September 20, 2012
Sue Farlinger
Regional Director General, Pacific Region
Suite 200-401 Burrard St.
Vancouver, BC V6C 3S4
Dear Ms. Farlinger:
As a participant of the Cohn Commission, I read hundreds of internal DFO emails. I saw that DFO expends enormous time and resources to create documents, such as your recent response to a salmon farm near the mouth of the Fraser River infected with IHN. The template of these letters is always: There is no problem, it is not DFO’s fault, don’t worry we are on it.
Your August 15, 2012 letter, which I note you did not sign personally, is a classic example. You are ignoring your own science and a technical report commission by Justice Cohen. This is how the once abundant cod stocks were stolen from future generations. DFO should have been gutted and reassembled for destroying one of humanity’s greatest food resources. But nothing was done and so the people who depend on wild salmon are being hurt in the same manner today.
You must be aware of the points I am going to raise, so this letter is not so much for you, but to all the people who are forwarding me the letters you sent to them about IHN:
Farlinger: “... [IHN] virus can be rendered non-infectious within minutes by sunlight...”
AQUACULTURE UPDATE 11/23/1992 (DFO) “...99% of the viral [IHN] particles are inactivated within 3 weeks”
Download IHN Aquaculture Update 1991.pdf (390.6K)
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Farlinger: “...susceptibility of sockeye salmon to IHNV disease decreases with age...”
Technical Report #1 to the Cohen Commission on the threat of disease to Fraser sockeye "I designate the following pathogens as potential "HIGH RISK...IHNV”
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Farlinger: “... sockeye fry that survive freshwater exposure...may represent a source of virus to... farmed salmonids...”
Dr. Kyle Garver (DFO) testimony at the Cohen Commission: “... If you have a farm that has approximately a million fish...experiencing 30 percent infection... you do get 650 billion viral particles shed per hour.” Testimony 08/25/11 page 14, line 25
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Farlinger: “... the CFIA ... is currently working to confirm the presence and strain of IHN from this farm.” (August 15)
Grieg Seafood ASA: IHN confirmed at the Culloden Point site in BC, Canada: “Reference is made to the stock exchange notification on 3 August 2012. Renewed tests confirm the presence of the IHN virus at Grieg Seafood... Canadian authorities that have conducted the renewed testing, has not yet issued any depopulation order... The final financial impact of the likely depopulation order will depend on the potential compensation from Grieg Seafood’s insurance and/or Canadian authorities...”
Ms. Farlinger, in the wild predators remove sick, slow fish and you don’t easily get this kind of massive viral release. But salmon feedlots violate the natural laws, hold salmon stationary, prevent the predators from removing the sick and thus allow unnatural viral release.
Scientists report the virus is of high risk to the Fraser sockeye, can live up to three weeks in saltwater and a single infected farm produces hundreds of billions of IHN viral particles an hour. The farm in question is near the mouth of the Fraser River, meaning adult salmon passed through a IHN viral cloud just before entering the nursery areas of Adams Lake, Scotch Creek, Takla Landing, Chilko, Shuswap, Horsefly, Gates Creek, Birkenhead, Nicola, Weaver.... There is nothing natural about a school of 300,000 Atlantic salmon shedding IHN virus into the Fraser sockeye migration exposing the young salmon fry rearing in the river.
Until DFO recognizes that salmon farms amplify pathogens to dangerous levels, I will maintain my opinion that DFO has no intention of protecting wild salmon from salmon farms. I suspect you have been pressured to make it easier for the salmon farmers to collect insurance and apply for compensation.
I have asked Grieg repeatedly and now I ask you, what strain of IHN was detected in Grieg Seafood’s Culloden Point salmon farm so we, the public, can assess for ourselves which way this virus is moving.
I suspect you do not feel free to speak your mind on this, but there is always a way to step up and protect a public resource as generous and essential as wild salmon. In closing I offer a link to a blog that details questioning of your Director General of Science, Dr. Laura Richards concerning DFO research on viruses affecting the Fraser sockeye and ask; what hope can we possibly have, in the face of this kind of testimony, that wild salmon are safe with DFO?
Wishing you the guts to step up and set this on the right course,
Alexandra Morton
How many salmon died without spawning in the Fraser River this year?
