Farmed Salmon Threaten Survival of Atlantic Salmon

SUBLEGALS v.7, n.24, 13jun03

7:24/12. FARMED SALMON THREATEN SURVIVAL OF WILD ATLANTIC SALMON: At the 11 June session of the World Salmon Summit, held at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, B.C. (see Sublegals, 7:21/06), a bleak picture was painted of the prospects for survival of wild runs of Atlantic salmon. In his paper, "Wild Atlantic Salmon in North America: Status and Perspectives," Dr. Fred Whoriskey, Vice-President of Research & Environment for the Atlantic Salmon Federation (ASF), said that even though all commercial fishing on North American Atlantic salmon stocks has ceased, populations continue to decline and "returns to their rivers of origin have fallen to some of the lowest recorded levels." Most salmon populations in the southern third of their North American range (south of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia) are now endangered. Although recovery programs are being implemented where funding can be accessed, it will take millions of dollars and a great deal of hard work and many years to repair the rivers and overcome the damage caused as a result of human activity. River blockings, acid rain and industrial practices are among the threats to recovery, Whoriskey told Summit attendees.

Over the past two decades, millions of farmed salmon have escaped from cages into the habitat of threatened wild salmon. Scientific reviews and research prove that these escaped farmed fish pose threats of disease and parasite transmission, competition for food and habitat, and of interbreeding with wild salmon, decreasing the genetic fitness of successive generations for survival in the wild. Farmed fish now outnumber wild fish by a ratio of 48:1 in the North Atlantic. In late May, the Atlantic Salmon Federation (ASF) and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) released a report documenting several governments' progress in implementing legislation to reduce the negative impacts of aquaculture on wild salmon populations. The U.S. scored a mere 0.5 out of a possible score of 10, while Canada fared better at 2.85. Both grades indicate failure to live up to international obligations developed by the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization (NASCO). In the report, ASF and WWF also recommended ways to protect wild salmon from salmon aquaculture impacts. They include:

* adopting salmon aquaculture exclusion zones; * requiring monitoring and enforcement of management systems to minimize escapes, improve fish husbandry and benthic (bottom of the sea) ecosystem quality; * requiring consideration of cumulative environmental impacts of multiple aquaculture sites in siting decisions; * requiring more comprehensive reporting on measures implemented and outcomes, and; * obligating nations to make public all relevant data on the degree of industry compliance with a selected set of regulatory requirements.

For more information on the Salmon Summit, go to: www.sfu.ca/cstudies/science/summit.htm. To see a copy of the Atlantic Salmon Federation report, go to: www.asf.ca. For the 12 June Associated Press article by Jeff Barnard, see: http://ens-news.com/ens/jun2003/2003-06-12-09.asp#anchor6. The July issue of National Geographic also contains an extensive article on the threat to wild Atlantics from salmon farms; it is at: http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0307/feature5/index.html.

7:24/13. UBC STUDY FINDS SALMON FARMING A FAILURE: A study by researchers at the University of British Columbia (UBC) has found that "rather than being a sustainable replacement for wild salmon stocks, the aquaculture industry is 'an ecological and economic failure' that requires more energy than traditional fishing fleets and uses more ocean resources than it produces," reported the 11June Vancouver Sun. The study's conclusions were presented by Dr. William Rees in a paper to the World Summit on Salmon, being held in Vancouver, B.C. (see 7:24/12 above). "It's simply not true we do these things to feed the world's starving millions," says Rees. "We do it because it represents a large infusion of foreign capital into the province and creates jobs in areas that are suffering from bad management of our forests and wild fish stocks."

According to the study's findings, the "data reveal that net-pen salmon farming as presently practiced is considerably more energy and material intensive per unit product than are conventional (already energy and materially costly) harvest methods. Regardless of species raised, the 'ecological footprints' (ecosystem services demanded) per tonne of product generated by salmon farms are therefore considerably larger than those of the fleet fishery. The salmon-farming industry thus contributes disproportionately to global climate change through its considerable carbon dioxide emissions, further increasing humanity's already dangerous food dependence on depleteable stocks of cheap fossil fuel. More importantly, because salmon feed is produced using fish and fish products imported from other parts of the world, the salmon farming industry actually reduces the total amount of food available for human consumption (particularly in the developing South). From this perspective, net-pen salmon farming can be interpreted as both an ecological and economic failure. Farming salmon is an inherently unsustainable economic substitute for a service that nature once provided free. Most tellingly, the industry exacerbates North-South inequity and fails, even temporarily, in its promise to enhance global food supplies. Meanwhile, salmon farming extends the human ecological footprint and the inexorably increasing total human load on the ecosphere."

Professor William Rees can be contacted at the School & Community Regional Planning, University of British Columbia, Memorial Road, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z2, Canada. Tel: (604) 433-6333 or by e-mail at: wrees@interchange.ubc.ca. The Vancouver Sun article, "Aquaculture industry 'failure,' study claims" For the consumer angle, see the 28 May New York Times article, "Farmed Salmon Looking Less Rosy."

7:24/14. MAINE SALMON FARMERS APPEAL COURT DECISION ON CONDITIONS FOR CONDUCTING SALMON AQUACULTURE: On 5 June, Altantic Salmon of Maine and Stolt Sea Farm, Inc. announced they would appeal U.S. District Judge Gene Carter's ruling of 28 May requiring the foreign owned firms to fallow their net pens for two years (to allow the ocean bottom to clean itself), to comply with federal Clean Water Act discharge requirements, and to use only Atlantic salmon native to North America in their stocking operations (see Sublegals, 7:22/01; 7:20/04; 7:09/09; 5:08/09; 5:02/10; 4:14/04; 1:19/03).

The Bangor Daily News reported that, on 19 June, Maine's Board of Environmental Protection is expected to consider a draft permit that would cover nearly all of Maine's salmon aquaculture sites. The draft permit proposes a gradual phasing out of non-North American genes in the salmon. It also includes standards for salmon feeding and water-quality monitoring, which state biologists believe will resolve most pollution problems without requiring the pens to go unused for two years. The question is whether this permit conditions will be sufficient to protect water quality along Maine's coast and protect the state's wild Atlantic salmon, listed under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA), from the affects of salmon net pen operations. For more, see the 8 June Bangor Daily News article at: http://www.bangornews.com.

NEWS, COMMENTS, CORRECTIONS: Submit your news items, comments or any corrections to Sara Randall, editor at: sublegals@ifrfish.org, or call the IFR/PCFFA office with the news and a source at either: (415) 561-FISH (Southwest Office) or (541) 689-2000 (Northwest Office). "Sublegals" are a weekly fisheries news bulletin service of Fishlink news service. To find out more about Fishlink, list information can be viewed and you can subscribe yourself automatically at: http://straylight.primelogic.com/mailman/listinfo/fishlink