To:
The Hon. Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister Natural Resources
Dr Paul Snelgrove Departmental Science Advisor for BC
Estelle Couture, National Manager Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat (CSAS)
Alain Magnan, BC Coordinator Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat (CSAS)
I am writing to you to request your assistance in upholding scientific integrity in the government of Canada. Prime Minister Trudeau has expressed that he wants Canadians to trust science as a core principle of his government. A DFO Sea Lice report was published on the Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat website January 2023. Sixteen non-government Canadian scientists wrote to Minister of Fisheries, Joyce Murray warning that this report omitted key results which reversed the conclusions. Thus this appears to meet the international standard of “research fraud”.
I am bringing this to your attention because Fisheries and Oceans Canada does not appear structured to deal with this in house. Prime Minister Trudeau may need you to weigh in here.
Briefly, the Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat posted a study authored by employees of DFO Aquaculture Management and Science that reports no significant link between salmon farms and the harmful impact of sea lice infestations on wild salmon. While the report claims to have found “no statistically significant association” between farm lice and lice on the young wild salmon, internal documents reveal that there were “significant” results, but they were omitted, which reversed the conclusions which originally did link salmon farms and wild salmon lice infestations.
Furthermore, internal documents show that Dr. Simon Jones received the analysis for this report from a junior scientist in his lab including a table highlighting 15 “significant” results in bold text between sea lice released from salmon farms and wild salmon lice infestations in Clayoquot Sound, Quatsino, Discovery Islands and the Broughton Archipelago. Dr. Jones (identified by his initials in the “comment”) appears to cross out the sentence reporting this connection and a new sentence is added that completely changes the conclusions.
The January 30, 2023 letter from sixteen highly qualified scientists includes this evidence and they state “statistically significant results were omitted”.
As you may be aware, this conduct lands squarely within the definition of “research fraud”.
Elsevier, one of the biggest publishers of scientific journals in the world, states:
“Falsification includes changing or omitting data or results in such a way that the research is not accurately represented. A person might falsify data to make it fit with the desired end result of a study. Both fabrication and falsification are serious forms of misconduct because they result in a scientific record that does not accurately reflect observed truth.”
This situation has enormous ramifications for wild salmon, one of Canada’s most treasured natural resources and for the integrity of the Trudeau government. This Sea Lice CSAS was released just days before Fisheries Minister Joyce Murray’s decision was due - whether to reinstate salmon farms on the Fraser salmon migration route. The BC Salmon Farmers put out a release on it and the Sea Lice CSAS is being described as “
” by the local Strathcona Regional District Board, who are tasked to approve or not the restarting of salmon farms in the Discovery Islands. That board cannot be expected to evaluate whether this government report is fraud or not. Furthermore, the Sea Lice CSAS affects decisions on all BC salmon farm licence renewals.
Following conversations with many colleagues, I would like to offer a path forward to restore trust and protect Canada’s Pacific wild salmon.
- Honour the request of the 16 academics. Immediately provide all the industry data used in the Sea Lice CSAS for reanalysis. A core principle of science requires results to hold up to the standard of reproducibility.
- Given the evidence that research fraud was committed - suspend the DFO Sea Lice report by removing it from the Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat website until such time the re-analysis and an explanation from the DFO science team is forth coming. It is urgent that this document be removed prior to any decisions to pre-empt its use in a legal challenge to the minister’s decision.
- Suspend Dr. Simon Jones from his position as a DFO senior “Aquaculture Regulatory Scientist” until the issue of omitting the significant results is resolved, at which time he could be reinstated, or fired. There are other DFO scientists who put their name to this document, despite receiving the original results including Dr. Derek Price, and Dr Stewart Johnson and also senior bureaucrat Jay Parsons.
- Issue a statement on the CSAS website to disregard this paper so that regional and First Nation governments who are depending on DFO science to evaluate the risks/benefits of approving renewal of salmon farms licences understand that they cannot rely on the DFO Sea Lice CSAS at this time.
In closing, I know what I am asking is difficult, but I cannot stress enough, that the tampering evident in this Sea Lice CSAS is not an isolated episode within the DFO Aquaculture and Science division. This CSAS report is dated Aug 2, 2022 and yet it was not posted on the CSAS website until days before the Discovery Islands salmon farm decision was due and now even after the Minister has been informed, it remains as DFO science.
Thank you for reviewing this matter,
Alexandra Morton
Independent Scientist
Author JS, Jones, Simon, crosses out sentence reporting salmon farms are linked to sea lice infection in young wild salmon