Whole in the Water
Well-Known Member
Good riddance to net pen fish farms I say. Move them onto land where their harmful impacts can be better managed - the sooner the better!
Aquaculture improving?..The Fish Farm Thread
- Thread starter islandboy
- Start date
wildmanyeah
Crew Member
kinda off topic but i was shocked to hear on the radio that canfor only has 12% of its operation in BC.
Yeah a lot of small coastal resouce based towns are hurting and it's not getting better. Sport fishing won't save a town like Hardy where 25 % or more of most business revenue and most of the jobs are FF related. I'm not saying it's good or bad ..... just the reality. I'm not in the FF industry, never have been but closures will hurt some towns. Logging and mining are also bad.
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CLF to Sue One of World’s Largest Salmon Producers for Ocean Pollution
CLF has notified Cooke Aquaculture of its intent to sue for Clean Water Act violations at 13 active sites in Maine where Cooke grows millions of salmon in 150 cages. The Canadian company regularly pollutes Maine’s iconic bays and negatively impacts recreation and the lobstering and fishing...
www.clf.org
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"At just 13 sites, they produce the same amount of waste that the City of Portland creates in one year," Govern says the pollution not only impacts local wildlife, but lobsterman and other fisherman that rely on clean and healthy waters. "There are lobstermen who have pulled up their traps near these Cooke net pens where there's black smelly sludge on the lobster traps."CLF to Sue One of World’s Largest Salmon Producers for Ocean Pollution
CLF has notified Cooke Aquaculture of its intent to sue for Clean Water Act violations at 13 active sites in Maine where Cooke grows millions of salmon in 150 cages. The Canadian company regularly pollutes Maine’s iconic bays and negatively impacts recreation and the lobstering and fishing...
In a statement, representatives from Cooke Aquaculture said these claims are baseless and emphasized the economic impact they have on communities where their salmon pen sites are located.
"Aquaculture farming is an economic engine for Maine's working waterfronts with Atlantic salmon aquaculture being a major source of employment for residents of Downeast Maine. Cooke employs 230 people throughout the state." Same old crap happening there too.
Eliminating open-net fish farms in B.C. would cost taxpayers billions, report says
A report commissioned by the BC Salmon Farmers Association says the proposed ban on marine net-pens would have ‘severe consequences’ for Canada’s economy, Indigenous communities and food security
www.theglobeandmail.com
rockdog
Well-Known Member
I wonder what the cost to all that wild salmon supports is/was, and still growing..... So be it, we will be much better of without the farms. We were fine before they showed up, we will be fine long after they are gone.
Eliminating open-net fish farms in B.C. would cost taxpayers billions, report says
A report commissioned by the BC Salmon Farmers Association says the proposed ban on marine net-pens would have ‘severe consequences’ for Canada’s economy, Indigenous communities and food security
Eliminating B.C.'s open-net fish farms would cost billions, report says
Opposing sides in British Columbia's fractious battle over coastal open net-pen salmon farming are in Ottawa casting for support to either phase out the industry or throw it a life line.
cheknews.ca
Bob Chamberlin, First Nations Wild Salmon Alliance chair, who said he was also in Ottawa this week meeting federal government officials, said he speaks for more than 120 First Nations.
“We are working with the government to further assist it to reach its stated goals,” Chamberlin said in an interview from Toronto.
He said First Nations across B.C. have lost billions of dollars worth of wild salmon they counted on for their food security.
“Where’s the dollar figure for the loss of our food security,” said Chamberlin. “You get into the billions very quickly. You get into the billions of dollars to replace what we used to just go to the river or ocean to collect. That’s the food security importance to First Nations.”
READ MORE: ‘Way of the future’: Land-based fish farm near Port McNeill called a success
He said he does not agree with the salmon farmers’ economic analysis that communities will shut down if salmon farms are closed or forced to operate on land.
“To me this is consistent to what they have communicated in the past: the sky is falling,” said Chamberlin. “When I hear the salmon farmers speak of food security, they are talking about the sushi bars down the West Coast of the United States.”
salmonkiller01
Well-Known Member
Fish farming will lose jobs, if they go to land the jobs stay, profits go down.
Forestry was the driver of the bc economy for nearly a century, just a tiny proportion of the dollars are made today from the highs. All those towns are still there. Some harder hit than others but the economy shifts. Not a strong argument because I doubt fish farms put a billion dollars into our economy. Most likely includes all the profits which are gone off shore
Forestry was the driver of the bc economy for nearly a century, just a tiny proportion of the dollars are made today from the highs. All those towns are still there. Some harder hit than others but the economy shifts. Not a strong argument because I doubt fish farms put a billion dollars into our economy. Most likely includes all the profits which are gone off shore
wildmanyeah
Crew Member
all about sockeye in the interior of BC and removing farms ain't gonna change sockeye returns or the variability of sockeye returns imo. it will be back to logging,, and climate change and woes poor me.
salmonkiller01
Well-Known Member
As for the environment costs how Many millions did pulp mills invest to clean up their act? Way more than ff ever will as they cry the blues needing to be friendly to the environment.
I guess Victoria should have saved their money and not build the treatment plant for their sewage.
I guess Victoria should have saved their money and not build the treatment plant for their sewage.
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salmonkiller01
Well-Known Member
I got that wrong, will remove my comment, I was under the impression Canadian chicken was antibiotic free but that is not true, chickens must have stopped antibiotics and have out of there system before going to market.
Thanks for the clarification/addition HG.
That's gotta be one of the lamest FF industry rebuttals to Bob I have yet heard - although Dallas Smith seems to be good at these lame ones.
Briefly, FNs have always taken advantage of what resources they have locally, and will continue to do so. Since time immemorial, as the saying goes. There are ~200 FNs in BC spread about North-South, East-West and from border to sea. This landmass & accompanying FNs encompasse 2 large watersheds (Fraser & Skeena), hundreds of small to medium-sized watersheds on the coast, the Northernmost part of the Columbia in the interior, and in between the boundaries up to the Nass and the Yukon Rivers in the North, and the Arctic drainage in the NE.
The presence/absence/abundance of the numerous species and clades (meaning different life histories - like summer/spring runs or stream/ocean type clades of Chinook, different sockeye runs, etc.) of harvestable salmon - including any existing pink salmon - depend upon geographic location of watershed, geographic location within any watershed, connectivity/barriers, life histories of individual species & clades, glaciation history, and fishing activities sometimes thousands of KM from harvest site.
And I won't even bother to talk about impacts that affect the abundancies of all species of these salmon resources including pinks and especially pink smolts. Things like - I dunno - ONPSF? Been the past 166 pages detailed these impacts and debating them, including the effects of sea lice on pink & chum smolts in the Broughtons where there are still FFs. Kinda a rather big elephant in the room to bring in unannounced when declaring everyone can instead survive on pinks.
Pinks and chum commonly utilize only the lower reaches of watersheds that reach the coast, and chum females generally stay outside the watershed in the adjoining inlets until their eggs ripen (where the seiners used to get them) and then bolt in and spawn and die often within 5 days (i.e. residence time). Pinks can and do spawn intertidally.
And there are either odd or even year pink subspecies/cohorts - and different parts of the coast often have either even or odd as the dominant run - if they have any pinks at all. Not every watershed has pinks - some don't. The Somass comes to mind, among others.
Also, pinks typically don't go too far up most watersheds - and are NOT available locally for the many dozens of interior FN bands - despite the ignorance from the BCSFA/CFNFS spokespersons/PR firms who seem to know very little about wild salmon - and are perhaps hoping we also don't.
Coho and Chinook generally travel up the farthest - altho one only generally finds Chinook using lake-headed systems that provide a more stable water flow for the larger Chinook eggs that need more O2. And since they go the farthest which will take the longest time - their & coho eggs ripen along the way. And different runs have different residence times; typically the earliest runs go the farthest & have the longest residence times & the greenest eggs.
And then there are the lengthy discussions over sockeye and chum, as well - and what runs migrate when/where and which ones are weak stocks.
The people doing stock assistance & egg takes reading this can confirm what I am saying. That's why they have holding tubes, for example.
So - short version - when present often numerous - but very spotty & limited/changing quantities/availability of different species/clades of salmon - including pinks that have small smolts that are most affected by FFs. Spread across a mosaic of landscapes & watersheds that often doesn't include pinks.
And, the best the BCFSA or Coalition of First Nations for Finfish Stewardship can offer as an alternative to ONPSF Atlantic salmon to eat is to quote Marie Antionette and say "Let them eat pinks":
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The main runs in the Broughton is pinks and chum along with some coho and a few springs. As wild pointed out it's all about Fraser sockeye for fsc now. Incidental pink catch is usually given away or thrown out.
Salmon killer you do have a point about logging but with it still going down the tube's and now with FF uncertainlty it will really show in some coastal towns.
I guess folks can all move to vancouver.
Salmon killer you do have a point about logging but with it still going down the tube's and now with FF uncertainlty it will really show in some coastal towns.
I guess folks can all move to vancouver.
rockdog
Well-Known Member
Such an informative post AA. I learn something each time you post, thanks!
Thanks, RD. Happy to share. Esp. to push back against the crap that the PR firms & industry spit out - like the latest on wild pink salmon. I guess I could/should have gone a bit farther in on the pink question/answers.
Typically, the even year (only a 2 YO lifecycle, not 3-5 like the other species of salmon) pinks (year name resides with the returning, spawning adult salmon not the juvie outmigrators) are practically non-existent for many Southern BC watersheds - esp. the Fraser. By-and-large that's where the largest number of pink juvies come from that are outmigrating past the FFs in the Broughtons - odd year Fraser pinks that come out in the next spring - in the even years. And in these even year springs - these smolts would be both more numerous - but also larger than any local pink smolts, and would arrive a few weeks later than the local smolts due to the distance they have to travel.
For the more Northern watersheds - starting in the Central Coast of BC - it's often the other way around with even year that dominates adult abundances. But it's complex, and the abundances are rarely 0% even and 100% odd - but on average Coast-wide - it's the odd year that dominates:
Figure - PMC
Complex dynamics of animal populations often involve deterministic and stochastic components. A fascinating example is the variation in magnitude of 2-year cycles in abundances of pink salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) stocks along the North Pacific ...
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
And those relative even/odd pink abundances seem to change over the decades:
But lately, 1st Jim Irvine and then Greg Ruggerone have noticed there is an increasing dominance of odd-year returning pink salmon:
and this maybe affecting sockeye numbers - particularly the pinks pumped out by AK hatcheries:
Pinks are caught commercially mainly as a bycatch in sockeye and/or sometimes chum fisheries. There is a limited market for their roe, but the buyers pay next to nothing for their supply so they aren't normally targeted in Canada; but AK does more with terminal fisheries for pinks, specifically than BC.
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