Fish Farming Kills Wild Salmon & Sea Trout!

“Salmon Farms Create Deadly Clouds of Sea Lice”

Fish farming is a rapidly growing industry that is not sustainable and that is killing wild salmon populations worldwide. It isn’t sustainable because each pound of fish produced requires 5 lbs of fish meal feed, and scientists predict that small fish like capelin and anchovies used for fish meal could  be seriously depleted by 2050. Fish farming devastates wild salmon by spreading parasites such as sea lice, disease, concentrating predators like seals and birds along coastlines, and through escapement of inferior genetic salmon that reproduce with our wild salmon.

Unnatural levels of sea lice due to salmon farming killed off the migrating wild smolts and devastated wild salmon stocks in Norway, Western Scotland, Western Ireland—and most recently it is happening in southern British Columbia. Following the establishment of fish farms in the Bay of Fundy, the wild salmon stocks of 33 rivers simultaneously failed and 40,000 wild salmon are missing. And fish farm operations have recently been expanded to the south coast of Newfoundland with help from the taxpayer.

On February 9, 2009, the BC Supreme Court ruled that the BC government does not have the right to regulate salmon farms - the BC regulation of fish farms has become unlawful, unconstitutional and invalid.  The fish inside the farm are now considered a fishery, not agriculture and thus the federal government has exclusive right to regulation. The court suspended the ruling for a period of 12 months to allow the federal government to bring in proper legislation.

The response from Alexandra Morton, lead petitioner in the case, is one of relief and joy.  "Finally, the government agency in charge of fish farms is mandated to put wild salmon first. This has come none too soon as provincial management of fish farms is devastating many coastal communities. Because the province is not responsible for the oceans, the impact of fish farms on the oceans became nobody's business and this is how we got into this mess.”

In Nova Scotia, our provincial Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture regulates fish farms. This may be declared unconstitutional and of no force or effect by virtue of section 52 of the Constitution, which states that the regulation of Canada's fisheries is under the sole jurisdiction of the Federal Crown and cannot be delegated to the provinces.

The important question for us on Nova Scotia’s eastern shore is “WILL WE HAVE FISH FARMS ON THE EASTERN SHORE?”  My answer is “I sure hope not.” Let’s be a lot smarter than that by using our lakes and streams to attract and retain visiting anglers and enjoy our sport fishing rather than decimate our wild salmon and sea trout.

Often those who criticise development proposals offer no alternatives. We have an excellent alternative: Why not pursue a National Park for the eastern shore, say from the Liscomb Sanctuary to the St. Mary’s River?  As an economic boost for this depressed area, that makes far more long-term environmental and economical sense to me than any potentially destructive aquaculture or forest biomass project.

What do you think?

Please stay on the line …