Aquaculture improving?..The Fish Farm Thread

Clayoquot Action's fish farm watchdog program

Clayoquot Salmon Investigation—shines a spotlight on this polluting industry’s dirty secrets. With the help of people like you, we’ve been able to expose mass die-offs, deadly Norwegian viruses, tainted bloodwater, and sea lice epidemics.
Cermaq is planning to install an experimental new fish farm at one of their Clayoquot sites this fall. We need your help to keep our staff and volunteers out on the water. During COVID the Department of Fisheries has cut monitoring, making this grassroots program more important than ever before.
The end is in sight for salmon farming. The federal government has promised to remove them from BC waters by 2025.
It’s time to pull together to protect wild salmon and everything that depends on them—before it’s too late.
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The Clayoquot Action team
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$10 isn't much. The work they do is really good. I have followed them for a while now. Groups like this are exposing what most can't see...
 
The truth about Open Net Pen fish farms in Clayoquot Sound from honest people.


 
Genomes Reveal Genetic Diversity of Piscine Orthoreovirus in Farmed and Free-ranging Salmonids from Canada and USA
A Siah, B R Breyta, K I Warheit, N Gagne, M K Purcell, D Morrison, J F F Powell, S C Johnson
Author Notes
Virus Evolution, veaa054, https://doi.org/10.1093/ve/veaa054
Published: 31 July 2020

Abstract
Piscine orthoreovirus (PRV-1) is a segmented RNA virus which is commonly found in salmonids in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. PRV-1 causes the Heart and Skeletal Muscle Inflammation (HSMI) disease in Atlantic salmon and is associated with several other disease conditions. Previous phylogenetic studies of genome segment 1 (S1) identified four main genogroups of PRV-1 (S1 genogroups I – IV). The goal of the present study was to use Bayesian phylogenetic inference to expand our understanding of the spatial, temporal and host patterns of PRV-1 from the waters of the northeast Pacific. To that end, we determined the coding genome sequences of 14 PRV-1 samples that were selected to improve our knowledge of genetic diversity across a broader temporal, geographic and host range, including the first reported genome sequences from the northwest Atlantic (Eastern Canada). Nucleotide and amino acid sequences of the concatenated genomes and their individual segments revealed that established sequences from the northeast Pacific were monophyletic in all analyses. Bayesian inference phylogenetic trees of S1 sequences using BEAST and MrBayes also found that sequences from the northeast Pacific grouped separately from sequences from other areas. One PRV-1 sample (WCAN_BC17_AS_2017) from an escaped Atlantic salmon, collected in British Columbia but derived from Icelandic broodstock, grouped with other S1 sequences from Iceland. Our concatenated genome and S1 analysis demonstrated that PRV-1 from the northeast Pacific is genetically distinct but descended from PRV-1 from the North Atlantic. However, the analyses were inconclusive as to the timing and exact source of introduction into the northeast Pacific, either from eastern North America or European waters of the North Atlantic. There was no evidence that PRV-1 was evolving differently between free-ranging Pacific Salmon and farmed Atlantic Salmon. The northeast Pacific PRV-1 sequences fall within genogroup II based on the classification of Garseth et al. (2013), which also includes North Atlantic sequences from Eastern Canada, Iceland and Norway. The additional full genome sequences herein strengthen our understanding of phylogeographical patterns related to the northeast Pacific, but a more balanced representation of full PRV-1 genomes from across its range, as well additional sequencing of archived samples, are still needed to better understand global relationships including potential transmission links among regions.
https://academic.oup.com/ve/advance-article/doi/10.1093/ve/veaa054/5879300
 
agentaqua said:
101 First Nations in B.C. demand removal of open-net salmon farms near Campbell River
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/brit...almon-farms-near-campbell-river-b-c-1.5733840
Click to expand...
https://www.northislandgazette.com/...eqXpPP1AiSQXIvkWM_BzKZvGzxXxdEd9cDOx2OXGpQsIU

Sorry I've been away. Been fishing a lot.

I found this response from Ian Roberts on FB. I think it is a fairly solid rebuttal to the many recent statements made by activists that just don't hold water.

My response underneath the latest Black Press article by Quinn Bender https://www.northislandgazette.com/.../unprecedented.../
I would suggest a few more folks go and add their thoughts.
A few corrections required to statements presented as fact in this article:
1. “…opponents of salmon farms point to independent studies”. None of these studies (actually just one study) have been made public, so what are they pointing to, exactly? Don’t be afraid to show your work.
2. “…many see as a conflict of interest in [DFOs) role to both protect wild salmon and promote salmon farming”. This is opinion that is 10 years outdated. As DFO makes clear in its update of the Cohen recommendations, DFO’s oversight of the salmon farming industry is consistent with its mandate, to “support the viability and sustainability” of the sector, and fairly applies to both aquaculture and wild fisheries.
2. “…fishermen are reporting unprecedented lice loads on out-migrating salmon smolts”. That’s really strange – didn’t know fishermen were targeting 20 grams juvenile salmon when trolling? They aren’t. This is just nonsense and doesn’t echo the reports of professional biologists working in the field sampling for sea lice on small fish.
3. A fishermen said: “Coastal and Indigenous communities have been decimated over the past decades, and this decimation has coincided with the emergence of open-net pen salmon farming.” He also said, right after this statement: “I’m not smart enough to connect those dots.”
4. “It [salmon farming] certainly was laid out in the Cohen inquiry as a smoking gun.”. No it wasn’t. In fact, Cohen’s final report stated: “…data presented during this Inquiry did not show that salmon farms were having a significant negative impact on Fraser River sockeye…” (Volume 3, page 24). Furthermore, mentioned that marine conditions (warm sea temperatures, low salinity, poor zooplankton abundance) as “likely to be the primary factors”.
5. “…one point during the study up to 99 per cent of out migrating juvenile salmon were infested with sea lice at potentially lethal numbers.” Again, that single study – the same one mentioned in point #1 above - has been kept locked away in secret. There are published studies – showing the raw data – that do not support this statement. Are journalists, apparently capable of using search engines, unable to find these published studies online?
6. “…a study prompted by the Cohen recommendations that found the risk of the Piscine orthoreovirus pathogen spreading from farms to Fraser River sockeye is also minimal.” Well done. Buried under paragraphs of opinion, finally actual science is referred to by the journalist, right at the bottom.
This presser was merely pressure tactics from a group of people terrified that the science won’t back up their self-interests. After one hour of expressing their opinions, we can now let science speak to fact. Let DFO report on its findings, as all participants of the Cohen Commission politely agreed back in 2011 – that science will lead Canada’s decision-making regarding fisheries and aquaculture.
 
Dave said:
It won't be science that shuts down salmon farms in BC, but enough misinformed FN bands might make it happen.
Click to expand...
Same could be said for sport fishing. We've already seen symptoms of this.
 
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