Yesterday I received an email from a friend who had heard that herring had been caught in a salmon farm and destroyed. I went to Beaver Cove with Robert Mountain of the Musgamagw Tsawataineuk Tribal Council. We looked at the Sea Soil site, where dead farm salmon are turning into "organic" fertilizer for gardens. There were lots of bears eating the rotting remains, but no herring visible with all the big machinery turning the steaming piles
So Robert Mountain and I went to the Marine Harvest dock at Inglewood and spoke with a representative of Marine Harvest and the DFO enforcement Officer we had called. Marine Harvest said they had indeed caught small herring in their farm at Arrow Pass and during the sorting process these herring and some rock cod had been thrown into totes which were later dumped at the Sea Soil site. He did not know how much herring or rock cod had been mixed with the dead Atlantic salmon. He did know the herring were 3 - 10 grams.
The herring in this area have never rebounded since salmon farms moved in. A confidential DFO memo in the late 1980s warned of problems with herring around salmon farms. Recently, DFO simply stopped counting herring in the Broughton...end of problem for DFO.
The DFO enforcement officer seemed perplexed as to what should be done. It appeared to me that the herring and rock cod in the pens were not a concern, even though she did say it would not be legal for me to hold these species in a pen. It also seemed that because Marine Harvest had no license to harvest any wild fish, that it might not matter because... they were not in violation of a licence.... which they did not have.
On October 6, DFO posted a release on their website saying they fined a man, with no fishing licence, for possession of two Dungeness crabs - $600. The release goes on to say DFO acts to end illegal fishing activity. As part of this work, the Department asks the general public for information on activities of this nature or any contravention of the Fisheries Act and Regulations.....
So DFO you have been informed. Witnesses stood beside a DFO officer as she was informed that an undocumented amount of wild Broughton herring had been destroyed and dumped and unreported until several of us embarked on our own investigation. Marine Harvest caught and destroyed herring with no licence. They did the same with wild juvenile pink salmon 4 months ago, I believe you gave them a warning not to do this again..... Well they have done it again. Is it legal for salmon farms to kill wild fish without a licence or or not?
For all reading this please consider signing this letter telling the Minister of Fisheries to apply the laws of Canada to fish farms.
Reason must be brought to this situation.
