Federal Government invested in Marine Harvest,
protects company’s right to farm fish infected with virus killing Chinook salmon.
The Canadian Pension Plan is one of the top 10 investors in the Norwegian salmon farming company Marine Harvest*, as the federal Minister of Fisheries defends the right of this company to ignore Fishery laws of Canada.
In 2013, Marine Harvest and the Minister of Fisheries were sued to stop the transfer of farm salmon infected with piscine orthoreovirus, PRV, from a hatchery near Sayward, BC into marine net pens off Port Hardy. The case was won in 2015, with the court ruling that the Minister of Fisheries must screen all farm salmon for PRV, as a disease agent. As per section 56 of the Fishery General Regulations, fish infected with a “disease agent” are prohibited from transfer into Canadian waters.
However, the Minister refuses to acknowledge this decision (2015 FC 575) and was sued again by Alexandra Morton and the ‘Namgis First Nation of Alert Bay to stop the transfer of PRV into their territory. These cases were heard together in September, decision pending. Marine Harvest revealed that all but one of their hatcheries is PRV-positive and thus their company profits would be “severely” damaged if they were prohibited from farming with the PRV-infected fish.
This means that the Minister is defending Marine Harvest’s right to operate outside the laws of Canada, to protect the profitability of a company that the federal CPP profits from, even as DFO scientists report that the virus at issue is causing acute disease in Chinook salmon and half the Chinook salmon in BC are now in decline.
December 2017, scientists published on the spread of PRV to wild salmon exposed to salmon farms, and one month later, senior DFO scientists, reported that while PRV causes a transient heart wasting disease in Atlantic salmon, it triggers a more acute disease in Chinook salmon causing their red blood cells to rupture en masse resulting in organ failure.
“It has been hard for the lawyers, scientists and environmentalist to understand why Fisheries Minister Jonathan Wilkinson is using our tax dollars to fight DFO science and the law when half of BC’s Chinook salmon are in decline,” says independent biologist Alexandra Morton, “learning that the federal government’s CPP is one of the biggest global investors in Marine Harvest, puts the Minister’s defense of this company in a new light.”
This potential conflict of interest comes as the Provincial Government is two weeks past their deadline to report whether they will renew the 20 salmon farm tenures objected to by First Nations in the Broughton Archipelago.
*http://marineharvest.com/investor/share-and-bond-info/shareholder-analysis/
“As we learn at the expense of our wild salmon, that it is not just sea lice or PRV, but rather an ongoing suite of disease impacts that flourish in salmon farms and contaminate the ocean and fish outside the pens,” says Morton. “I think we need to look at Canada’s investment relationship with Marine Harvest and also the disturbing recent news out Norway, where this industry is from.”
- Norway’s city of Tromsø, announced recently that they would not renew salmon farm tenures and the salmon farming industry lawyers respond saying this is “illegal” due to “political expectations.”
- Industry founders wrote to Marine Harvest last week and objected to Marine Harvest changing its name to their family name “Mowi” in advance of Marine Harvest’s extraordinary general meeting. "We do not want to be associated with the way Marine Harvest and most other salmon farmers contaminate our fjords, harm marine habitats and threaten future generations," writes Frederik W. Mowinckel, but on December 4, Marine Harvest took the Mowi name.
- On November 23 European Food Safety Authority released a report the persistent pollutant levels in farm salmon associated with declining male fertility. The Norwegian Directorate of Health defends the industry.
See links to above articles: https://alexandramorton.typepad.com/alexandra_morton/2018/12/troms%C3%B8-municipality-lacks-means-to-implement-its-no-to-open-farms-httpsfiskeribladetnonyheterartikkel63737-troms.html
Alexandra Morton - [email protected]