Scientist at Department of Fisheries and Oceans says Ottawa is too beholden to fish farm industry
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/pol...t-of-fisheries-and-oceans-says-ottawa-is-too/
Robert FifeOttawa Bureau Chief
Steven Chase
Ottawa
Published October 15, 2020 Updated October 15, 2020
JONATHAN HAYWARD/The Canadian Press
A federal scientist has accused the Department of Fisheries and Oceans of underplaying the threat of open-net fish farms to Pacific salmon and too often acting in the interests of British Columbia’s profitable fish farming industry.
Fish farming in ocean waters off Canada’s West Coast remains controversial as fishermen grapple with the drop in wild salmon stocks. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government promised before the 2019 election to phase out open-net pen salmon farms in British Columbia by 2025.
Kristi Miller-Saunders, head of the department’s molecular genetics laboratory at the Pacific Biological Station in Nanaimo and adjunct professor at the University of British Columbia, has worked for Fisheries and Oceans for more than 25 years. She is troubled about recent assessments by the department that concluded the risk of pathogens transferring from salmon fish farms to wild stocks in B.C.'s Discovery Islands pose a minimal risk.
In a teleconference last month to discuss these new assessments, Fisheries official Jay Parsons told reporters the risk of viruses transferring from farmed salmon to migrating Fraser River sockeye salmon is less than 1 per cent; consequently farms in the area will not face immediate closing.
The Cohen Commission inquiry into declining Fraser River sockeye salmon – once a staple of commercial fishing in B.C. – had given Ottawa until Sept. 30, 2020 to demonstrate salmon farms in the Discovery Islands were a “minimal risk of serious harm” to migrating salmon or order them closed.
The Discovery Islands are an archipelago in the Salish Sea between Vancouver Island and the B.C. mainland which act as a bottleneck for the northerly migration of sockeye salmon. Fish must pass through this area, which is dotted with salmon farms, making it likely they would come into contact with at least one aquaculture operation.
The DFO assessments have come under fire from conservation groups and Indigenous leaders for failing to assess the effects of sea lice, which have proliferated dramatically in recent years. Sea lice, a parasite that feeds on the skin and mucus of fish, can be lethal for juvenile salmon migrating past and through salmon farm holding pens to the open sea.
In an exclusive interview with The Globe and Mail, Dr. Miller-Saunders said she feels the department has left the impression there is a minimal risk to wild salmon stocks from sea lice and viruses, such as highly contagious
Piscine orthoreovirus (PRV) found in farmed and wild salmon in B.C. This virus is associated with organ failure in chinook although it is not harmful to humans.
Dr. Miller-Saunders said Fisheries and Oceans appears to be
bending over backward to help the open-net fish farm industry, which plays the dual role as regulator and industry advocate.
“I am disappointed in the announcement to be honest. But I am not surprised. I think they can do more. There is no question in my mind, but it is a big industry and it has a strong lobby,” she said.
One of the major problems that inhibits independent research is the fact that department scientists depend on funding from the industry, Dr. Miller-Saunders said.
“If it is an inconvenient truth there is a good possibility if it is industry funded that doesn’t come out,” she said.
Dr. Miller-Saunders said she is troubled that Fisheries and Oceans doesn’t see any problem with allowing industry to collaborate on research. She said she believes industry’s interest in participating in research is to influence how risks to salmon are handled.
“If the research finds that there is a risk and they don’t want to be regulated according to that risk they are not going to be very happy about it,” she said.
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“They want to be in the middle of the research, not truly because they want to understand the risk, but because they want to control what’s said about the risk and how it’s interpreted.”
She said she feels Fisheries and Oceans has unwarranted faith in the fish industry.
“It’s a confidence that the government has that the industry will do the right thing and be open and honest. That if there is an issue, that they will bring it to light. And I simply do not trust that that would be the case.”
Dr. Miller-Saunders said a study that she concluded in 2012 into chinook salmon suffering jaundice and anemia in Tofino fish farms has not been published because of disputes between her and the corporate funder, which she said disagreed with her interpretation. Her report, obtained by The Globe, found that the “overwinter mortality” of farmed chinook was consistent with a viral infection, which could pose a threat to the aquaculture industry.
“Putting scientists in the precarious position of being told that they need to go to industry to fund research means they are only asking the research questions that the industry agrees with,” Dr. Miller-Saunders said.
Tim Rundle, general manager at Creative Salmon, a Tofino-based fish farming company that helped fund and support the jaundice study, said it’s not true that his company has prevented its publication. “It’s not Creative Salmon’s decision whether this gets published or not.” He said Creative Salmon would like to see the study published, but disagreements between study authors about what role PRV played in jaundice has delayed publication.
Sonja Saksida, one of the other authors and a veterinarian and epidemiologist who previously worked for Creative Salmon, said disagreement about interpretation of the data prevented the study from being published. “It has nothing to do with the company saying ‘We don’t want this published.’ They just wanted the proper interpretation of the data."
Gary Marty, another author of the delayed publication who is a fish pathologist with the B.C. government, echoed Dr. Saksida in a statement provided by the provincial Ministry of Agriculture: “According to widely accepted ethical standards for publishing scientific research papers, all authors must agree to the contents of the paper and be accountable for all aspects of the work. Publication of this study has been delayed because the authors do not yet agree on the contents of the manuscript.”
Later, Dr. Miller-Saunders contacted The Globe and Mail to say that the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans had ordered her to rephrase her comments to media.
“I am told by my managers that I need to clarify that my statements on industry’s ability to block the release of inconvenient scientific findings reflect my own personal experience, and not that of the general department,” Dr. Miller said in an e-mailed statement.
“There is, apparently, no universal policy that gives industry rights of refusal on publication of research. It is also important to note that the Program for Aquaculture Regulatory Research funds research that does not require industry collaboration, and is meant to inform regulatory needs of the department,” she said.
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