alexandra morton

How Viable is Salmon Farming?

Marine Harvest

“In recent years, this stock has performed terribly. In 2000, the stock traded as high as NOK 2,208.56, versus NOK 3.00 on Jun/1/2012” (Wright Investor’s Service Report on Marine Harvest see below).

Download Wright Investors' Service.pdf (236.8K)Download Marine Harvest Q1 2012.pdf (3929.4K)

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Nov 2011 “Marine Harvest’s ability to honor loan conditions is being called into question after third-quarter net income declined 97 percent”

“Marine Harvest has a lot of debt and they could be in breach of their covenants in a couple of quarters. They will lose money -- most likely it won’t improve next year.”

“Marine Harvest plans to cut 2012 capital spending by 600 million kroner to about 400 million kroner by closing some sites and reducing young-salmon stocking in Norway, Canada and Chile, according to Chief Financial Officer Joergen Andersen. It may cut jobs in Canada. ”

“They are now doing things to improve their balance sheet, but there are just limited things they can do,” Skagen’s Porter said. “The industry outlook looks weak.” Bloomberg

However, beginning in 2014 Chile is not going to allow companies to hold salmon farm licences indefinitely without using them. The companies will be forced to stock their sites and this runs counter to the need to cutback on the number of farm salmon on the market to try and bring the prices back up to a profitable level. (Thomson Reuters Streetevents Edited Transcript Marine Harvest ASA Earnings Presentation May 09, 2012).

While the Norwegian salmon farming industry operating in many countries is suffering from politics (China refusing Norwegian farm salmon due to the Nobel Peace Prize award to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo), a global glut of farm salmon on the market and disease and sea lice issues, Canada is the least profitable region where they operate.

“... in our Canadian operation, we have broke even. It's not great, but we've said we're working on structural change in Canada.” Download Transcript MH Earnings.pdf (285.6K)

In 2009, I met with the previous CEO of Marine Harvest in Norway. She asked me, “what do you want?” When I said, "you have to move your industry out of the narrow Fraser sockeye migration route off Campbell River," she said it could not be done, because their share price must rise every quarter. However, today Marine Harvest is moving farms from exactly that area trying escape a parasite that liquifies salmon flesh (Kudoa). People don't want to consume their salmon through a straw.

Kudoa, the white balls in this picture, releases an enzyme that liquifies the flesh after death. Salmon farms could certainly be enhancing this parasite similar to how they enhance sea lice, viruses and bacteria

First detection of Salmon Alphavirus in BC - farmed steelhead

On March 25, 2012 we purchased 11 farmed steelhead and 3 Arctic Char heads from the Fairway Market in Victoria, BC and sent samples from them for testing for three European farm salmon viruses.

8 came back positive for the salmon heart virus (piscine reovirus)

7 came back positive for Salmon Alphavirus.

7 tested positive for both

This is the first-ever report of Salmon Alpha virus in BC although there is a single report by Dr. Michael Kent, of the disease it causes, Pancreas Disease, in Atlantic farm salmon being raised in BC in 1987. The reason I asked the lab to test for these European viruses is because Dr. Gary Marty, the BC farm salmon vet, reported lesions in farm salmon that caused him to include Salmon Alphavirus in his reports to Mainstream and Marine Harvest on at a least 6 occasions from 2007-2009. He cites this paper. One of these cases was in the Broughton Archipelago in 2009 at the Mainstream, site Maude Island. Salmon Alphavirus is not a "reportable disease," but it is killing salmon and trout in Norway, Scotland and Ireland. Chile has requested that it be listed as a reportable pathogen and has also requested permission from the World Trade Organization to block import of eggs from regions with Salmon Alphavirus. I don't know how this virus got into these steelhead raised in Lois Lake BC near Powell River. The eggs were reportedly from the Trout Lodge . The Lois Lake facility reportedly rears imported Atlantic salmon eggs for Atlantic salmon operators in BC.

What is Salmon Alphavirus, SAV?

First recognized in Scotland in 1984, SAV was subsequently detected in Ireland and Norway. There are three closely related viruses in this viral family and they are recognized as serious pathogens of farmed Atlantic salmon and rainbow trout in Europe. SAV 1 is the causative agent of pancreas disease (PD). SAV2 is the causative agent of sleeping disease of rainbow trout. SAV 3 has only been detected in Norway (as of 2007) causing Pancreas Disease in Atlantic salmon and rainbow trout.

Pancreas Disease is spreading in salmon farms the length of Norway. Marine Harvest was recently instructed to slaughter an entire farm in Norway by June 20th (Intrafish June 8). There were 90 cases in 2011 and the virus has spread to 8 farms in northern Norway this year (Intrafish May 31, 2012). Salmon Alpha virus survives well outside the fish drifting through the water spreading the infection.

Chile became extremely alarmed when rumours of Salmon Alphavirus popped up there in 2008.

Santiago Times

In 2009 Chile wrote to the WTO asking for permission to ban egg imports from countries known to have Pancreas Disease. This is a problem for countries trying to protect themselves from disease in Atlantic salmon eggs. Canada has expressed fear of trade sanctions if they refused to allow companies to import eggs even from hatcheries that do not meet Canada's standards. In January 2011, Chile made an application to the OIE to have pancreas disease listed as "reportable" but the OIE declined. Scientists and industry debate whether it can be moved in the eggs. (See page 13 of document)

Both Atlantic salmon and rainbow trout are susceptible to this disease. Sea lice, and other wild fish may spread the disease.

Where did these farmed steelhead come from?

Fairway Markets told us they source their steelhead from a trout farm in Lois Lake. West Coast Fish Culture (WCFC) reports it is a family owned business rearing 600 tonnes of steelhead a year in a hatchery and Lois Lake. The facility exists within Sliammon Territory. WCFC is one of the six members of the BC Salmon Farming Association.

In 2004, WCFC made a joint application with Marine Harvest for a marine farm site at Raven Bay, Texada Island, but stiff opposition from the Sliammon Nation, Texada Islanders and Georgia Strait Alliance blocked the application.

West Coast Fish Culture states it is not a “Certified Disease Free Facility.” The steelhead from this facility are a "recommended" Ocean Wise product.

In addition to raising steelhead, WCFC also raises imported Atlantic salmon eggs on contract to Atlantic salmon farm companies. In 2007, 1,000,000 Atlantic salmon eggs were delivered to West Coast Fish Culture (Lois Lake) Ltd, BC. (Dec 8 2009 email from an Icelandic hatchery to Cindy Wong at DFO).

I am at a loss to understand how the federal and provincial agencies tasked to protect wild salmon and manage farm salmon did not find any of these European viruses. The Provincial Ministry of Environment's Dave Narver, Harvey Andrusak, Earl Warnock and others were warning the Province of BC throughout the 1990s. Dr. Gary Hoskins of the Pacific Biological Station was warning the federal government in long detailed memos that the door was wide open for disease from Atlantic salmon eggs. Pat Chamut, the highest ranking DFO officer in BC tried to stop the Atlantic eggs saying they would bring exotic viruses, but he could not stop this either.

How is it, Dr. Stewart Johnson Head of Aquatic Animal Health for DFO, Pacific Biological Station that you never found salmon Alphavirus, piscine reovirus or the ISA virus? [email protected]

Dr. Gary Marty I believe your work more than you do - you saw all these viruses, you were my guide to look for them but you turned the other way and now you fight me every step of the way. But I only confirm what you saw.

What about you Dr. Jones, you have been deeply involved in sea lice, ISA virus and salmon farming. Was there ever a niggling of doubt that viruses from the Atlantic might not be good for the Pacific? Was there ever a moment you considered speaking from your experience to safeguard the wild salmon that make life so abundant on this coast?

If you want to help -

Come forward with information about what is really going on, on these salmon farms

Donate to pay the lab bills at GoFundMe

Send a message to the supermarkets that you don't want to eat these viruses petition

Mr. Backman you testified under oath that no exotic viruses have entered BC in farm salmon. How is it possible labs are now finding one after the next only a matter of months later?

Dr. Mark Sheppard - how is it you briefed the Provincial Minister of Agriculture that ISA virus would have to come from the wild fishes because live Atlantic salmon eggs have never been imported to BC? How did all the Atlantic salmon get here?Download ISA Confidential BCP1001938.pdf (491.2K)

For decades I have been asking you and others to please be careful as you ploughed ahead despite the warnings and warning signs, pouring Atlantic salmon into BC through long snaking hoses.... Is that how all salmon will migrate in a few years from now? It is devastating to learn no care was taken at all. Below are the infected fish. Lets hope you have the next steps figured out, lets hope the wild salmon and steelhead are not dying of these European diseases as I write.

I cannot understand how you could do this, all of you. Is there no one among you with the guts to stand up right now and shoulder some of this? I don't see an honest effort to protect BC's wild salmon from farm salmon disease.

If you want to help:

Come forward with information about what is really going on in these farms

Help us pay for these extremely expensive lab tests using the Go Fund Me at top of page

Send a message to the supermarkets that you don't want to eat these viruses

Ashfield - the Monster of Fisheries

Dear Minister Ashfield

As the Minister in charge of wild salmon in Canada, this letter below is the best you can come up with? ISA virus is not your responsibility?

Your scientist Dr. Simon Jones found the most lethal virus (ISAv) in the most endangered
Fraser River sockeye stock (Cultus) and hid this from the $25 million inquiry into the mysterious decline in Fraser sockeye and now you hide from any responsibility for the
impact of this virus?

You do realize that the CFIA's surveillance, as a result of my test results, for this European virus is not going to look in the salmon farms, where millions of European salmon, known to carry this virus are the only possible source of European strain ISA virus in BC? And you who collect an enormous salary as Minister in charge of wild and farm salmon in BC are OK with that?

Combined with your hopes to expose our valuable fish stocks to irreparable harm to the environment they require to survive via Bill C38, this lack of any sense of responsibility to stop the viral spill into the Pacific Ocean from salmon feedlots, awards you the name the Monster of Fisheries. Are you of sound mind? How can you possibly attack the food security of this country in this manner? You are allowing these viruses to enter the human food supply.

You are threatening our ability to survive as if we can drink and eat oil, as if feedlot viruses in our food supply is safe.

Really Ashfield your answer below is beyond shameful, it is sinister. There should be a world body to control people such as yourself who oversee the destruction of the last essential food resources that the people who come after us would need to survive. I don't say this lightly when I tell you to harm the living world like this is an evil thing you are doing.

Alexandra Morton

Learn more Bill C38

On 2012-05-09, at 10:23 AM, XNCR, Min wrote:

Ms <> . Alexandra Morton
< [email protected] >

Dear Ms. Morton:

Thank you for your correspondence of March 29, 2012, regarding Infectious Salmon Anaemia virus (ISAV) in British Columbia. I have also received a copy of your corresponce of April 5, 2012, addressed to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE).

All requests regarding ISAV, or any other reportable disease suspect findings, should be directed to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) as the federal lead for investigations into these aquatic disease reports. Given that the results from any tests done on behalf of CFIA (as in this case) are the property of CFIA, the results must be released by that agency.

As your questions about your samples and their results fall under the purview of my colleague, the Honourable Gerry Ritz, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food and Minister responsible for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, I have taken the liberty of forwarding a copy of your correspondence to Minister Ritz for his consideration.

With respect to the Government of Canada's contribution to OIE, this funding was not provided by Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO). As explained by Ms. Claudia Campos, on behalf of the Director General of the OIE, in her response of April 4, 2012, financial support is not offered as an endorsement of an organizations' standards, but rather to support their work and efforts - in this case, with the objective of promoting animal health.

Since DFO has no authority over the information on the OIE website, your questions regarding the publication of test results should be redirected to the OIE.

Thank you for taking the time to write to share your concerns.

Yours sincerely,

Original Signed by

Keith Ashfield
________________________________________________________________
Ministerial Correspondence Control Unit | Unité de contrôle de la correspondance ministérielle
Fisheries and Oceans Canada | Pêches et Océans Canada
200 Kent Street, Ottawa ON K1A 0E6 | 200, rue Kent, Ottawa (ON) K1A 0E6
[email protected]
Telephone | Téléphone 613-992-3474
Facsimile | Télécopieur 613-990-7292
Government of Canada | Gouvernement du Canada

c.c.: The Honourable Gerry Ritz, P.C., M.P.
The Honourable Don McRae, M.L.A.
Dr. Bernard Vallat

Reply to CFIA

June 6, 2012

Cornelius (Con) Kiley, Acting Director
Aquatic Animal Health Division, Canadian Food Inspection Agency
59 Camelot Dr.
Ottawa, ON K1A 0Y9

Dear Dr. Con Kiley

Thank you for your letter of June 4, 2012, regarding ISA virus in wild and farmed BC salmon (see below).

Given that:

1. Dr. Fred Kibenge is the ISAv OIE reference lab for this continent and South America;
2. that Kibenge accurately diagnosed the arrival of ISAv in Chile;
3. that the Premier of BC and her Minister of Agriculture assured China and the U.S. that ISAv is not in BC and thus a positive result might compromise their integrity as trade partners;
4. that CFIA testimony at the Cohen Commission indicated that ISAv detection could close the border to BC farm salmon export;
5. that internal emails by and to you became exhibits of the Cohen Commission that suggest the CFIA perceives this issue as a “war” to influence public opinion;
6. that Ms. Nelle Gagne, DFO Moncton, who did the confirmatory testing of the original ISAv positive BC samples for Canada, testified that her work did not provide a “negative” result as reported by the Minister Fisheries, Keith Ashfield, but rather she reported an inconclusive result that included a weak positive (Cohen Commission, Dec. 15, 2011, page 28, line 24);

you will understand my request to see Ms. Gagne’s signed lab report on my Vedder chum sample and the T & T samples.

I remain uncertain why 9 PCR positives and 1 (HPR5) sequence for ISAv reported by the OIE’s reference lab have not been listed by the OIE under their “suspicious” classification. Provincial vet Dr. Gary Marty’s opinion that ISAv is not present in farm salmon is based on PCR results, not isolation and culture. It appears there are two different standards in play here.

I attended the CFIA briefing to First Nations on the surveillance initiative. I do not understand why you designed a survey for a European virus that will not look at the several million European salmon now in BC known to carry this virus. The stated goal in the CFIA handout provided at this meeting:

“Provide additional evidence to update the status of three diseases of significance in anadromous salmonid populations in BC”

... contrasts with my surveillance goal; to learn if ISA virus is in BC and what are its origins.

I look forward to Ms. Gagne’s reports on my samples.

Respectfully,

Alexandra Morton

Download Morton Reply June 4 2012.pdf (499.2K)

Dear Mr. Alf-Helge Aarskog, CEO Marine Harvest:

June 3, 2012
Dear Mr. Alf-Helge Aarskog, CEO Marine Harvest:
[email protected]

There are serious viral issues with salmon farming in British Columbia that are being suppressed here in Canada that your shareholders should be informed about.

We have found Norwegian Piscine Reovirus associated with HSMI, as well as, the Infectious Salmon Anemia virus mutations HPR5 and HPR7b in fresh Atlantic salmon purchased in British Columbia, Canada markets. Both of the HPR5 and HPR7b mutations of ISA virus have caused large mortalities in salmon. While the BC Salmon Farmers Association and Federal Government Canada deny these viruses are present in BC - it is hard to explain their presence in fresh Atlantic salmon in the markets - someone’s farms must be infected with ISAv and PRv. Are you informed about the potential risk of an ISAv outbreak in BC and the strong negative reaction that the people of British Columbia will have to this?

There is a sequence of events you should be aware of:

• In 2003 Marine Harvest requested Atlantic salmon eggs from an Icelandic hatchery that did not meet Canada’s Fish Health Protection Regulations. Permission was granted.
• In 2009, Marine Harvest began requesting multiple tests for ISAv from the Provincial farm salmon veterinarian, Gary Marty and never imported eggs from Iceland again.
• In 2010, Marine Harvest, Cermaq and Grieg signed a Memorandum of Understanding to share information about viruses with each other, while at the same time they told the Province of BC they would no longer participate in government health audits of their fish.
• In 2004, Fisheries and Ocean Canada got ISAv positive tests in 100% of the most endangered Fraser sockeye stock (Cultus Lake) and never revealed this to the Stò:lō Nation, or the Cohen Commission into the Decline of the Fraser Sockeye
• Your public relations manager for British Columbia, Mr. Clare Backman testified under oath at the Cohen Commission that:
The level of surveys done in the country of origin and then again, the quarantine and follow-up sampling here in British Columbia has been successful in preventing any exotic disease, including this particular one, ISAV. (Cohen Commission, testimony Sept. 7, 2011, page 37)
• And yet we are getting positive results for Norwegian Piscine reovirus in nearly 100% of the Atlantic salmon we have purchased in supermarkets and positive tests for ISA virus.

In a recent survey over the past few weeks of your salmon feedlots in BC, I found many are empty (red squares). I understand the price for farm salmon is so low you might not want to restock, but there are reports of large numbers of dead Atlantic salmon being moved to dumps and there are the growing number of lab tests suggesting the presence of highly virulent strains of ISAv.

The picture below is young wild salmon taken today from outside one of your feedlots - Glacier Falls - near my home. These juvenile wild salmon are suffering from sea lice - a problem Canada denies, but you are familiar with this in Norway and everywhere you operate. Eleven years after I noticed sea lice infestation on BC juvenile salmon near salmon feedlots, seven years after Marine Harvest signed an agreement with several BC environmental companies, and a few weeks after that arrangement collapsed the young BC wild salmon are still being harmed. This is not progress for the people of British Columbia who depend on wild salmon.

Amid rumours of culling, viral outbreaks, quarantined farms and biosecurity risks I watched this eagle grab a dead Atlantic salmon off one of your farms today ,

carry it away,

where several eagles fought over it

and dropped it, leaving behind tissue samples.

While we are not permitted access to "your" salmon, we can buy them in the supermarkets and we are sampling those.

One or more of the Norwegian companies raising Atlantic salmon in BC appear to have ISA, and we are looking for that company.

Is it Marine Harvest?

When salmon farmers talk about "biosecurity" it has become clear to us that you are talking about protecting your fish, not protecting the wild salmon of British Columbia and that is not acceptable to many. The risk to wild salmon is great. Ocean currents spread disease because you use nets to contain your fish. When you move your dead and diseased salmon to dumpsites they can contaminate areas. When you sell fish from a disease outbreak you move viruses into new regions with lakes and rivers, even eagles spread sickness from your salmon feedlots.

With all the empty farms and rumours, Marine Harvest Canada looks like a company in retreat from disease. I am determined to find out why you have so many empty farms, why boats are undergoing disinfection, why composting plants are filling with the stench of culled Atlantic salmon. Thousands are signing a petition to supermarkets that sell BC farm salmon because they don't want to eat your viruses. The Norwegian Piscine reovirus causes heart failure in salmon, it is a durable virus and can be washed down the drain wherever your fish are sold. It could only have come here in Atlantic salmon eggs. Influenza viruses such as ISA are considered a dangerous family of viruses with frightening ability to mutate. Every country that gets it is trying to get rid of it. There is no reason to think BC is going feel any differently. For some reason Canada seems to think ISA can be hidden, they are refusing to follow up on reports in farms, rivers, lakes and supermarkets, but as more and more labs find it Marine Harvest might wish they had behaved differently. I know there is a sense of regret that ISA was not taken more seriously in the early days of the $2 billion Chilean outbreak. Influenzas are traceable and the Chilean outbreak was traced to a hatchery.

So Mr. Alf-Helge Aarskog, we will continue tracking the European viruses that no one in BC will admit are here, because wild salmon are the people's fish in British Columbia and of course we see them as a much greater priority than the profits of your shareholders. Your job is to protect the interests of your shareholders. My intention, though not a job, is to protect the wild salmon of a coast that I call home and love. May I suggest you be completely honest with your shareholders. There are big problems brewing in British Columbia with viruses you are very familiar with, best that you inform them today of the risks.

I am writing to put your shareholders on notice that British Columbia, Canada is the only region in the world where Marine Harvest is raising Atlantic salmon amongst abundant wild Pacific salmon. You can expect a much stronger reaction here to an ISA virus epidemic than anywhere else in the history of Marine Harvest.

Dear Marine Harvest Shareholders

Dear Marine Harvest Shareholders:

We have found Piscine Reovirus associated with HSMI, as well as, the Infectious Salmon Anemia virus mutations HPR5 and HPR7b in fresh Atlantic salmon purchased in British Columbia, Canada. A wild salmon from the Vedder River has tested positive for ISA virus and HPR5 was sequenced. Both of these mutations of ISA virus have caused large mortalities in salmon. While the BC Salmon Farmers Association and Federal Government Canada deny these viruses are present in BC - they must be in someone’s farms because we are finding them in the supermarkets. Has Marine Harvest informed you of the potential risk of an ISAv outbreak in BC and the strong negative reaction that the people of British Columbia will have to this?

There is a sequence of events you should be aware of:

• In 2003 Marine Harvest requested salmon eggs from an Icelandic hatchery that did not meet Canada’s Fish Health Protection Regulations. Permission was granted.
• In 2009, Marine Harvest began requesting multiple tests for ISAv from the Provincial salmon veterinarian, and never imported eggs from Iceland again.
• In 2010, Marine Harvest, Cermaq and Grieg signed a Memorandum of Understanding to share information about viruses with each other, while at the same time refused to allow the Province of BC to audit the health of their fish any longer.
• In 2004, Fisheries and Ocean Canada got ISAv positive tests in 100% of the most endangered Fraser sockeye stock (Cultus Lake) and never revealed this to the Stò:lō Nation, or the Cohen Commission into the Decline of the Fraser Sockeye
• Your public relations manager for British Columbia, Mr. Clare Backman testified under oath at the Cohen Commission that:
The level of surveys done in the country of origin and then again, the quarantine and follow-up sampling here in British Columbia has been successful in preventing any exotic disease, including this particular one, ISAV. (Cohen Commission, testimony Sept. 7, 2011, page 37)
• And yet we are getting positive results for Norwegian Piscine reovirus in nearly 100% of the Atlantic salmon we have purchased in supermarkets and positive tests for ISA virus.

We are writing to put your shareholders on notice British Columbia, Canada is the only region in the world where Marine Harvest is raising Atlantic salmon amongst abundant wild Pacific salmon. You can expect a much stronger reaction here to an ISA virus epidemic than anywhere else in the history of Marine Harvest.

In a recent survey of your salmon feedlots in BC, many are empty, amid reports of a large number of dead Atlantic salmon being shipped to composting facilities

This picture was taken outside one of your feedlots today, called Glacier Falls. These are juvenile wild salmon suffering from sea lice - a problem Canada denies, but surely you are familiar with this in Norway. For seven years you had an agreement with several BC environmental companies, but they withdrew from that deal recently