fish farm siting criteria & politics

[sockeyefry]

Agent,

I think you are missing the point of Handee's posts. All he is saying is that when paper gets submitted and must be altered to be acceptable for publication in the journals is not what gets reported in the media. She is using the "credibility" of being published to lend false credibilty to her press releases. I have always wondered at this, how the paper as published in the journal and the press releases can have radically differing conclusions, yet no one in the media takes her to task on it?

Maybe all the Morton supporters should stop reading her press releases and actually read the articles, all the way through before commenting further.

 

[cuttlefish]

Hey Barbender,
Where are you seeing all these young fish? You checked the DFO's Area 12 Mainland inlet pink bulletins lately? 8600 pinks returning to the Glendale so far and not many more staging in the chuck, well below a 2006 brood of over 180,000. And a derby held at the end of August near Echo Bay... 32 boats = 1 pink salmon caught. But hey, it's still early right?
http://www-ops2.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/xnet/content/salmon/sc stad/Area12/Area12Pink2008-4.pdf. Meanwhile Quinsam pink returns are a bumper crop this year. Hmmm, must be something to do with marine survival in that darned Broughton. Maybe too many sea lice infested stickleback in there.
Oh, and since you speak of counting whales, FYI, northern Johnstone Straits whale watchers are reporting 140 orcas not seen in that area this year that have made an appearance there every year for the past 30 years. Fret not, they are all accounted for seen foraging to the north in fish farm free areas of the Central Coast.

And Handee, is your source back from holidays yet? I'm still waiting for your proof of Alaska's involvement in Science magazine publishing Krkosek's computer model. By the way, Handee, Krkosek is no longer a student. He now has his PhD.

 

[cuttlefish]

I posted the wrong DFO link last time. Go here and then click on the Area 12 escapement link to the one time free sign up.
http://www-sci.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/mehsd/sea_lice/2008/2008_intro_e.htm

Also here's more about the low orca numbers;
http://huffstrategy.com/MediaManage...tish-Columbias-nature-based-tourism/1295.html

 

[gimp]

The Dept of Fisheries & Oceans numbers are in: Pink salmon returns to the Broughton Archipelago and Knight Inlet (east of Port Hardy and Port McNeill) are at record lows - worse than the collapse of pink stocks in 2002, when the fish farms were forced to fallow (temporarily close). Craig Murray, owner of Nimmo Bay Resort, has fished and flown over the rivers of the Broughton for the past 25 years and said this is the poorest year he has seen for salmon returns.

"In BC both levels of government refuse to accept that salmon farms, as they currently operate, are causing irreparable damage to our wild salmon stocks. Effectively fallowing farms and closed containment of the Atlantic salmon are solutions that should be in place now. Our wild salmon resource is far too precious to gamble with in a game of government roulette" stated Murray.

The collapse was predicted for this year and was based on the "outrun" data of juvenile pinks in the spring of 2007 when many young pinks were found dying from sea lice. It is well documented that juvenile pink salmon are highly susceptible to the artificially huge numbers of sea lice that are generated at fish farms located on the pinks' migratory routes.

The salmon situation is starting to wreak havoc on nature based tourism located in the area. The decrease in pink salmon will have repercussions up and down the food chain whether on land or at sea.

Howard Pattinson, owner of Tide Rip Tours, a grizzly bear viewing business based out of Telegraph Cove, has observed grizzly bears unable to find salmon an important source of protein and trying to prepare for hibernation feeding only on berries and grass. "Many females will not find enough to eat and will abort their fertilized embryos. Adult males have also been known to eat young cubs when starving; and cubs that can't find food this fall won't make it through the winter" said Pattinson.

Donna and Bill Mackay, owners of Mackay Whale Watching out of Port McNeill, have been on the forefront of salmon and orca habitat protection for many years. They have observed that orcas are not socializing as much between pods due to their preoccupation with searching for food. Mr. Mackay noted, "This year only 41% of the total northern resident population of orcas have made an appearance in the Queen Charlotte and Johnstone Straits down from almost 100% which is from our 30 year data set."

Dean Wyatt, owner of Knight Inlet Lodge located in Glendale Cove, is concerned that whole coastal valleys are losing wildlife due to the lack of salmon. "If the wildlife go, then so does the $1.4 billion nature based tourism industry" said Wyatt.

The Wilderness Tourism Association (WTA) is calling upon the fish farm industry and government to take action now in order to save the 2009 outrun. They are seeking immediate commitments to move farms off key salmon migratory routes and the investment in attainable closed containment technologies.

 

[agentaqua]

quote:Originally posted by sockeyefry

Agent,

I think you are missing the point of Handee's posts.

Actually - No, I don't think I am. Sorry, I don't buy your interpretation (below).

Besides, sockeyefry. Handee's a mature adult and can defend his own postings (right?). You don't need to do it for him.

However, welcome back sockeyefry. Missed your input.

quote:All he is saying is that when paper gets submitted and must be altered to be acceptable for publication in the journals is not what gets reported in the media.

If what you claim is true, then why didn't he go after this point - instead of all that crap about peer-review? He didn't pursue this point because it was all about trying to discredit Alex's peer-reviewed work - but simultaneously credit others who (in Handee's opinion and perceptions) disagree (e.g. Jones et. al.) by saying how the peer-review process works for them - but not Alex. Reread the posting.

 

[Barbender]

News alert to most of you. Pink populations crashed in Alaska this year too. Guess what? That is with huge input from their factory built farmed...er wild fish hatheries, and not a single salmon farm in the whole state. Also the BS about Fraser River sockeyes crashing because of farms discredits her own work. Am I to believe that sockeye fry swam out of the river up the coast to the nearest farm which is 100 miles away? Because there are no farms at the mouth of the Fraser. I am so confused. Actually Ms Morton is slowly becoming a big ally to the aquaculture community. The more she is proven wrong the more people will tune her out. The sky is falling sound familiar?

 

[cuttlefish]

Barbender, you said,

quote:News alert to most of you. Pink populations crashed in Alaska this year too. Guess what? That is with huge input from their factory built farmed...er wild fish hatheries, and not a single salmon farm in the whole state.

I'd like to see the source of your info. According to ADF&G, the 2008 pink catch was over 80 million fish statewide, exceeding a forecast of 66 million;
http://csfish.adfg.state.ak.us/BlueSheets/BLUEWebReport.php
That surpasses catches from the 2006 brood year of 72.8 million pinks;
http://www.cf.adfg.state.ak.us/geninfo/finfish/salmon/catchval/blusheet/06exvesl.php
Are you refering to fish on the spawning beds? Unless they over-harvested and escapements are way down, I'd hardly call that a crash.

 

[gimp]

wow see bender again facts speak louder then BS Nice post cuttlefish

 

[sockeyefry]

Yes Cuttlefish, you are correct, but you fail to tell the rest of the story. (Failing to tell the whole story seems to be endemic in you anti fish farm folks) The projection of 61 million is 57% less than the catch of 142 million in 07, and is 30% less than the last 5 even year average. This means that your comment about 80 million being a banner year actually translates into the "crash" which Barbender spoke about, inspite of being slightly better of a catch than predicted. So what reason do you have for this drop in population? I suppose using Morton's logic, the Alaskan pinks came down to the Frasr and got infected just like the sockeye?

www.sf.adfg.state.ak.us/FedAidPDFs/sp08-09.pdf

Sorry I can't do the fancy link thing.

 

[cuttlefish]

Sockeyefry,
If you look at my posts, I said that pink returns to the Quinsam were a bumper crop this year. I didn't call pink harvests in Alaska a bumper, just that I don't consider it to be a crash. If their forecast was for a harvest of 61 million or 30% of the 5 even-year average of 87.9 million, then the actual harvest of 80.3 million was 90% of that average. I don't consider that to be a crash. Anyone on here can do the math, it's all in my previous Ak Blue Sheet link. If that link doesn't work for you, just go to the ADF&G homepage, http://www.adfg.state.ak.us/ and type "Blue Sheet" into their search engine. Once there you can get all their harvest data by clicking on "Previous Years".

While I'm on here, let me say that I'm not "anti-fish farms". But I am against open net cages raising salmon on migration routes of wild juvenile salmon until someone can show</u> that they do no damage. In the meantime, I prefer to err on the side of caution and to hope for a dialogue that could lead to a better mouse trap or fish cage or siting criteria. I thought that was what this forum was started for, not for a mud slinging contest that defames individuals with opposing opinions and ideas. However, when unsubstantiated statements are made, I will continue to dig deeper until I find some facts and will share those facts with everyone on here.

 

[agentaqua]

quote:Originally posted by Barbender

...Am I to believe that sockeye fry swam out of the river up the coast to the nearest farm which is 100 miles away? Because there are no farms at the mouth of the Fraser. I am so confused...

Yes Barbender, that's what fisheries biologists not only believe, but have proved through tagging studies, and trawl and DNA work.

The options are that you are indeed either confused or else uneducated and know very little about salmon smolts and their lifecycle that terminates at the spawning adult that returns to the creek after spending several years and several thousands of km swimming in the Alaskan Gyre.

Ever wounder how they got to the Alaskan Gyre?

Well that flat thing at the back of the fish is called a tail. Fish swim Barbender.</u> You should know this.

They swim to the Alaskan Gyre as smolts, then grow as they migrate into subadults. They start migrating slowly, and migrate faster as they grow. Sustained swimming speeds are a function of overall body length (averaging approx. 1 body length per second), so newly emerged pink fry migrate only some 2-5 km per day, where something like 17-46 km a day is average for returning adult salmon. Steelhead, sockeye, and river-type chinook may have even faster daily migration rates.

Some available online refs:
http://rparticle.web-p.cisti.nrc.ca...ume=66&year=&issue=&msno=z88-322&calyLang=eng
http://rparticle.web-p.cisti.nrc.ca...ume=77&year=&issue=&msno=z99-043&calyLang=eng

So a mere 170 km is not that far to a fish that swims some 5,000-10,000 km after migrating from their natal stream as a newly-emerged fry, then northward along the coast as a smolt (normally within a few km from shore, Orsi et al. 1997), then around the gyre once or twice as a sub-adult, then back 1000's of km along the coast and then back up the river to spawn and die and complete the cycle.

Yukon River chinook smolts have a 2700km journey just one-way to the ocean, as an example. THen to the gyre and back again.

After leaving the Fraser River - it's likely that it takes Fraser sockeye smolts about 1 month to reach the Broughtons and Queen Charlotte Sound.

Below is an image of BC Salmon Ocean Migration Patterns from Gold Seal salmon at: http://www.goldseal.ca/wildsalmon/salmon_migration.asp?pattern=summary

Offshore trawl surveys in Hecate Strait also indicate there is a large proportion of Vancouver Island and Fraser River juvenile sockeye caught in the trawls in early summer and a large proportion of Central Coast juvenile sockeye (especially Rivers Inlet sockeye) caught later in the season, as identified through DNA analysis. These sockeye smolts may remain longer-term residents of Queen Charlotte Basin and Hecate Strait, and may be at most risk from interactions between open net-cage salmonids, since they migrate through Queen Charlotte Sound adjacent to the Broughtons.

Similarly, steelhead from the Keogh River migrate past the outmost net-pen sites nearest Queen Charlotte Sound, and they suffer high mortality:

http://www.npafc.org/new/publications/Technical Report/TR7/Kristianson.pdf
"wild steelhead from the Keogh River tended to fan out across Queen
Charlotte Strait toward the mainland before turning north over the listening line"

http://www.springerlink.com/content/6311673361717630/
"High mortality (65–73%) occurred in the first month of the smolt migration in a population of wild steelhead trout."After entering the Strait of Georgia most smolts migrated north through Johnstone and Queen Charlotte Straits rather than south through the Strait of Juan de Fuca."

Ocean survival rates have crashed for Keogh stocks (when did open net-pen cages expand production in the outer Broughton?).

http://rparticle.web-p.cisti.nrc.ca...ume=57&year=&issue=&msno=f99-243&calyLang=fra
Abstract: Survival and return of unharvested winter-run steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss) at the Keogh River, British Columbia, declined abruptly and remained persistently low after 1990. Adult returns averaged 1168 fish from 1976 to 1990 but were significantly lower from 1991 to 1998 (mean 223). Forty wild females returned to the 35-km river in 1995-1996, 20 in 1996-1997, and &lt;10 in 1997-1998. The positive linear relationship between smolts and returns was significantly lower after 1990 and no longer correlated with smolt size. Smolt-to-adult survival averaged 15% (1976 to 1989) but recently averaged 3.5% (1990 to 1995). Smolt number steadily declined to &lt;1000 by 1998 from an average annual count of 7000. Smolts per spawner from 1991 to 1994 were, on average, 70% lower than previous estimates based on the same spawner abundance. Recruitment scenarios based on survival histories during freshwater and marine life stages indicated that adult recruits are currently below replacement and unsustainable if conditions continue or worsen. Factors influencing steelhead in the ocean and freshwater are likely similar for other salmonids; harvest impacts must be reduced and appropriate stock rebuilding measures implemented.

Scary stuff. Not blaming open net-pen operations entirely (prob. cumulative effects) - but it is likely that plumes of sea lice from open net-pens near Queen Charlotte Sound could be having an impact.

Other rivers that don't migrate through Queen Charlotte Sound have much better ocean survival rates. Why is the Waukwaas doing so much better, as an example?

http://www.coreocean.org/Dev2Go.web?id=232811
"For unknown reasons, steelhead stocks such as the Waukwaas that are located on the west coast of Vancouver Island have a higher survival rate than those such as the Keogh River located on the east coast, although their freshwater rearing sites are located close together. "

The early marine rearing sites are different...How? One has open net-pens and one doesn't?

I'm really surprised that you think that sockeye smolts can't travel 170 km. Thought you were a salmon fishermen and knew this stuff. It doesn't add to your credibility that you refuse to acknowledge that fish swim.

Maybe you should stop swallowing the BC Salmon Growers Assn BS, and learn something about salmon. Repeating their dribble only shows your and their ignorance of the ocean.

 

[agentaqua]

The Fish Site, 22nd September 2008
http://www.thefishsite.com/fishnews/7939/online-animation-illustrates-threat-of-sea-lice


Online Animation Illustrates Threat of Sea Lice



CANADA - "Wild Salmon in Trouble" (www.watershed-watch.org/sealice.html), a new short animation released today online, takes viewers on a provocative tour of how salmon farming and sea lice are harming wild salmon.

Watershed Watch Salmon Society produced the short video to increase public understanding of salmon ecology and interactions with sea lice on wild and farmed salmon, and to help bridge the gap between technical science and an understandable depiction of what can often be a complicated issue. Although many people know that sea lice from farms pose a serious threat to wild salmon, there's a clear public appetite to learn more about the nature of the interactions linking farmed salmon, sea lice and wild salmon

Though the weight of scientific evidence shows that open-net cage salmon farming poses a grave threat to wild salmon in Canada and other salmon farming nations, this smorgasbord of science is not always easily obtained or digested. The new Watershed Watch animation helps the public understand why farms and lice threaten wild salmon, and urges the public to act. This animation comes in light of the numerous published studies which show wild salmon are impacted by sea lice from salmon farms--one such study published recently in the prestigious journal Science predicts that some wild salmon populations are expected to become extinct within 4 years due to sea lice from salmon farms.

"Although many people know that sea lice from farms pose a serious threat to wild salmon, there's a clear public appetite to learn more about the nature of the interactions linking farmed salmon, sea lice and wild salmon," said Stan Proboszcz, Watershed Watch's fisheries biologist and animation project manager. "Wild Salmon in Trouble depicts the salmon life cycle and shows how farmed salmon produce vast numbers of lice that infect migrating juvenile salmon--an unnatural and unsustainable situation," Proboszcz continued.

Wild Salmon in Trouble is illustrated from the perspective of migrating wild salmon before and after the introduction of salmon farming. It highlights the fact that even low numbers of sea lice on individual farm salmon can still mean prodigious numbers of sea lice being released into the nursery grounds of wild salmon. The animation, about 6 minutes long, is based on published, peer-reviewed scientific research, and foreshadows an unknown but troubling future for coastal ecosystems and communities--unless something meaningful is done soon to protect wild salmon from farm-derived sea lice.

"After viewing Wild Salmon in Trouble we hope people will have a better understanding of sea lice dynamics, and will be better informed and better able to help wild salmon," said Watershed Watch's executive director, Craig Orr. "We urge the public to watch the film and share the internet link with others in an effort to raise awareness so that we may collectively reverse the situation."

The animation is hosted on the Watershed Watch Salmon Society website, where viewers can also find background information on sea lice and salmon farming, as well as ways they can help wild salmon. Watershed Watch produced the animation with advice and support from the Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform, and additional help from the Patrick Hodgson Family Foundation. Nearly 20 prominent environmental organizations from North America and Europe have agreed to help distribute the animation.

You can view the link to Wild Salmon in Trouble by clicking here:
http://www.watershed-watch.org/sealice.html

 

[tortuga]

Nice graphic on migration.

This thread is barely tolerable but that's a good post.

Just wondering why the fish don't end up where they came from? [:0]

 

[agentaqua]

quote:Originally posted by tortuga

Nice graphic on migration.

This thread is barely tolerable but that's a good post.

Just wondering why the fish don't end up where they came from? [:0]

Only the fish know...

But some of them do indeed find their way back home.

As far as the images go - they are easy to understand, but not the best details. The lines delineate the extent of the ocean migration/grazing areas - but not specific migration by a fish or by watersheds.

It's a little misleading, as there is also direction to the migration - counterclockwise. Below is a picture of the Alaskan Gyre from: http://www.iitap.iastate.edu/gcp/studentpapers/1998/grads/bonebrake.html

Bristol Bay sockeye follow this pattern:

Other species have similar - but slightly different patterns. Coho for example:

or steelhead:

 

[tortuga]

Besides being a bunch of colored lines this is good stuff.

All I know is that because salmon are hearty and the strong survive
It's going to take more than sea lice to kill them all.

That's the good news.

 

[agentaqua]

quote:Originally posted by tortuga

Besides being a bunch of colored lines this is good stuff.

All I know is that because salmon are hearty and the strong survive
It's going to take more than sea lice to kill them all.

That's the good news.

Unfortunately we can't rest assured and confident - they do indeed have more than "just" sea lice to contend with.

*AND*

Population-level mortality (and survival) rates are set in the early life history stages - especially at the near-coastal smolt stages.

Even reductions in growth caused by increases in levels of parasitism means more predation and higher mortality rates.

That's because it's a race to growth quickly to outrun predators. Escape and sustained swimming speeds are dependent upon length.

This is called sub-lethal effects (to individual animals) - but very much population-level effects, as well.

check-out:

http://www.callingfromthecoast.org/

 

[agentaqua]

The Vancouver Sun, 28th September 2008

Day in court begins for foes of B.C. salmon farming


Larry Pynn, Canwest News Service



ECHO BAY, B.C. - Alexandra Morton heads to B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver Monday for a four-day challenge of the provincial government's constitutional right to regulate and approve fish farm locations.

Until recently, fighting the salmon-farming industry was a solo upstream battle for her. Not anymore.

She is being joined by the Wilderness Tourism Association, Area E Gillnetters Association, Fishing Vessel Owners Association and the Pacific Coast Wild Salmon Society. She specifically created the society to raise $60,000 to fund the court case.

Her field station in the Broughton Archipelago, a largely undeveloped group of islands at the north end of Vancouver Island, is now home to scientists and budding biologists studying the threat that salmon farms pose to wild stocks. The 6.5-hectare research station site has just wrapped up its third year in operation, receiving up to 50 researchers and volunteers per season, on a meagre annual budget of $40,000.

Of special interest are sea lice, naturally occurring parasites which can flourish in the high densities of commercial fish farms. Because most fish farms use nets rather than solid barriers to separate their fish from passing wild fish, the parasites can pass easily between the two.

Other studies are looking into the effect of salmon farms on sediments and flat fish. One unrelated study is looking at threatened marbled murrelets, a small seabird that is a member of the auk family.

Officials with Marine Harvest, one of the province's largest salmon-farming companies, declined to comment on the case. It operates 35 farms producing 45,000 tonnes of salmon per year, representing a little more than half of the industry's total B.C. production.

The Wilderness Tourism Association squarely blames salmon farms for the collapse of pink salmon runs this year in the Broughton Archipelago and nearby Knight Inlet, saying they are having a detrimental impact on top predators such as the grizzly bears and killer whales upon which ecotourism depends.

The groups will argue in court that Ottawa - not the province - has constitutional authority over salmon farms.

They contend salmon farms interfere with navigation and are harmful to fish and fish habitat, and believe that closed-containment systems are a way to allow industry to continue without damaging wild stocks.

The Pacific Fisheries Resource Conservation Council, which provides independent advice to both senior governments on fish issues, concluded in its 2007 annual report: "In certain areas such as the Broughton Archipelago, salmon farms have acted as rearing and dispersal sites for sea lice which have harmed juvenile wild pink salmon runs in the Central Coast area."
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=161540b2-87d2-454a-a32a-d240fd51f60f

 

[agentaqua]

FIONA MORROW

From Tuesday's Globe and Mail

September 30, 2008 at 4:36 AM EDT



VANCOUVER — It was standing room only when the Supreme Court of British Columbia convened yesterday to hear a petition challenging the legal authority of the provincial government to regulate fish farms on the West Coast.

In his opening remarks, lawyer Gregory McDade said the issue of aquaculture and fish farms and their impact on wild Pacific salmon was one of the most contentious in the province. However, he insisted, this case would not be a referendum on how sea lice affect wild fish stocks, but a constitutional question on whether the federal or provincial governments have the final authority over tidal waters. If it is found that the authority resides with the federal government, Mr. McDade said, this case could have ramifications reaching far beyond B.C. and its waters, particularly in New Brunswick, which faces similar issues.

At issue is whether the federal government acted outside its authority when issuing a 1988 memorandum of understanding, effectively ceding control over fish farms to the province. The province does have legal authority over the seabed within its boundaries, but the memorandum of understanding also handed over control of the waters (and the fish within them) above the bed - including those of fish farms. Mr. McDade argued that this removes constitutional protections that declare tidal waters belong to the country as a whole and are not available to be privatized.

Rod Marining, vice-chairman of the British Columbia Environmental Network and co-founder of Greenpeace, said that declining wild salmon stocks were having a devastating effect on other wildlife, with reports of starving grizzly bears and orcas.

"This will have a dramatic effect of forcing responsibility," he said of the petition. "Right now, if you try to go after a minister, they pass the buck from federal to provincial and back again. The buck has got to stop somewhere."

The petition was filed by a coalition of scientists, commercial fishermen and environmental groups who are concerned that their scientific data are being ignored.

They hope that by forcing control of fish farms back under one regulatory authority, it will be easier to campaign for the protection of wild salmon.

This year, wild salmon numbers in the Fraser have plummeted. Earlier this month, it was announced that the pink salmon stocks in B.C.'s Broughton Archipelago had collapsed. In one key indicator stream, only 19,000 spawners have been counted this year, compared with 264,000 in 2007.

Several hundred dollars to finance the petition was raised by a public appeal to sponsor a fish fry at $20 a person.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080930.wbcfish30/BNStory/National/home

 

[agentaqua]

The Globe & Mail, 2nd October 2008

What's a fish?


FIONA MORROW

Globe and Mail Update

October 2, 2008 at 11:28 PM EDT

VANCOUVER — Is a fish always a fish?

This was one of the more surreal questions asked in the Supreme Court of British Columbia Thursday in final submissions in a constitutional challenge to the province's authority to regulate fish farms. If the challenge is accepted, the responsibility would return to the federal government under the Fisheries Act.

Representing co-respondent Marine Harvest, an international company and the largest aquaculture facility in B.C., Christopher Harvey argued that the concept of a fishery was separate from that of aquaculture, and to term the latter a fishery would be unnatural. He suggested that a salmon grown in a fish farm was as close to being part of a wild fishery as a barnyard chicken to a wild fowl.

Gregory J McDade, counsel for the petitioners, argued otherwise. “How do you drop one to two million fish into the ocean and pretend they don't exist?” he countered. “That is what is unnatural. Those fish are fish. The ocean is a resource - one resource - and it would be unnatural to consider it anything else.”

Speaking afterwards, Mr. McDade said he was pleased with how the week had gone. “I think we had a very good hearing,” he said. “The judge clearly gets the issues.”

Stressing that the courts very rarely strike down provincial law, Mr. McDade said that if judgment goes in the petitioners' favour, the consequences would be far-reaching. “Its importance lies in the future management of the ocean and whether privatization of that ocean is allowed.”

At lunch, environmental groups held a rally on the courthouse steps. Members dressed as fish encouraged motorists to honk their horns to support the protection of wild salmon.

Attending the hearing, Chief Bob Chamberlain of the Kwicksutaineuk Nation said that the current situation where authority is split between the province and the federal governments is a bureaucratic nightmare that was doing nothing to stop the decline of wild stocks.

“It's like they have this delay, deny and distract approach,” he said. “It's a well-oiled machine.”

“What I have been taught by my elders is that 30 or 40 years ago in our territory, there were so many pink salmon jumping this time of year, it looked as though the river was being hit by raindrops. I went through the territory yesterday and I didn't see one.”

The petition was filed by a coalition of scientists, commercial fishermen and environmental groups in the hope that forcing control of fish farms back under one regulatory authority would make it easier to campaign for the protection of wild salmon. Judgment is expected in three to four months.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/serv...ational/?page=rss&id=RTGAM.20081002.wbcfish03

 

[agentaqua]

The Courier-Islander, 3rd October 2008

In the absence of salmon

Pink salmon returns to the Glendale River system in Knight Inlet are very low this fall. In the absence of salmon the grizzly bears have moved down river to roto-root for angelica (rice root) and starchy bulbs in the estuary. The odd bear is staring into the river, wondering where the fish are. We did see an eagle catch a fish, dragging it up onto the gravel bar and dispatching it entirely in 15 minutes, leaving nothing for the bear who eventually smelled the fish and came down to investigate.

In the estuary the sedges, which are a good summer source of vegetable protein for grizzly bears, is turning brown and drying off. The bears only eat the sedge right at the water's edge, where it is still green.

But it will soon lose its nutritional value as it dies off over the harsh inlet winter. Most of the bear scat along the river and road shows purple.

The grizzly bears are trying to prepare for hibernation with berries instead of salmon.

In the absence of salmon this year's cubs are getting eaten. Large males attack the moms with cubs-of-the-year. If the family group runs, the last cub in line gets killed. In early September a mom with three cubs was reduced to a mom and one cub.

In the absence of salmon, what can be done? The Glendale Spawning Channel restoration work carried out by Blake Coverington, a do-the-right-thing kind of guy and John Dawson of the "Astral Star" in July 2007 will help the 2008 pink run and subsequent years. This summer the DFO and Knight Inlet Lodge improved the entrance to the spawning channel.

Also the water intake valve at the lake was rebuilt, so that more water can be run through the channel. For the few eggs that will be deposited, the channel will be in good shape. But as the pink fry swim out the inlet, will they survive the gauntlet of sea lice on the fish farms? Will anybody's efforts be worthwhile if we don't fix the problem?

In 2003 many fish farms were closed for the spring fry migration and the pink salmon survived exceptionally well and the bears, forest, humans and others thrived. Marine Harvest has agreed to a fallow route for the fish farms on the northern fry migration route in 2010 if their leases are renewed and expanded. But this year's offspring need a chance to survive in 2009. The Mainstream fish farms will not be part of this, which could easily negate any good of a fallow route.

As a tour operator bringing people to the North Island I find it difficult to survive among so many fish farms. It seems to me the answer is simple: remove fish farms from the inlets. Many of us are working hard to protect wild salmon. It is the fish farmers' turn.

Howard Pattinson,

Telegraph Cove

http://www.canada.com/courierisland....html?id=9e1e9c10-cbd0-4751-8974-233cff298169