Federal government petition to end salmon farming in Canadian waters

[rockdog]

Signed. I'm sure it is clear to most, that over the last few years the Fish farm propaganda machine has been losing this argument big time. It's the same old, same old from the same characters. The proof has been provided many, many times yet they still ask for more. I'm done with it all, time to move on and get out of the water.

 

[TheBigGuy]

Big thank you to the Admins and moderator's for making this thread, and the saltwater thread about the petition a sticky.

 

[TheBigGuy]

I had a thought that occurred to me today regarding these fish farms and the escapees from their pens.

Under provincial legislation if I transfered an alien aquatic species to a local body of water I could be subject to a severe fine. See link below:

https://news.gov.bc.ca/stories/protecting-bc-waters-from-aquatic-invasive-species

Offence:

Release or allow to be released live aquatic invasive species (AIS) or any mussel, dead or alive.

Penalty Amount:

• $2,500 to $250,000 on first conviction
• $5,000 to $500,000 on a subsequent conviction

If I were to release a Bullhead or Carp into one our lakes or rivers, I could face a fine of up to a quarter of a million dollars. Many fishers have reported catching Atlantic Salmon (fish farm escapees) in the ocean and our local rivers. Why aren't these fish farm escapees treated as seriously as transferring a bullhead into a local body of water. Shouldn't the fish farms have to tag their fishfish, so that a fine can be levied every time one of these alien species are recovered in our local waters.

It seems to me like corporations are always being held to different standard than individuals in this country. Is it just me, or should these companies not be held accountable for every fish of alien origin that they introduce into our local eco systems.

 

[Fish Camp]

If the petition succseeds,and fish farms are ordered to land based opperations.I bet large fish farm companies quit in bc .The palmered threads would be severed to the northern communitys of van isl. I would like to see the farms stay with only a couple hundred fish instead of millions of fish,then open the farm site as a trophy sport fish destinaton for atlantic salmon.Allong the same idea as the triploid rainbow trophy ponds that are created in bc.

 

[agentaqua]

n

I had a thought that occurred to me today regarding these fish farms and the escapees from their pens.

Under provincial legislation if I transfered an alien aquatic species to a local body of water I could be subject to a severe fine. See link below:

https://news.gov.bc.ca/stories/protecting-bc-waters-from-aquatic-invasive-species

Offence:

Release or allow to be released live aquatic invasive species (AIS) or any mussel, dead or alive.

Penalty Amount:

• $2,500 to $250,000 on first conviction
• $5,000 to $500,000 on a subsequent conviction

If I were to release a Bullhead or Carp into one our lakes or rivers, I could face a fine of up to a quarter of a million dollars. Many fishers have reported catching Atlantic Salmon (fish farm escapees) in the ocean and our local rivers. Why aren't these fish farm escapees treated as seriously as transferring a bullhead into a local body of water. Shouldn't the fish farms have to tag their fishfish, so that a fine can be levied every time one of these alien species are recovered in our local waters.

It seems to me like corporations are always being held to different standard than individuals in this country. Is it just me, or should these companies not be held accountable for every fish of alien origin that they introduce into our local eco systems.

Good questions, TBG. The answer(s) to you post lies in 2 components: jurisdictional and functional.

The Province only has jurisdiction in non-tidal fresh waters (as far as the water column goes - not the "bottom") - and Atlantics are the easiest to grow wrt operational requirements for things like stocking densities. On the East Coast - the escape and subsequent genetic pollution of native Atlantic stocks by inbreeding with farm stock has been quite detrimental and insidious to the health of those wild stocks. Insidious is that you can't clean that up now. On this Coast - at least Atlantics and Pacifics can't interbreed - and you can tell Atlantics and Pacifics apart easily surveying for escaped Atlantics. So that one detrimental effect (inbreeding) can't happen - and because of that - I am in favour of using Atlantics instead of Pacific salmon to grow in industrial settings like open net-cages.

Escaped Atlantics can get a leg-up in establishing populations in Pacific rivers if their competition - steelhead - are at low abundance. John Volpe did quite a bit of work on this aspect years ago. And escaped Atlantics - like other farm fish can transfer disease-causing organisms to naïve stocks- if they contain these organisms. So that could be another effect of randomly entering a new watershed for a while.

To my knowledge - this effect - like all the other risks around wild-cultured stock fish health interactions - has never been investigated nor reported nor acknowledged and responded to in a responsible, professional manner by our regulators.

 

[TheBigGuy]

Agentaqua thanks for your response to my post regarding invading alien species. Yes, I do understand the provincial government only has jurisdiction once an alien species has been introduced to a body of freshwater in the province.

Luckily Atlantic can't interbreed, with our local stocks. However, that is not the main reason why introducing alien species is illegal here. Whenever an alien species is introduced into our local Eco systems no one can predict the result. Most alien species compete with the native species, sometimes with disastrous results. Transmission of foreign diseases to our native stocks is obviously a huge concern.

But of course, the fish farm supporters continue to claim these farmed species are disease free. Unfortunately, no governing body has the will to force tagging of these farmed fish and fining the owners who are responsible for allowing them to escape into our local waters.

 

[TheBigGuy]

This petition is really wracking up signatures from BC at a very fast pace. There were over 150 from BC that signed on since yesterday. BC has almost 4000 signatures. That's twice as many as the rest of the country combined. Way to go guys, I think the influx of guys from this forum has been a reel boost since the exposure here.

I have text or emailed friends and family to spread the word. Hopefully this petition will get the kind of numbers that makes an impression on our politicians in Parliament.

 

[gone fishin]

Sorry, but 4000 signatures from BC is not going to cause a ripple.
We need 40,000
I am disappointed and somewhat surprised with Social Media we are not approaching that number.

 

[agentaqua]

Thanks for the reply TBG. Agree with your points/perspective. Been thinking some more about the Provincial Statutes against release of alien species that you posted. I think proving who owned/released the fish would be problematic - but would be interesting to see what would happen if a farm company was charged under the Act. The federal regs do not give any farm/individual permission to release farm or ornamental fish. Unless there is a tie-in to identify who the culprit is (vis-a-vis tagging or something) however - I can't see how any prosecution could go forward w/o identifying an alleged perpetrator.

Furthermore - I gotta admit that it is interesting that we have Provincial regs against release of alien species - but not federal ones??? The federal ones focus solely on ballast water and nothing about farm escapees: http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/science/environmental-environnement/ais-eae/index-eng.htm

While the Department (DFO) who licences fish farms would also likely be in charge of enforcing any federal regs against alien species releases such as farm fish ... and the CFIA - who thinks their main focus is to protect trade for the industry is also lead department responsible for rolling-in this initiative....

hmmm...

From the Gazette (http://www.gazette.gc.ca/rp-pr/p1/2014/2014-12-06/html/reg1-eng.php): "Currently, the proposed list of species to which these prohibitions would apply is quite limited and represents a consolidation of species already listed under federal AIS regulations in Manitoba and Ontario, as well as Asian Carps and Zebra and Quagga mussels."

Who made the "Proposed List of Species" up? How do we amend/revise it??

hmmm...

 

[bushwackin]

Signed

 

[ZENYO]

Signed

 

[TheBigGuy]

Sorry, but 4000 signatures from BC is not going to cause a ripple.
We need 40,000
I am disappointed and somewhat surprised with Social Media we are not approaching that number.

HI gone fishin.

I totally agree that many more signatures are needed. Social media would be a great way to get far more exposure for this petition. I'm not into that stuff though. Don't have a Facebook account, and I probably never will. Just not my thing. Facebook would definitely be a great way to spread the word about this petition..

Regarding the number of signatures so far. The petition has not been going very long, and it will take a bit of time to get the word out. Perhaps if any forum members belong to fishing, hunting, or conservation organizations they can send an email to the groups they are members of. Most of these types of groups have extensive mailing lists. That could help get the word out to a far greater number of concerned people that are unaware of the petition.

 

[AlK]

Petition signed.

 

[Earl Ledge]

Signed it a few days ago. Great to see a lively stream of information here.

 

[Rover]

If anyone is hesitant about signing this or needs evidence convincing anyone else to, please watch this documentary about the condition of salmon on the coast

http://www.salmonconfidential.ca/watch-salmon-confidential-documentary/

 

[TheBigGuy]

If anyone is hesitant about signing this or needs evidence convincing anyone else to, please watch this documentary about the condition of salmon on the coast

http://www.salmonconfidential.ca/watch-salmon-confidential-documentary/

I have watched that documentary. Thanks for posting the link. It is very scary the diseases that those farmed Salmon carry. Well worth the time to watch. If your sitting on the fence about signing the petition, you won't be after you watch that documentary.

 

[TheBigGuy]

BC is leading the way in this petition by a huge margin. It's rather sad how the most populated provinces have barely had any response to this issue.

I registered on the OntarioFishingForums this morning. Ontario has a lot of fishers, and I know if this petition is brought to their attention they should support it.

You can only make a few posts a day when you first register on that forum to prevent spamming. Once I can post freely I will bring the issue up in earnest. Hopefully I can encourage some of that forums 6000 members to sign the petition.

 

[mcallagan]

I forwarded the link to the petition as well as Alex Morton's request for us to sign it to 4 other forums that I am on.
I also said in another post on them all that the members who view the post should click the link and sign rather than just viewing.

 

[TheBigGuy]

I forwarded the link to the petition as well as Alex Morton's request for us to sign it to 4 other forums that I am on.
I also said in another post on them all that the members who view the post should click the link and sign rather than just viewing.

Good on you.

 

[Crow]

I forwarded the link to the petition as well as Alex Morton's request for us to sign it to 4 other forums that I am on.
I also said in another post on them all that the members who view the post should click the link and sign rather than just viewing.

well done mcallagan! this is my only site, but I do hope others will take the same action. There is lots of time before the petition closes.