alexandra morton

Dear Dr. Jones

Dr. Simon Jones:

Jan 24, 2023, the BC Salmon Farmers Association released the Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat Science Response (CSAS) titled Sea lice on Atlantic Salmon farms and wild Pacific Salmon in British Columbia. This report communicated that sea lice on salmon farms are an insignificant risk to young wild salmon

The advisory’s conclusion states:

“No statistically significant association was observed between infestation pressure attributable to Atlantic salmon farms and the probability of L. salmonis [salmon louse] infestations on wild juvenile Chum and Pink salmon in Clayoquot Sound, Quatsino Sound, Discovery Islands and Broughton Archipelago.” P-23

Issues aside with the clumsy design ignoring the proven unreliability of fish farm industry data* and whether the young wild salmon examined had even been exposed to salmon farms, your name appears on an earlier version of this paper which states the opposite result. 

March 9, 2022 a draft paper was attached to an internal DFO email sent to you titled “Modeling The Association of Sea Louse Infections Between Farmed Atlantic Salmon and Juvenile Pacific Salmon in Coastal British Columbia”. It states:

“The models suggested that in Clayoquot Sound between 2016 and 2021, both the occurrence and prevalence of L. salmonis infection on wild migrating juvenile chum salmon is influenced by sufficiently high copepodid [larval stage lice] infection pressures derived from farmed Atlantic salmon.”

May 19, 2022 another draft paper with the same title was sent to you with edits, including edits by you and Jay Parsons, where all reference to impact by salmon farms is removed to read:

“The analysis suggests that the occurrence of L. salmonis infection on wild migrating juvenile pink and chum salmon could not be explained by infection pressure of farm-sourced copepodids.

You claim in your comment that you do not understand the following sentence:

“is influenced by sufficiently high copepodid infection pressure derived from farmed Atlantic salmon…”

And someone crossed out this sentence giving the paper the opposite conclusion that salmon farms are not responsible for the devastating sea lice outbreaks reported on by major Canadian universities, BC research stations and in my own publications.

Senior DFO official, Jay Parsons, also provided comment on this edited manuscript making it clear he understood the original results - that high lice infection in salmon farms were linked to lice infection in wild salmon.  He asks:

“Do we want to say anything about management implications… these findings support efforts to reduce sea lice numbers during the outmigration period to minimise risk to wild salmon”

I also found the table sent to you with highly significant p-values indicating a significant link exists between farm and wild sea louse infections.  This means the phrase No statistically significant association which appears in the CSAS released by the BC Salmon Farmers cannot be true.

And yet you, Jay Parsons and senior DFO Aquaculture Management and “Regulatory Science” staff signed off on both versions under the authority of the Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat.   

The public version of this work, done in your lab, shields the salmon farming industry from responsibility for the infection and harm done to young wild salmon that are exposed to salmon farms.

I have attached the March 9 and the May 19 versions, the final CSAS version can be found on the BC Salmon Farmers Association website: https://bcsalmonfarmers.ca/news/government-of-canada-science-report-confirms-no-statistically-relevant-association-regarding-sea-lice-and-the-production-of-farmed-salmon/

I view the edits to this CSAS as  scientific misconduct and breach of scientific ethics of the highest order. 

Alexandra Morton

 

*http://seangodwin.org/Godwinetal_2021_EA.pdf

Letter to lone DFO virologist downplaying virus risk

Hello Dr. Kyle Garver,

Over the past 6 years you have become the lead DFO Science virologist propping up the assertion that the foreign virus PRV is not causing any disease in salmon in BC.  As I uncover the record, your statements appear at every turn to discredit reports by other scientists that PRV is causing disease and significant harm to wild salmon. I hope that you will reconsider.

The spring of 2016 was highly problematic for the salmon farming industry as information on the disease risk from PRV surfaced amid a lawsuit arguing it was illegal to transfer PRV-infected farm salmon from hatcheries into net pens. 

In April 2016 a Norwegian lab informed you that the PRV samples you sent to them caused the fish disease HSMI.  At the same time other DFO scientists (Miller/Di Cicco) reported the disease HSMI was in a Cermaq farm, Venture Point,  in the Discovery Islands.  

In response to the Cermaq results, the Department of Justice requested an adjournment of their appeal against the legal decision I won that required the Minister to reconsider whether or not PRV infected fish should be allowed to be transferred from hatcheries into salmon farms.  If PRV was a "disease agent" this would be illegal.  

DFO staff including Jay Parsons, Carmel Lowe and Wayne Moore were struggling to massage the news that a highly infectious disease was in at least one farm on the Fraser sockeye migration route in Okisollo Channel.  A heated argument raged in the comments of documents that DFO planned to post on their website.  In the end,  despite the strength of the science that the virus PRV was causing the salmon disease HSMI in BC salmon farms,  the Miller/DiCicco findings were buried under layers of uncertainty that you helped to manufacture.

On June 2, 2016 you contributed an edit stating:

“Utilizing laboratory studies, … PRV can reach high levels…without causing disease… suggesting PRV in British Columbia is of low virulence…” (See email)

You did not reveal that the study the Rimstad laboratory did for you found that PRV from BC is causing the disease HSMI, a finding that strongly supported the Miller/DiCicco findings.

Even if you did not believe Rimstad, Miller or DiCicco, your position as senior virologist for the Government of Canada, should have required you to provide thorough reasoning as to why you did not believe these scientists.  Allowing a foreign virus to spread is a very serious issue.

The January 19, 2017 a document signed by Chris Watson, legal council for Marine Harvest, provided to the Federal Court of Canada in Morton vs the Minister of Fisheries provides context. He said  Marine Harvest had been testing for PRV in its hatcheries since 2010 and that "PRV has been found in all but one of Marine Harvest's hatcheries".  Watson went on to state that prohibiting transfer of PRV-infected fish into the company's farms along the BC coast "... would severely impact Marine Harvest." (see pages 81, 82, 192)

Without your contradictory statements, as DFO Science's senior virologist, I believe the Rimstad/Miller/DiCicco findings would have been accepted by the Minister and all those infected farm salmon since 2016 would not have been transferred into ocean pens on BC's wild salmon migration routes.

                                    ^{Atlantic salmon in Mowi Midsummer farm exhibit highly distinctive HSMI-type behaviour in 2017}

 

Your ongoing participation in the construction of the alternate reality that PRV in salmon farms is not a risk to wild salmon continues.

In July 2022, you partnered with Cermaq (ACRDP 18-P-01) on PRV transmission in salmon farms. You report that 51/64 of the farms you tested were infected with PRV, but you don't offer test results for the hatcheries where those fish came from. You conclude: 

"This study confirmed PRV-1 infections of commercially produced Atlantic salmon in Western Canada are acquired at sea." (page 13 of PDF)

How can you "confirm" the PRV in farm salmon is coming from the ocean, when you don't provide results for the other possible source - the hatcheries?  To definitively show that the virus was coming from the ocean, shouldn't you have reported test results for those fish while they were still in the hatcheries?  With Cermaq as a partner, access to these hatcheries was possible?

I hear statements that PRV no longer exists in farm salmon hatcheries, however, this is not the case in Norway.  If PRV was so easy to eradicate from BC hatcheries, why did the industry fight the Namgis and myself in court for the right to continue transferring PRV-infected fish into BC waters?  And when they lost those lawsuits, the Minister of Fisheries reaffirmed PRV was not causing disease and the transfers were never stopped, in part, I believe, because you were willing to advise DFO that PRV does not cause disease in salmon in BC.

This virus is now in the Skeena, the Fraser, the Columbia, all along the BC coast and in farm salmon in supermarkets throughout BC. (See paper)

Earlier this spring you found 'live' PRV is still escaping into the ocean via the blood water from farm salmon processing plants and that it is highly infectious.  Your lab injected it and bathed young salmon in it and saw that they became infected.  Did you brief the minister's involved - George Heyman and Joyce Murray?  Or did you terminate further work on this, shelve these explosive results and quietly allow this infectious virus to continue to flow?  Certainly Minister Heyman's staff seem unaware of these results.

Dr. Kyle Garver, I believe it is wrong to provide guidance to federal and First Nation leadership that the foreign virus PRV is not a risk to wild salmon. Work by many scientists continues measuring just how widespread and damaging this virus is to wild salmon that are exposed to salmon farms.  As people with experience depart from the DFO Aquaculture Management Division, you are increasingly a lone voice repeating - PRV is low risk to wild salmon.  It is not.

I can only hope you will either reconsider your position on PRV risk to wild salmon based on the strength of the science, or step aside and allow the scientists brave enough to report what this virus is doing to this coast to be heard by the leadership we are depending on to rescue wild salmon from the brink of extinction.

 Thank you for considering these words, I will be following up on this.

Alexandra Morton  

 

Farm sea lice chaos Spring 2022

Below is how the salmon farming industry failed to control their sea lice, breached their licences, applied for toxic drugs. No charges were laid. DFO awarded a farm that breached it licence permission to put even farm fish in their pens in Clayoquot Sound.  Is this collusion?  Maybe.  But it is certainly the road to extinction for wild salmon.  A link to the entire 314 - page ATIP document most of this came from.

During the 2022 juvenile wild salmon outmigration, 8 salmon farms breached their Condition of Licence, i.e. they reported more than 3 motile sea lice Mar 1-7, the single week of the year DFO requires salmon farms have their lice levels low enough to protect young wild salmon.

Aquaculture Management Division staff decided to only count 4 farms in violation.

On March 22, 2022, Kerra Shaw, Regional Manager, Aquaculture Fish Health wrote Cermaq, making it clear all 4 of these breaches of licence were in Clayoquot Sound 

Download A-2022-00262 Draft noncompliance letter from Shaw to Cermaq

The draft letter states:

"Please note that if the information requested is not received as requested, this file may be turned over to Conservation and Protection Fishery Officers" 

There is no request for information in this draft. It is unclear what information Cermaq could provide to avoid charges.

On April 23 a Fishery Officer appears to received some information and she says:

"Keep email chatter to a minimum on this topic and all conversations will be disclosable…"

When I asked whether charges were ever laid, I was told to check BC Provincial Court There is no record of any charges laid for these 4 breaches of licence.

For the record, this was not a minor breach - sea lice numbers in the Bawden farm were nearly 5xs over threshold at 14.22 adult-stage lice according to the DFO veterinarian. 

Then unbelievably, DFO awarded Cermaq a licence to nearly DOUBLE the number of farm salmon in Bawden!   More farm salmon = more lice = greater impact on wild salmon.  Cermaq desperately needed this increase because every other First Nation has chased them out of their territories. If they couldn't expand in Clayoquot Cermaq would lose money.  Perhaps DFO knew they couldn't help Cermaq stay in business in BC if they laid a charge...

Mowi was also unable to control their lice in their salmon farms in Quatsino.  They stopped reporting lice at Monday Rocks when the lice were 3xs over threshold at 9.1:

When no sea lice treatment worked, Mowi decided empty their Monday Rocks and Mahatta West farms.  Farm lice in Quatsino appear dangerously super-resistant. Mowi claims they emptied both farms within 42 days after breaching the lice threshold.  There are no records anyone checked to confirm this was accurate.

Meanwhile Cermaq tried again to get permission to use Lufeneron to fight sea lice, DFO supported this application, but Health Canada refused based on human health concerns.

FYI - DFO detected this human health threat in 51/53 samples in a 1.5km radius around the Cermaq farm Rant Point in June 2019. Rant Point was never approved for use of this drug - hopefully no one was prawn or bottom fish around this site.  No charges.

In Conclusion The salmon farming industry continues as one of the biggest impacts on the wild salmon of British Columbia.  We can't believe the public statements that this industry is being regulated in way that protects our natural resource - wild salmon.  When the Minister of Fisheries tells people she is going to apply "progressive minimization" of impact of salmon farms so they can stay in BC waters, she is risking our future on a myth, perhaps a lie that DFO has the ability or will to regulate salmon farms in a way that allows wild salmon to continue feeding this coast from trees to whales to humans. 

https://alexandramorton.typepad.com/A-2022-00262%20Laura%20Sitter%20Sea%20lice%202022.pdf

 

Minister Meetings Compromised?

The Minister of Fisheries Joyce Murray is currently travelling across Vancouver Island meeting with First Nations and others about the transition of salmon farms.   I have a lot of respect for her doing this, something I have never seen any other minster do.

However, the person running these meetings with the Minister is Brenda McCorquodale Director of Aquaculture Management. 

On April 19 and then again on May 30, 2022, McCorquodale was admonished by senior DFO staff for omitting the DFO science reporting impact of salmon farms on Pacific salmon from the Strategic Salmon Health Initiative (SSHI).  For those of you following this, that is the work of Dr. Kristi Miller, who has been muzzled about her findings since at least 2009.   

For example, the Miller lab found that the virus PRV being released by most salmon farms appears to be causes Chinook salmon red blood cells to rupture causing organ failure.  Her lab also found most Fraser River sockeye salmon swimming through the Discovery Islands (before the salmon farms were removed) were becoming infected with a bacteria call Tenacibaculum that causes mouth rot in farm salmon, and that these infected sockeye appeared to be dying.

They are also finding new viruses, at least one from the Atlantic.

Of course this DFO science is highly problematic for the salmon farming industry desperately trying to portray itself as concerned about protecting BC wild salmon by repeating to any who are still listening that their operations are low risk to wild salmon.

Below are the two emails released to me under Canada's Access to Information Act.  They reveal McCorquodale chose to omit information from high level government documents repeatedly.  This is scandalous because doing this provides a favourable outcome for Mowi, Cermaq and Grieg, the three Norwegian-based companies making enormous profits using the BC coast to raise Atlantic salmon.

Seeing these emails concerns me because it means that everything said at the Minister's meetings on the transition is being run through the same filter that scrubbed research describing harm to Pacific salmon from salmon farms.  As I said, I have respect for the efforts of Minister Murray, but I cannot fathom why she has put McCorquodale in charge.   

Yukon Chinook linked to BC Salmon Farm

When wild salmon go missing it is difficult to pinpoint the cause.  Fishing and climate change are the go to culprits.

I believe that when salmon go missing it's a good idea to screen the population for pathogens - easy to do and it narrows the search for the cause. However, salmon disease became a controversial topic when salmon farms were implicated in the spread of disease to wild salmon. 

Recently, government is using the decline of Chinook salmon in the Yukon as evidence that salmon farms are not causing wild salmon to vanish.   They suggest there is no link between Yukon Chinook salmon and salmon farms, so it can't be salmon farms.  This caused me to confirm there is no link between Yukon Chinook and farm salmon.  

The answer surprised me. 

Yukon Chinook were used to stock salmon farms in southern British Columbia in the early 1990s.

Reproductive material was moved back and forth between the salmon farming company, Creative Salmon, and the Yukon. 

Creative Salmon is infected with a virus from Norway called Piscine Orthoreovirus, PRV.  It's a controversial virus because some government scientists claim it's local and low risk. Other government scientists report it's from Norway and high risk to Chinook salmon. 

Everyone agrees the salmon farming industry is heavily infected with PRV here and in Norway.

PRV enters the red blood cells of Chinook salmon, uses the cells to make copies of itself and fills the cells with virus.  Farm salmon infected with it often float motionless at the edge of pens desperate for oxygen.  In the wild, infected fish would struggle to migrate up a river. 

The migration of the Yukon Chinook is exceptionally long.

 

Below is a partial record of the relationship between Yukon Chinook and salmon farms.

I suggest Yukon Chinook salmon be tested for PRV just to confirm has not made it into the watershed.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

January 5, 1995 minutes of the DFO Fish Transplant Committee meeting in Vancouver state: “... there was a recent escape of Yukon River Chinook salmon from a salmon farm in the Clayoquot area.  These fish are unmarked and thus cannot be recognized as farmed fish.”

In 1995 researchers in the Department of Veterinary Microbiology, Western College of Veterinary Medicine report a newly discovered disease in BC Chinook salmon farms and they note that progeny of Yukon Chinook were “diagnosed with marine anemia.” “Marine anemia, also known as plasmacytoid leukemia, is a recently described disease affecting farmed chinook salmon in British Columbia. The disease has been implicated as the cause of massive mortalities in salmon farms in BC, it has been suggested that, like retroviral leukemias of other animals, marine anemia could spread throughout the population at risk…”

“Progeny” means these were live Chinook originally from the Yukon. This paper only reports on farm salmon hatcheries and sea pens, suggesting these fish were born in a farm hatchery from eggs taken from the Yukon.

March 2005 Creative Salmon makes a case for a continued relationship with Yukon Chinook in a presentation:  “Creative Salmon began its relationship with the Yukon in 1990, Yukon River Chinook are well known for their rich color and high fat content… 1990-1996 – Eggs and Milt collected under a commercial fishing licence – Eggs were fertilized at the Whitehorse hatchery.” Creative Salmon was established in 1990, so Yukon Chinook were used from the earliest days of this company.

They report collecting milt at Minto and Whitehorse Hatchery and suggest “Possible joint ventures in the future”. “We ask that Creative Salmon be allowed to continue with the support of the Yukon Salmon Committee and the public it represents.”

The document goes on to say “1996 was the last time eggs were collected” however in 2019 Creative Salmon reports they had Yukon Chinook milt that was frozen in 1999.

Dec 5, 2019 CBC reports Creative salmon in Clayoquot Sound “handed over about 11 years worth of collected milt - salmon sperm - to the Carcross/Tagish Energy Corporation in Yukon… Creative Salmon Company had planned to use the cryopreserved sperm, which had originally been collected from the Yukon River, for salmon farming – but never did.”  

The article goes on, “The Yukon company was happy to take the milt. CEO Nelson Lepine describes it as a sort of insurance policy against any sort of devastating collapse of the Yukon River chinook population.

"We're not saying that will happen, but nobody really knows," Lepine said. 

"If some worst case scenario occurs, at least this way would we be able to potentially bring back the salmon in a bigger way."

A local radio station reports the Energy Corporation signed an agreement with Creative Salmon and received enough the milt from Creative to fertilize a million eggs.  The link is broken, but it still appears in a Google Search:

Summary

• Yukon Chinook salmon are closely linked to a salmon farming company called Creative Salmon with a history of infection with a Norwegian virus - Piscine orthoreovirus (PRV).   

 

• This article reports on the suppression of science on PRV in Creative Salmon farms. 

 

• Yukon Chinook that were put in salmon farms in the early 1990s were infected with salmon leukemia.

 

• Creative Salmon took milt from the Yukon, held it in their facility for 20 years and then returned it to the Yukon.

 

None of this is proof that farm salmon disease is causing unexplained collapse of specifically the Yukon Chinook, but it does means Yukon Chinook salmon are closely linked to a salmon farming company with a history of infection with a virus known to weaken salmon.  I think it only makes sense to test these fish for PRV and sequence the virus if found so it can be traced to source.

 

 

 

 

 

Briefing 2022 Fraser Sockeye vs Salmon Farm Infections

 Download Briefing Here

 

Serious Breach, Now What?

May 31, 2022

 

Dear Kerra Shaw, Brenda McCorquodale and Minister Joyce Murray,

 

Below is a series of events clearly demonstrating the current state of salmon farm management in British Columbia. 

 

On March 3, 2022 Aquaculture Management Division veterinarian Dr. Laura Sitter wrote the an email to Kerra Shaw reporting the Cermaq farm Bawden Pt, Clayoquot Sound, was infected with almost 5 times over the DFO sea lice limit set for the 1st week of March.  March 1 - 7 is the one week of the year that conditions of licence require all BC salmon farms to have less than an average of 3 motile sea lice per fish.

 

On March 7, Howie Manchester wrote to Kerra Shaw reporting that the Cermaq farm, Ross Pass, also in Clayoquot Sound, had breached its licence with 11.53 motiles.  Most of his email is redacted.  There is no other DFO audit information for other salmon farms on the BC Coast.

 

Cermaq hid this high infection of the fish in their farms.  They did not report any numbers for Bawden or Ross during the 1st week of March, saying "Sampling delayed due to poor environmental conditions".  It is unclear why the company could not count lice on these farms, when DFO did.

 

On March 14 Cermaq reported there were only 3.02 sea lice per fish at Bawden and stated mechanical de-licing treatment was planned. There was no mention of any treatment between March 2 - 14.  Kerra, you explain that no treatments can occur during poor environmental conditions.  How did sea lice numbers decline from 14.22 - 3.02 in 12 days with no treatment?

 

The information Cermaq posted on their website shows their boats were already treating other farms around this time period.  On Feb 28, 2022 "Mechanical delousing" was under way at Mussel Rock and Rant Point and "Hydrogen peroxide treatment was underway" at Plover Point.  Cermaq only has 2 mechanical delousers and they were borrowing Grieg's well boat Ronja Islander for the treatment at Plover Point. Lice treatments take many days depending on the number of pens - which are treated individually.  Did Cermaq even have a boat available to deal with the lice at Bawden and Ross?  

 

Brenda, on March 3 you ask Kerra to alert DFO Comms saying - "We should decide if we want to be proactive or reactive?"  While you suggest being "proactive", DFO was not and did not tell the public about this.  For context, Clayoquot wild salmon runs are in a state of utter collapse and exposure to farm salmon lice infections five times over threshold is a serious threat to these remnant populations.  As well, though they don't enforce it, the Ahousaht threshold for these farms is 1.5 motile sea lice.

 

Brenda - why are there zero emails about what should be done to minimize the impact this was going to have on extremely vulnerable wild salmon populations?  Whose job in DFO was it to stop the literally billions of larval lice, a wall of lice, that young Clayoquot Sound salmon were about to swim into?  Where are the emails tasking staff to ground - truth lice numbers on the other farms during March 1 - 7?

 

Did Cermaq or DFO inform Ahousaht?  I realize Ahousaht just signed a 5 year agreement with Cermaq, but were they informed of what was about to happen to the wild salmon of Clayoquot Sound?  And what about neighbouring Tla-o-qui-aht?  Were any measures taken to protect the last of their fish from this gross breach of licence? Was the minister briefed on these extraordinary numbers?  Did anyone in DFO think to audit all the farms given the discrepancies at Ross and Bawden?  

 

Making matters worse, in an email from DFO biologist Nathan Blasco tells Kerra Shaw that the reason sea lions are now in salmon farms in Clayoquot is because of the mechanical and well boat lice treatment vessels.  The US Marine Mammal Protection Act has regulations about killing marine mammals if you intend to sell your product in the US and so it is unclear how this issue can be resolved.  Having these powerful animals in the farms for weeks on end is a serious accident in the making - large Atlantic salmon escapes, harm to industry staff, inability for divers to enter the pens, culling large numbers of pinnipeds as more learn this behaviour. 

 

Minister Murray, the salmon farming industry is currently under the most intense scrutiny in the 35 years of its operation on the BC coast.  Collectively Mowi, Grieg and Cermaq have stated in the media that they have spent tens of millions of dollars to control their lice.  Because all their licences are about to expire, the week of March 1-7, 2022 was the most important seven days in the history of this industry to have their lice under control.  I believe that if they could have, they would have.  But they couldn't and they didn't and wild salmon were killed.  DFO has already decided sea lice numbers on salmon farms have to remain below 3 motiles for one week of the year to protect wild salmon.  To revisit this regulation now would appear disingenuous. 

 

The industry hid how many lice were in their farms, DFO hid these numbers from the public and no one did anything to stop the lethal lice infection of young wild salmon, being documented today in Clayoquot Sound.  I think it is important to inform Canadians what action was taken by DFO.

 

I know of no reason to hope  that the salmon farming industry is going to do better next year and the year after that.  They are pressuring Canada to approve use of pesticides that Health Canada has said "no" to for years because of their toxicity to people.

 

I view the DFO Aquaculture Management Division as a risk to wild salmon, but only because  DFO put no one in charge of protecting wild salmon from exactly what happened this year in Clayoquot Sound.  There is no counter balance, no one looking after the fish impacted by Mowi, Cermaq and Grieg.  However, the bigger issue right now is what will happen next year if you allow this industry -  which is demonstrating no semblance of capacity to control lice, sea lions, infectious viruses or bacteria - the licences to continue.  Even if staff were appointed at this late date to protect wild salmon from this - what would they do?  The only apparent solution would have been a rapid cull to reduce the lice in the farm.  Does DFO even have the power to do that?  

 

Wild salmon died, the public was duped, First Nation regulations ignored as if they didn't exist, the salmon farming industry looks dishonest and the federal liberals look like they are not in control of this escalating situation.  

 

This is not good for anyone.  

 

Thank you for reading this email,

 

Alexandra Morton

 

 

Chum Salmon Clayoquot Sound April 2022 photo - Julia Simmerling

DFO downgrades Fish Farm Regulations

On January 24, 2022 fish farm company Mowi sent a letter to the DFO Aquaculture Management Division explaining that the company could not meet new regulations.

A few weeks later DFO was circulating draft regulations internally that had weakened the regulations by removing the requirement to keep sea lice on farm salmon below three motile (adult stage) sea lice per fish.

The limit on the number of sea lice per farm salmon had been set by DFO to protect wild salmon.  Some First Nations have more stringent regulations because the sea lice infection of young wild salmon exposed to salmon farms was still too high.  For example, the Ahousaht First Nation set a limit of 1.5 adult lice per farm salmon in Clayoquot Sound, which they don't enforce and First Nations in the Broughton Archipelago set a limit of 2 sea lice per farm salmon which they rigorously enforce.

Sea lice levels in salmon farms have exceeded the DFO threshold every week this spring during the juvenile wild salmon outmigration.  For example, Cermaq has had farms over the limit every week in Clayoquot Sound resulting in high lice numbers on juvenile wild salmon and Mowi's lice have been over the threshold in Quatsino and Klemtu.  The industry posts lice counts on their respective websites in compliance with their Aquaculture Sustainability Certification.

The industry is spending enormous resources to kill sea lice, which are now too resistant to the drug Slice which was used successfully for years, and they imported ships from Norway that specialize in lice removal at the cost of $30-40M each.  The industry has no other tools in their sea lice removal toolbox and so removing the sea lice threshold from their Conditions of Licence is very beneficial.  It is also going to kill large portions of wild salmon populations trying to migrate from natal rivers to open ocean feeding grounds.

 

 

 

 

 

Dear Minister Murray renewal of salmon farms is a wild salmon decision

March 11, 2022

Dear Minister Joyce Murray.

On March 3, 2022, I met with members of your Aquaculture Management Division (AMD).

They said they are recommending 6-year licences be issued to the salmon farming industry when all the BC licences expire this summer.  That’s three years past the mandate issued by the Prime Minister to transition salmon farms by 2025.  

They said Rebecca Reid, Director General, Pacific Region, was the decision–maker, not you.  

They said no wild salmon conservation concerns have been brought to their attention. They are regulating salmon farms in Clayoquot Sound where salmon runs are nearly extinguished in both logged and unlogged watersheds.  Research on the harm to Chinook salmon by the ubiquitous Atlantic blood virus PRV was done in the Creative Salmon farms in Clayoquot, i.e. rupturing their red blood cells.  DFO field staff know Mowi, Cermaq and Grieg are losing control of their sea lice coastwide causing widespread harm to young wild salmon. And yet reportedly there is no awareness of any of this within the AMD.

When asked if they had followed up on a potential Breach of Licence - release of sea lice from mechanical de-lousing vessels - they said they did not know how to sample this effluent.  This treatment water flows from a pipe sticking out of the side of a barge.  Many of us  are sampling this effluent, which is how we know sea lice are being released.

My sense of DFO’s Aquaculture Management Division is they see themselves existing outside the DFO mandate.  They and senior managers in Ottawa are unreasonably resistant to evidence that wild salmon exposed to salmon farms are not surviving. They have made it clear that salmon are not their concern.

Whether industrial salmon farming licences are renewed on the BC coast is of national consequence as wild fisheries collapse around the world threatening the ocean’s capacity to absorb carbon and support life.  BC scientists have become global leaders in tracking the seepage of disease organisms from salmon farms pioneering powerful next-generation disease-tracking technology.  They are issuing warnings.

I am writing to ask that you personally make the decision whether to renew salmon farming licences on the BC coast this summer.  The extinction trend of wild salmon exposed to salmon farms seems more likely to be weighed against the demands of industrial salmon farming in your office, than Rebecca Reid’s.  They are an aggressive industry, but this is a wild salmon decision.  While Mowi, Grieg and Cermaq squandered the support offered to move into tanks on land, that opportunity still exists for them.   However, as each run of salmon goes extinct 10,000+ years of evolution are zeroed.  Wild salmon are forced to start all over again in the harsh crucible of climate change and the ecosystems they support, in which we exist, are dangerously weakened.

As soon as their marine licences expire, the salmon farming industry will move into tanks on land.  The question you face is whether we want to do that before or after valuable wild salmon runs are extinguished by this industry?    The previous minister of fisheries took an incredibly brave step that cleared most of the Fraser River migration route, but the entire west coast of Vancouver Island remains under the influence of industrial salmon farm waste.

Thank you for reading this,

Alexandra Morton

The Sea Lice Problem is not Handled

February 2, 2022

Dear Minister Joyce Murray,

Hopefully your staff are briefing you on the developing sea lice situation in BC salmon farms.  I would like to add my observations.

From December 1 – January 22 Mowi treated its farms in Quatsino Sound with freshwater baths.  A few weeks later two of those farms are nearly 4xs over the limit that will apply on March 1, the onset of the juvenile wild salmon outmigration. This raises two issues I hope you can consider:

First – It appears sea lice are building resistance to freshwater treatments through repeat exposure by these wellboats. This is a serious problem as it would allow sea lice to enter BC rivers and feed on juvenile salmon trying to rear in BC freshwater systems. I don’t think we can fix this if it occurs.

Second – Mowi must have thought this treatment would be effective or they would not have spent the enormous funds to treat the farms in Quatsino over the past 7 weeks.  And yet the treatment failed spectacularly.  The Mowi farm, Koskimo in Quatsino, had an average of 2.17 lice before treatment in December and 11.57 now post treatment today.  Mahatta East had 11.9 motile lice and now has 11.6.  Mowi is now treating Mahatta East with hydrogen peroxide, however in Norway they are moving away from these bath treatments.  As I noted in early letters to you, these treatments appear to trigger sea lice outbreaks, making the problem worse, not better. All of this suggests the company doesn’t have a handle on this. 

Mowi is now treating its farms off Klemtu with the same freshwater treatment that failed in Quatsino. Mowi has three farms off Port Hardy and Klemtu that are over the March 1 limit and three others that are rapidly approaching the threshold.  All of these will require treatment.  Each farm requires approximately 1 day per pen, and there are 10-12 pens per farm.  I don’t see how Mowi is going to meet their Conditions of Licence (section 6.6) and protect the 2022 wild salmon outmigration.

Meanwhile in Clayoquot Sound Cermaq is trying hydrogen peroxide and mechanical de-lousing (hydrolicer) with three farms over the March 1 limit and 3 more very close.  As reported to you earlier the evidence suggests the mechanical treatments used by this industry are violating their Conditions of Licence by releasing lice.

Grieg imported a $30 million boat last year and another this year for $11 million per year, and yet there are annual high farm-lice infections on chum and Chinook smolts migrating through Nootka and Esperanza.

Even if Mowi, Cermaq and Grieg meet the March 1 deadline, their Conditions of Licence allow them 42 days of high infection every time they breach the 3 motile lice limit from March – June.  Given their current track record during the winter months when lice reproduction is at its lowest, we can only surmise these companies are going rely on this 42-day option and infect significant numbers of young salmon this year.  The placement of the farms struggling with sea lice will impact the Fraser River, southcoast mainland inlets, Vancouver Island rivers, all west coast rivers and central coast rivers.

Minister Murray - DFO’s salmon farm Conditions of Licence clearly recognize that high lice numbers on salmon farms are dangerous to wild salmon stocks because each licence requires the salmon farming industry to control their lice.  As someone on the ground studying the impact of these regulations it is clear they are too lax, but nevertheless they exist and thus establish that DFO recognizes exceeding three motile lice on farm salmon is harmful to wild salmon.

The evidence I offer here, from the companies own websites, suggests the salmon farming industry does not know how to control their lice, even as DFO recognizes sea lice on salmon farms have to be controlled and many wild salmon populations exposed to salmon farms have declined to the brink of extinction.  If DFO continues on this course the agency appears complicit in the harm that is occurring.   Something has to change.

My recommendations to you are to:

• Remove the 42-day exemption for high lice numbers immediately from the Conditions of Licence and enforce the 3 motile limit throughout the 2022 juvenile wild salmon outmigration
• Inform the industry that DFO will audit each farm for sea lice weekly given reports that farms are under reporting their lice by up to 50%. There are a lot less farms left on this coast today and Broughton Nation are already doing this work on eight farms and so this task is easier for DFO than in previous years. 
• Inform the industry that their licences may not be renewed when they expire this summer if they cannot keep their lice below 3 motiles (which is higher than many First Nations are now requiring from the industry). The industry has been aware of this issue for 2 decades and so it will not be a surprise to them that today’s federal government has to act given the extreme wild salmon declines of the past few years.

I recognize these are very difficult recommendations, but all the work coastwide to save wild salmon runs from extinction will be for nothing if young salmon cannot get to sea uninfected this spring.  It seems reasonable to say wild salmon numbers are too low to allow Mowi, Cermaq and Grieg to continue failing to control their sea lice.  To put this in perspective, they are also failing to control sea lice in their home country of Norway and the equipment shipped to BC, failed to work in Norway.  For the industry to suggest they can control their lice is a dangerous ruse.

Thank you for your consideration.  I will be applying for a scientific licence to examine young wild salmon for sea lice for my 20^th year and I hope the licence will be granted.

I recognize how difficult protecting wild salmon is and I am grateful for the opportunity to write to you.  Attached are screen shots of the freshwater treatments and the ongoing H202 treatments by Mowi in Quatsino.

Alexandra Morton

Science Advisor ‘Namgis, Mamalilikulla and Kwickwasut’inuxw Haxwa’mis First Nations

Below are screen captures of sea lice treatments by Mowi in Quatsino.  First they did seven weeks of freshwater treatment with the Aqua Tromoy.  When they ended up with more lice than they started with, they switched in hydrogen peroxide treatments by the Roy Kristian (bottom image)