberlin, chairman of the FNWSA.

But 2020 is a bad yardstick to measure by. That was the year when the commercial catch for various species of salmon throughout the Northern Pacific was one of the lowest in decades. Returns this year of any species of salmon might look good in comparison to 2020.

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans’ counting of salmon in areas like the Broughton Archipelago is spotty, so it may be hard to gauge just how this year’s return of pink salmon compares to previous years.

One area where salmon are counted is the Quinsam River, which has a hatchery, in the Campbell River area, and the results so far suggest some very healthy returns of pink salmon.

“They’re indicating a very good return of pinks,” Riddell said. “In-river visual count of over 150,000, so that’s a nice message, early on, and that would bring the good returns right down into Campbell River.”

But it would be premature to ascribe this year’s pink salmon returns to the removal of salmon farms, as there are so many other variables at work that might explain either increases or decreases in returns.

You believe what you like I believe it’s the removal of Fish Farms and if those pink numbers start holding up over the next couple of years It will suggest that is the case.
 

 
Some good runs and some poor runs so far this year. Even some good runs where there are farms like Port Hardy area, Broughton. Campbell River area and Port Alberni. There is no one reason for any up and down runs.
 
I think (as previously posted) that the sockeye returns 2022 phenomenon is much larger a pattern than the Broughtons. Pinks may/may not have the same pattern and scale within the Broughtons and it may/may not correlate with sea lice levels for their brood year juvie outmigration. I'm waiting to see the data on both sea lice levels (and other disease vectors) and returning adult pinks in the Broughtons before I make up my mind one way or the other. Too early yet for final escapement numbers of pinks to the Broughtons, and those numbers should come from a relaible and accurate source.
 
The language is certainly getting more Government like. With some FN strongly supporting and BC seemingly getting more on side. It will be interesting in the end to see what "transition" means.
 
Back
Top