John Cummins, M.P. Delta-South Richmond

News Release

January 31, 2002

DFO Unready and Unwilling to Handle Salmon Farm Expansion
Sports and Commercial Industry Put at Risk

OTTAWA-"Fish farms create deadly obstructions for wild salmon on key coastal migration routes. Today's expansion of salmon farming puts at risk BC's lucrative sport and commercial salmon fisheries," said John Cummins, M.P. (Delta-South Richmond), Official Opposition Fisheries Critic and Vice-chair of the House of Commons Standing committee on Fisheries and Oceans.

The Auditor General recently found that the federal government has been sitting on its hands with regard to managing fish farm expansion and the resulting impact on wild salmon stocks. In his report he noted:

• DFO is still considering how the Fisheries Act is to be applied to salmon farming.

• DFO is not ensuring that salmon farms are monitored for effects on fish and fish habitat, with a view to enforcing the Fisheries Act.

• DFO is not currently monitoring effects on marine habitat or on juvenile or on adult Pacific salmon in the vicinity of net cages.

• DFO is unprepared for the demands of the BC's current relocation process or the lifting of the moratorium.

• DFO is currently unable to assess the cumulative effects of salmon farms.

• DFO has not assessed the potential risks should the industry expand, nor does it have a plan for managing that risk and assessing the environmental impacts.

In the opinion of the Auditor General, "the potential cumulative environmental effects of multiple salmon farm proposals warrant a public review before a decision is made to lift the moratorium".

Under our constitution the federal government is responsible for the conservation and protection of wild salmon and its habitat. It is the Department of Fisheries and Oceans who has the mandate to regulate the effects of salmon farming on wild stocks.

Ultimately it is the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans who must authorize the expansion of salmon aquaculture and it is his responsibility to ensure before any expansion takes place that the public review demanded by the Auditor General is undertaken.

"The Auditor General has demonstrated that Fisheries and Oceans is neither ready nor willing to deal with the expansion of salmon farms following the lifting of the moratorium," said Cummins.

"Interestingly, today the House of Commons Fisheries Committee agreed to conduct a special hearing on February 21, 2002 into DFO's failed attempt to monitor and control sea-lice infestations at farm sites and the effects of transmission of the parasite to young salmon migrating to the ocean."

"When it comes to competition between wild fish and fish farms, wild fish must always have priority," concluded Cummins.

Contact: John Cummins, M.P.
(604) 940-8040,
(cell) (604) 970-0937
or (613) 992-2957

BACKGROUNDER

A Framework to Protect Wild Fish From
Potential Threats From Fish Farm Expansion:

1. Siting criteria should be formally enacted as regulations under the Fisheries Act. Siting regulations ought to, amongst other things, prohibit the siting of fish farms on the migratory route of pacific salmon. A set of clear and well written regulations identifying protected areas would leave operators and the province with a framework within which to establish farms.

2. The final responsibility is DFO's, the responsibility can't be privatized or transferred to others no matter how responsible they might be. While the industry and the province must act responsibly, it is in the final analysis the responsibility of DFO to put in place clear and well thought out regulations that deal with the transmission of disease.

3. There must be a clear set of regulations requiring fish farm operators to monitor, record and report instances of diseases and parasites, such as ISA and sea-lice. The department of Fisheries would keep this information in a public registry available to fishermen and members of the public. Such a registry should be part of a series of regulations requiring and providing for public disclosure.

4. Regulations ought to indicate what precautions must be taken in the spring and early summer when smolts move through estuaries, bays and coastal waters on route to the sea. At such time the young salmon are very vulnerable to disease and parasites from fish firms.

5. Fish farms can have a future in British Columbia if we will demand that the federal government sets out a clear ground rules that have the force of law and will be enforced, ground rules that will ensure that fish farms do not threaten the wild fishery.