Nootka Salmon Farms

[Sushihunter]

Got this in my email today - twice:

Hello

I apologize for a second email so soon, but important news on the issue of salmon farming has become daily. Most astonishing is the warning sent today to Canada from former Attorney General of Norway, Georg Fredrik Rieber-Mohn,

“we had an open goal to save wild salmon but we missed the target,”....”If you want to protect wild salmon then you have to move salmon farms away from migration routes. ”

I have posted his entire plea to Canada on my blog, see below for link.

I am working on a very serious incident in Nootka Sound/Esperanza Inlet where reports keep coming to me that sea lice are out of control on salmon farms. Neither the province nor DFO will act to stop this from spreading to eastern Vancouver Island, so we are doing the investigation for them. This problem is exactly what Rieber-Mohn is talking about.

http://www2.canada.com/courierislander/news/story.html?id=913af0e6-31ff-4ec4-b66f-908cbfc32c7a

A group of us went to Nootka Island and found extremely high larval sea lice numbers. These farm salmon are being transported to Quadra Island for processing and a sample taken 90’ down from the plant’s effluent pipe found live lice eggs are pouring into Discovery Passage. Drug resistance in sea lice is causing serious problems in eastern Canada and Norway and means we stand to lose our ability to protect the Fraser sockeye. It is becoming increasingly apparent that wild salmon runs in BC, as in Norway, depend on de-lousing farm salmon that are on the migration routes. The Discovery Islands host 1/3 of all BC’s wild salmon during migrations as well as millions of Norwegian farm salmon. If these Nootka lice attach to the farm salmon we stand to lose a generation of wild salmon and more drugs will be used on our coast, with the end result being the situation in Norway loss of BOTH wild and farm salmon. I have contacted the federal and provincial governments all the evidence with no action from them to contain this. This is a well-known catastrophe. You can follow it by checking on my blog.

Dr Larry Hammell from the University of Prince Edward Island speaks about "an eruption of the lice last summer", developing resistance to sea lice chemicals, "treatment failures" etc http://podcast.cbc.ca/mp3/maritimenoon_20100126_26452.mp3

Professor Tor Einar Horsberg at the Norwegian School of Veterinary Science who said: "The harsh treatment that is needed to reach lice limits will lead to more resistant and multi-resistant lice. There is a dramatic development, and I'm worried how this will end": http://www.vg.no/nyheter/utskriftsvennlig/?artId=588564

"The sea lice situation is now out of control along the entire coast of Nordland and south” : http://www.nmf.no/default.aspx?pageId=121&articleId=2354&news=1

I don’t know why we refuse to avoid the situation Norway is facing. It is not even good for the fish farmers. The province of BC maintains there is “no evidence” of drug resistance, but there is evidence everywhere people are willing to look.

You can join our efforts at www.adopt-a-fry.org

Alexandra Morton

http://alexandramorton.typepad.com/




Jim's Fishing Charters
www.JimsFishing.com
http://ca.youtube.com/user/Sushihunter250

 

[sockeyefry]

Couple of corrections for ya Morton.

Rieber - mohn is not the former attorney general, he is the former head of the Wild Salmon Commission in Norway.

Dr Hammell was not speaking about Nootka sound he was speaking of New Brunswick last summer. Morton purposely took this quote out of context to lend creditability to her story.

The other quotes refer to Norway, not BC.

Please provide me with your scientific evidence of resistant lice in BC, not just your opinion.

 

[Dogbreath]

quote:Originally posted by sockeyefry
Please provide me with your scientific evidence of resistant lice in BC, not just your opinion.

Sockeyefry-Please provide with evidence that you are anything but an apologist for those who would destroy everything that British Columbians hold Dear-including but not limited to Wild Salmon.

EDIT-I should have said 'are in the process of destroying everything'

 

[Charlie]

quote:Originally posted by sockeyefry

Couple of corrections for ya Morton.

Rieber - mohn is not the former attorney general, he is the former head of the Wild Salmon Commission in Norway.

Georg Fredrik Rieber-Mohn (born 13 August 1945) is a Norwegian judge.

He was born in Lillehammer, and graduated as cand.jur. from the University of Oslo in 1969. He worked as a secretary from 1969, and as a prison administrator from 1971. In 1974 he was hired in the Ministry of Justice and the Police as a researcher. After a period as auxiliary judge from 1975 to 1976 and district attorney from 1976 to 1980, both in Stavanger, he returned to the Ministry of Justice in 1980 as deputy under-secretary of State. In 1985 he left to be a presiding judge in Eidsivating. In 1986 he was appointed as Norwegian Director of Public Prosecutions, as the youngest to date. From 1997 to 2007 he served as a Supreme Court Justice. After this he returned to the Ministry of Justice. Rieber-Mohn is the deputy leader of the Fritt Ord Foundation.

Norwegian Prosecuting Authority (Norwegian: Påtalemyndigheten) is a body subordinate to the Norwegian Council of State. This body is responsible for legal prosecutions in Norway. It is divided into three branches. The third branch is the Prosecuting Authority in the Police. The first two, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Public Prosecutors, are called "the Higher Prosecuting Authority" (Norwegian: Den høyere påtalemyndighet). Public Prosecutors work on a regional basis, whereas the Director of Public Prosecutions has the coordinative leadership. The current Director of Public Prosecutions is Tor-Aksel Busch.

Directors of Public Prosecutions
1986–1997 : Georg Fredrik Rieber-Mohn [:0][:0][B)][B)]

quote: Dr Hammell was not speaking about Nootka sound he was speaking of New Brunswick last summer. Morton purposely took this quote out of context to lend creditability to her story.

The other quotes refer to Norway, not BC.

Morton doesn't have to take anything out of context for creditability. Does it "really" make a difference, whether it is Norway, Scottland, Chile, NB, or NS? When referring to fish farms problems and/or sea lice... we already know it is always the same problems across the globe world-wide! And, mostly from the "same" companies! [:0][:0][B)][B)]

quote: Please provide me with your scientific evidence of resistant lice in BC, not just your opinion.

Please provide me with "your" scientific evidence that the BC fish farms have the only sea lice in the world that aren't building a resistence to SLICE! Which there has been many studies already done to prove the fact! [:0][:0][B)][B)]


Sorry, I quess one can interept things anyway they want, but I don't think this one is not up to your normal standards?

 

[sockeyefry]

My error about the Attorney Gen.

She is taking Hammell's comment out of context , and yes it does matter. Its inculsion in this article gives the impression that he is speaking about BC in general and about Nootka sound specifically, which is not the case. It is included to purposely make uninitiated readers to draw a conclusion in step with her agenda.

The Sea lice in BC are a different genus, and do not have the same epidemiology as those in the Atlantic. Therefore the treatment regimes are different.

 

[Charlie]

quote:Originally posted by sockeyefry

My error about the Attorney Gen.

She is taking Hammell's comment out of context , and yes it does matter. Its inculsion in this article gives the impression that he is speaking about BC in general and about Nootka sound specifically, which is not the case. It is included to purposely make uninitiated readers to draw a conclusion in step with her agenda.

quote:These farm salmon are being transported to Quadra Island for processing and a sample taken 90’ down from the plant’s effluent pipe found live lice eggs are pouring into Discovery Passage. Drug resistance in sea lice is causing serious problems in eastern Canada and Norway and means we stand to lose our ability to protect the Fraser sockeye. It is becoming increasingly apparent that wild salmon runs in BC, as in Norway, depend on de-lousing farm salmon that are on the migration routes. The Discovery Islands host 1/3 of all BC’s wild salmon during migrations as well as millions of Norwegian farm salmon. If these Nootka lice attach to the farm salmon we stand to lose a generation of wild salmon and more drugs will be used on our coast, with the end result being the situation in Norway loss of BOTH wild and farm salmon. I have contacted the federal and provincial governments all the evidence with no action from them to contain this. This is a well-known catastrophe. You can follow it by checking on my blog.

Dr Larry Hammell from the University of Prince Edward Island speaks about "an eruption of the lice last summer", developing resistance to sea lice chemicals, "treatment failures" etc

I fail to see anything out of context or misleading in this statement?

quote:The Sea lice in BC are a different genus, and do not have the same epidemiology as those in the Atlantic. Therefore the treatment regimes are different.

Would love to see your documentation on this to support that conclusion? I am not sure you want to go down this road?

There are 36 genera within this family which include approximately 42 Lepeophtheirus and 300 Caligus species. the genera Lepeophtheirus and Caligus which parasitize marine fish, in particular those species that have been recorded on farmed salmon. Lepeophtheirus salmonis and various Caligus species are adapted to saltwater and are major ectoparasites of farmed and wild Atlantic salmon. The L. salmonis is the major sea louse of concernd; however, the Caligus rogercresseyi has become a major parasite of concern on salmon farms in Chile, and studies are under way to gain a better understanding of the parasite and the host-parasite interactions. Recent evidence is also emerging that L. salmonis in the Atlantic has sufficient genetic differences from L. salmonis from the Pacific, suggesting that Atlantic and Pacific L. salmonis may have independently co-evolved with Atlantic and Pacific salmonids.

 

[agentaqua]

Another great post by Charlie;

quote:Originally posted by Charlie

quote:Originally posted by sockeyefry

Couple of corrections for ya Morton.

1986–1997 : Georg Fredrik Rieber-Mohn [:0][:0][B)][B)]

Dr Hammell was not speaking about Nootka sound he was speaking of New Brunswick last summer. Morton purposely took this quote out of context to lend creditability to her story.

The other quotes refer to Norway, not BC.

Morton doesn't have to take anything out of context for creditability. Does it "really" make a difference, whether it is Norway, Scottland, Chile, NB, or NS? When referring to fish farms problems and/or sea lice... we already know it is always the same problems across the globe world-wide! And, mostly from the "same" companies! [:0][:0][B)][B)]

Unless you have some new earth-shattering scientific evidence sockeyefry, that Atlantic sea lice are - somehow "magically" - the only</u> species of sea lice (or arthropods, even) in the world that can become resistant to chemicals - while Pacific sea lice won't - then this is an absurd suggestion - even of yours.

The whole professional and scientific world of "Integrated Pest Management" (or IPM), which often deals with agricultural and urban pest management - bases it's methodologies on the concepts that chemical treatments will become less effective over time as insect (arthropod) pests will develop resistance to those applications, and both beneficial and pest species are wiped-out by those pesticide applications; while "pest" species are usually the "invasive" species that quickly rebound after their predators (the beneficial species) are wiped-out by those pesticide applications - and those blanket applications of life-killing chemicals have often unforseen persistent consequences (e.g. development of chemical resistance, pervasive environmental pollution, cancer, etc.).

A history of Integrated Pest Management can be found at:
http://www.biconet.com/reference/IPMhistory.html

IPM involves the suppression of pests and disease through several means of control:

1/ Using cultural and physical practices (early planting, late planting, crop rotation, soil cultivation, reproductive control of pests, crop variety selection for resistance to insect and plant pathogens, etc.) to reduce the incidence before resorting to chemical treatments,

2/ Monitoring and identifying pests and their damage before they reach an economic threshold,

3/ Treating through a combination of biological (soft and hard chemicals) and behavioural controls (e.g.pheromones) to suppress to acceptable levels, and

4/ Evaluating the efficacy of treatment(s), which includes rotation of chemical treatments to help deter development of chemical resistance.

These principles work and are practiced the world over, sockeyefry - but unfortunately not in the fish farming industry.

Open net-pen fish farms can't alter most cultural and physical practices to reduce the incidence of pests because they refuse to be forced into closed containment where water could be filtered in and out of the agricultural environment.

In fact, it appears that at least publically - they are blissfully unaware of the history of intensive commercial agriculture and it's similar issues with pest management.

Unfortunately, we all have to live with their bad decisions, as their technology is currently "open" to the environment.

Here's a quote from the World Health Organization - someone obviously not affiliated with Morton or those nasty anti-farm NGO's:

"In the wake of increased drug resistance and insecticide resistance in the vectors, there is a need for establishing integrated vector management strategies which are less reliant on chemical methods of disease control,", see:
http://www.searo.who.int/LinkFiles/Publications_and_Documents_IPVM_EXECUTIVE_SUMMARY.pdf

Or how about this quote: "To deploy the IPM resistance mitigation model, we must admit that pest management and resistance mitigation programmes are not sustainable if based on a single-tactic strategy. Delaying resistance, whether to traditional pesticides or to transgenic plants containing toxin genes from Bacillus thuringiensis, will require that we develop multi-tactic pest management programmes that incorporate all appropriate pest management approaches. Because pesticides are limited resources, and their loss can result in significant social and economic costs, they should be reserved for situations where they are truly needed--as tools to subdue an unexpected pest population outbreak."
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10021775

I have to agree with Charlie here - your denial of the development of the drug resistance problem is unfortunately childish and unprofessional, sockeyefry - as it mirrors your industry's response.

PS - thanks Charlie for being on top of sockeyefry's assertion about the species of sea lice.

 

[cuttlefish]

quoter Larry Hammell from the University of Prince Edward Island speaks about "an eruption of the lice last summer", developing resistance to sea lice chemicals, "treatment failures" etc http://podcast.cbc.ca/mp3/maritimenoon_20100126_26452.mp3

All one has to do is listen to the podcast that is hyperlinked in Morton's report to get what Dr. Hammel is talking about. Clicking on the link (and listening) put it all in context for me.

quote:"To deploy the IPM resistance mitigation model, we must admit that pest management and resistance mitigation programmes are not sustainable if based on a single-tactic strategy. Delaying resistance, whether to traditional pesticides or to transgenic plants containing toxin genes from Bacillus thuringiensis, will require that we develop multi-tactic pest management programmes that incorporate all appropriate pest management approaches. Because pesticides are limited resources, and their loss can result in significant social and economic costs, they should be reserved for situations where they are truly needed--as tools to subdue an unexpected pest population outbreak."

This sounds like escalating chemical warfare. Newer, stronger, more toxic brews needed to combat an ever adapting enemy. Why not put the farm fish in tanks. Then the farmer could lower the salinity of the water to kill the lice without the need for toxic chemicals.

All this should help to make the upcoming conference more exciting.
http://www.sealice2010.com/main.php?site=home

 

[Little Hawk]

The answer is simple Cuttlefish: When your a foreign fish-farmer seeking a convenient place to grow your fish closer to market and as cheaply as possible, you look for a spineless, collusive government who could care less about wild-fish & wild-places so you can set up shop then dump unlimited tonnes of sewage & chemicals into their waterways, infect their Wild Salmon with pandemic levels of diseases & parasites, while writing-off the constant mass-escapes of your non-indigenous 'clone-fish' as a cost of doing business...

(Sushi: This is not a highjack attempt. I just couldn't help notice when you posted the same topic above mine, you got 7 replies/responses and 4-times the views. There's a message somewhere in there for me, I'm sure...)

"Some could care less if there's any fish left for our kids!"