Fisheries

DNA tools to follow salmon disease back to the source

Sujets: 
Fisheries, Science
Scores: 
0

Randy Shore – March 15, 2013

B.C. fishery scientists are developing a new generation of genetic tools to find diseases that are undermining the health of wild Pacific salmon and track them back to their source. More than 90 per cent of juvenile salmon that migrate from fresh water to live as adults in the ocean die before they return to spawn, according to the researchers.

Disease is believed to be responsible for excessive mortality, according to Brian Riddell, CEO of the Pacific Salmon Foundation. But very little is known about the incidence of disease among wild salmon, in part because wild salmon are very difficult to observe once they enter the ocean and because weakened fish are eaten by predators, leaving no evidence of the cause of illness.

New Film, Cutting-Edge Research Probe Salmon Virus Mystery

Sujets: 
Fisheries, Science, Government transparency
Scores: 
3
Dr. Kristi Miler

Damien Gillis – March 12, 2013

The mystery of BC's disappearing wild salmon is back on the radar this week, with the release of a new documentary on the subject and the launch of a groundbreaking research partnership to study farmed and wild fish for viruses that may be affecting both.

Salmon Confidential, a feature-length film released online last week, explores the battle over salmon science that was at the centre of last year's federal judicial inquiry into rapidly declining Fraser River sockeye stocks, referred to as the Cohen Commission.

Salmon-health dialogue shows why research transparency is a welcome approach

Sujets: 
Food industry, Fisheries, Science, Government transparency
Scores: 
2

Mark Hume – March 10, 2013

When Kristi Miller walked into the Cohen Commission hearings two years ago, she had a security guard and a communications handler with her to keep the media away.

It was a strange moment. Here was one of British Columbia’s top scientists, the author of a groundbreaking fish-health study in Science magazine, about to testify at a public inquiry, and she wasn’t allowed to speak to reporters.

Fatal Salmon Virus Outbreak in Clayoquot UNESCO Biosphere Reserve

Sujets: 
Environment, Food industry, Fisheries
Scores: 
4

The Friends of Clayoquot Sound – May 17, 2012

Mainstream Canada, a Norwegian-owned company, has reported an outbreak of Infectious Haematopoietic Necrosis virus (IHN) on one of their open net-cage salmon farms in Clayoquot Sound.

The farm, one of 20 sites in the Clayoquot Sound UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, is located at the entrance to a provincial park that encompasses a fjord, the Megin River estuary, old-growth Sitka spruce forests and salmon spawning habitat.

Fish farm will cull 500,000 fish

Sujets: 
CFIA, Food industry, Fisheries
Scores: 
0

Tiffany Crawford – May 18, 2012

A B.C. fish farm where a virus deadly to Atlantic salmon was detected won't wait for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to confirm tests and will go ahead and cull its more than 500,000 fish. "We have decided to start the depopulation right away," said Laurie Jensen, a spokeswoman for Mainstream Canada, in an email to The Vancouver Sun.

Mainstream earlier this week announced that fish at its Dixon Bay farm north of Tofino tested positive for infectious hematopoietic necrosis, or IHN. It's the first time in nine years that Atlantic salmon farmed in B.C. have tested positive for IHN.

Scientists seek to learn whether fish farms kill fish

Sujets: 
Fisheries, Science, BC
Scores: 
3

Mark Hume – February 5, 2012

A group of leading fisheries scientists have come up with a proposal to answer some of the most pressing and difficult environmental questions on the West Coast: Are fish farms killing wild salmon? And if so, how many?

Debate on the environmental impact of fish farms has raged in British Columbia for over a decade. Environmentalists blame aquaculture for causing a collapse in wild salmon populations by spreading sea lice and disease, but there has never been any hard scientific evidence to prove those claims.

The Cohen Commission: disappearing salmon

Sujets: 
CFIA, Government ethics, Regulatory oversight, Fisheries, Science, BC
Scores: 
3

Ray Grig – January 27, 2012

The mystery of the disappearing wild salmon may be closer to being solved due to the reconvened Cohen Commission and the extraordinary three days of hearings held in December, 2011. As earlier testimony revealed, many environmental factors affect the survival of wild salmon.

Evidence now confirms that government policy supports the salmon farming industry, and that the industry has been willing to exploit this advantage to win regulatory concessions for its economic gain - in the words of one Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) official, the industry seemed "to dictate" policy. These concessions may have involved relaxed importation, inspection and quarantine of Atlantic salmon eggs, and inadequate supervision of fish health.

The Cohen Commission and Salmon ISAv Evidence

Sujets: 
CFIA, Food industry, Fisheries, Science, BC
Scores: 
3

Ray Grigg – January 13, 2012

Judge Bruce Cohen obviously thought that recent evidence of the possibility of Infectious Salmon Anemia (ISAv) in BC's wild salmon was serious enough to warrant a reconvening of his Commission of inquiry into the mysterious disappearance of Fraser River sockeye. The three days of exceptional December hearings were revelatory, confusing and clarifying.

We have ISAv in BC waters but we don't have disease. We have different labs getting positive and negative test results on the same fish samples. We have critically important research curtailed just when such vital information is most needed. We have intimations of openness in a practice of obstruction and censure. And we have huge financial benefits accruing to corporate interests if BC's farmed and wild salmon can be marketed free of the stigma of disease.

Emails Reveal Government Scientists Acting Like Flacks

Sujets: 
CFIA, Message control or 'spin', Food industry, Media, Fisheries, Science
Scores: 
3

Damien Gillis – December 17, 2011

The second of three extra days of hearings at the Cohen Commission into disappearing Fraser River sockeye yielded more surprises - the biggest of which came in the form of a telling internal email strain between DFO and Canadian Food Inspection Agency staff.

The emails were sent following a teleconference for media hosted by the two departments, aimed at quelling concerns over the recent discovery of Infectious Salmon Anemia virus in wild BC salmon.

Government email makes waves at salmon inquiry

Sujets: 
CFIA, Message control or 'spin', Food industry, Fisheries
Scores: 
3

CBC News – December 17, 2011

A government email describing a potentially lethal fish virus as a public relations problem has caused a stir at a federal inquiry in Vancouver. The federally appointed Cohen Commission was called two years ago to examine what caused the 2009 collapse of the Fraser River sockeye.

The suggestion that an influenza-like virus had penetrated B.C. waters came just as the 21-month inquiry was wrapping up, prompting the commissioner to hold three more days of hearings.

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