British Columbia Salmon Extinction? A Reality Check.

[MsTokies]

showing news reports from tv anchors does not proof facts it proofs news. fact 1 big ass lice clouds when baby fish pass the fishery shouldn't be there. fact 2 we don't fully know the impact of having that many farms plus the over fishing we already do. nobody wants any industry to put the waste of there industry directly into "natural" water ways. The salmon your farming is no longer "wild" its becoming domesticated salmon. Yet those by products of the salmon domatciation is hitting the water.

[AquacultureAwareness]

@MsTokies The news anchors are simply reported on fact - the fact that 2010 was a record run of Fraser river sockeye. 35 million.

We agree with you that no one wants to ruin the natural waterways, and because salmon farmers use those same waterways, they have a real keen interest in keeping the surrounding environment healthy.

We can't even understand your final sentence.

[MsTokies]

@AquacultureAwareness [Last sentence "domestication" was the word sorry i was writing at 2am.]

Better return on commercial fishing when new and better ways of fishing has been worked on since the industrialization of fishing doesn't really impress. It still doesn't make comical fishing, and farm fishing anything but a tick on the back of wild life populations. Also the best run in years doesn't mean much since who was telling you that but the fishing industry. it's news not scientific fact

[MsTokies]

@AquacultureAwareness i don't care about the jobs because it takes more effort time and expense to FIX a broken system than for you to look for another job in a different industry. ruining natures system is the work of years while fixing nature is the work of generations. farm fishing is a great idea and if we could get it to work better and be more sustainable without it being so broken id have no problem with it. "IF this system was close loop WE WOULDNT BE TALKING ABOUT THIS AT ALL"

[MsTokies]

@AquacultureAwareness There are very few human systems of domestication that doesn't have some sorta unforeseen fall out. History and time has taught us that. The key is managing that fall out. We don't know what it is yet for salmon farming but with the hits that aqua life has taken for the last 75 or so years maybe a little more care and a whole lot less roll the dice. farm fishing may save us all and aqua life but working towards close loops systems.

[Folkboat11]

@MsTokies Every thing you talk about is true. Yes I said it here first. It is all true. Aquaculture is the result of the truth you talk about, not the cause of it.

[MsTokies]

@AquacultureAwareness There are a lot less aqua life in our water ways and sea these days from what many explores discribe. be glad people care and they are watching instead of poking holes because its likely those same people who clean off animals when oil spills happen. who work to keep indigonius wild life populations alive.

[Alaskrab]

I get to sick to my stomach when I read this stuff. It all boils down to this. Salmon farming in British Columbia only employs about 1200 people - whose jobs are valuable. However, the vast majority of the province has been crying out that they want fish farms gone. Why then are they still here? Because large, wealthy, multinational corporations have got the DFO and the Canadian government in their back pocket...yikes. You guys are peddling a product that isn't sustainable or healthy for BC.

[AquacultureAwareness]

@Alaskrab Or...how about salmon farming in BC is a legitimate business that operates within some of the strictest agriculture regulations in the world. Healthy and sustainable. As you are also a fishermen, you should understand the importance of aquaculture on our coast - and that includes hatcheries, salmon ranches and farms. All types of aquaculture has some risks that need to be managed and some massive benefits.

[tappakeggaday1]

ive seen both sides videos,1.yes sea lice is natural.2 "they claim"near all were infected but only showed a select few that were.2. the farmed fish or salmon in this case were released into the wild after they got big enough.they didnt come back?of course not!!they needed time to grow in the wild so they could come back and also in record numbers.when one ploy didn't work what happens? they go after another species of salmon and yell sea lice.boy cries wolf all over again.

[MrShawinigan]

Go back to Norway or put your farms on land, enough said. I dont believe any of your propaganda that you post blaming climate change, if it truly is climate change why not post all of your testing, and why hide behind DFO to change regulations that allow you not too? I have personally seen the fish that swim past your fish farms and the amount of lice on those fish in appalling, I have never seen smolts with so much lice in my life. Stop hiding denying these claims.

[AquacultureAwareness]

@MrShawinigan Hi. Thanks for letting us correct some of your claims.

#1 We are all Canadian, eh. Why are you racist?

#2 We have not blamed climate change. We are happy to see Cohen commission started to find answers.

#3 All of our fish health data is made public - posted on a website for the last 8 years.

#4 Sea lice is natural in the wild. It's well managed on farms and that management is recognized by scientists (including some of your favorites!)

Thanks.

[schmarly2007]

You guys need to keep pushing out videos showing how much more eficient/sustainable you are compared to hatchery (wild?) salmon. Thanks. Keep it up.

[AquacultureAwareness]

@schmarly2007 Thanks mate! We're on it. Have you seen the new website out yesterday.

"BC Salmon Facts dot ca"

They have a new set of videos about British Columbia salmon farming. Beautiful stuff. You're definitely going to like it!!

[TheMyfancypants]

New study out from Gary Marty, Sonja Saksida and Terence Quinn based on data released to them from aquaculture industry shows no co-relation between pink salmon and sea lice in the Broughton. Ms Morton errs again. The study is to be published on line this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

[Folkboat11]

Google "A charity with plenty of very long tentacles". We are being Americanized, and you wont beleive who are in their pockets.

"They are de facto political organizations in B.C.," he says. "They're distorting the balance of power where a few people control these huge amounts of money that flow in from the U.S." And, he believes the growing impact of environmental groups is only hurting British Columbia's economic potential".

[AquacultureAwareness]

Dear "CommonSenseCanadian aka Pure Salmon aka Pew Foundation";

If you would like to see fish health data from salmon farms, then please feel free to read hundreds of pages of annual fish health audits that have always been posted on the web. Let us know when you're finished and then we'll talk.

If you're talking to Judge Cohen, then you may wish to ask him for every fish hatchery in BC for the same information that isn't posted on the web. :)

[AquacultureAwareness]

Dear "CommonSenseCanadian Funded by Americans";

Sea lice levels on farms in the Broughton area were low in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009. But Fraser sockeye returns from those out-migration years have been highly variable (low in 2009 ('07) and high in 2010 ('08)), so no link.

A question for you - what does the Broughton area have to do with Fraser sockeye - 300 kms away and not on migration route (Johnstone Strait)?

[CommonSenseCanadian]

What do you do when Slice invariably fails? And how do you explain the correlation between low sea lice levels around your Broughton farms in 2008 during the out-migration of this year's recently returned Fraser sockeye (only 4-7% lice loading on out-migrating smolts, compared with much higher numbers in previous years) and the health of that return? Finally, if there's n problem with your industry then you have nothing to hide - why not release all your testing data for the Cohen Commission?

[AquacultureAwareness]

@CommonSenseCanadian Good questions. And we will be happy to answer. See the remaining posts for answers. By the way, we are happy to allow your comments on our page, so how about you return the favour and not block comments on your own page? Afterall, it's you asking for transparency!

[Folkboat11]

@CommonSenseCanadian The Pacific Salmon Forum PSF - a non-biased scientific body ordered to look into the sea lice issue found that the studies Morton was citing (her own), were incorrect. Co-author Marty Krkosek agreed. Morton and Krkosek were asked to “recalibrate”. She concluded that “the survival of the pink salmon cohort was not statistically different from a reference region without salmon farms.” That’s right – no extinction. Not even a difference.

[AquacultureAwareness]

@CommonSenseCanadian Hey! Funny that you claim low sea lice levels were found in 2008, because you and your friends said the opposite back then! You claimed 2008 lice levels were really high back then and that it would result in extinction. Ooops. So now you change the story. Cute.

Oh, and all data has been released to Cohen Commissions. All good.

And for fairness, how about you don't block comments from your YouTube site? You are not beyond challenge and questions, are you?

[greaseline]

This video is weak. Pink salmon in the Broughton did collapse, they give no evidence in this video of good runs there.

[AquacultureAwareness]

@greaseline Just google "pink salmon return in large numbers". Enjoy the reading. Let us know if you need some help.

[cromiess]

Can sea lice kill juvenile salmon? Sure...that is not very hard to prove. However, finding some smolts with lice on them is far from conclusive evidence. So far I haven't seen any evidence that lice are having a large scale effect on salmon smolts. If anything, I believe these deaths are localized occurances which affect smolts that are probably not very healthy to begin with. This year should serve notice that their is likely more to this than what many would like to believe.

[dvokey0900]

It sounds like you you guys actually believe your own propaganda....

[AquacultureAwareness]

@dvokey0900 Please explain more. We have used the very words of those who have claimed extinction and then used the facts about pink and sockeye returns. Please explain more about how you perceive this as propaganda.

Seems like 'fact' has upset you.

Back over to you.

[schmarly2007]

AWESOME!!!! I freakin' LOVE IT!!!!

[Folkboat11]

Miss Morton said pink salmon will go "extinct" They didn't. She said Atlantic salmon will decimate wild spawning grounds. They havent. She says BC salmon farmers are Norwegian. They're not. Does she ever get it right? You bet, when she said.

"I don't have a great set of credentials."

[AquacultureAwareness]

@Folkboat11 Well said.

[TheMyfancypants]

Alexandra Morton is NO scientist just a well paid manipulator who has been proven wrong time and again. Go home lady.