Submission 0024-KRAUSE

Submitter: Vivian Krause

Community: North Vancouver

Date Submitted: April 9, 2010

Summary:
Claims that sea lice from salmon farms cause high mortality among wild juvenile salmon or that farmed salmon contain harmful levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are false. The widely-cited studies making these claims contain serious flaws, and were funded by organizations that have been paid to promote the consumption of wild salmon.

Submission:
Claims that published research shows that sea lice originating from salmon farms cause high mortality among juvenile salmon in the wild, are false. Here's why: 1) Sea lice levels at salmon farms and mortality in the wild were never measured. 2) A technique for tracing the origin of sea lice does not exist, 3) The data is correlative and inconclusive, 4) The use of data was highly selective: data prior to 2000 and data for the largest salmon producing watershed in the study area, was excluded. The peer review of this sea lice research appears to have failed in that an unsubstantiated claim was not nipped in the bud. The journals where some of this research is reported (eg. Conservation Biology, PLoS and SCIENCE), have been heavily funded by the U.S. foundations that fund Alaskan salmon marketing. The Editor-in-Chief of SCIENCE is the trustee of a U.S. foundation that has granted about $75 million to shore up demand for "wild" fish - especially Alaskan fish - while swaying consumers and retailers away from the competition: farmed fish. More information is at www.fair-questions.com

COMMISSION STAFF NOTE: The current editor-in-chief of Science, Bruce Alberts, is a trustee of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation which funds a program called the Wild Salmon Ecosystem Initiative that aims to:

- Protect habitat in selected watersheds across the North Pacific
- Reform aquaculture practices to substantially reduce risk to wild fish from escapes, disease/lice transfer, and unprocessed waste outflow
- Reform hatchery propagation practices to safeguard the productivity and diversity of wild fish
- Ensure that salmon fisheries are managed sustainably.

The former editor-in-chief of Science, Donald Kennedy, is a trustee of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. The Foundation has a Marine Fisheries Subprogram Strategy that guides its grant-making. This strategy has four integrated major elements:
- Market interventions for sustainability in marine capture fisheries
- Policy reforms for ocean conservation
- Arctic fisheries and ecosystem management
- Aquaculture sustainability tools.

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Comment List

Name: priscilla judd

Date Created: April 23, 2010


Comment:
The Fish farms use pesticide to kill the sea lice, which means that fish farms perceive sea lice as a problem.

Fish Farms don't want the sea lice because sea lice are a pest. With 9 million missing sockeye salmon why defend the lowly seal lice?

In what ever capacity (large or small) sea lice are a problem for salmon.

By getting fish farm sea lice out of the ocean into closed containment systems - that is one less threat to wild salmon.

Since it is humanly possible to get the farms out of the ocean, that is what ought to be done. ASAP.

7 wild salmon returned to spawn in the Bessette River last fall - our salmon are called "endangered" - By reducing sea lice in the ocean it may help a few more wild salmon return next year.
Thank you

Name: Alex Brea

Date Created: May 13, 2010


Comment:
Vivian Krause is in the April 16/2010 issue of the Courier Islander (www.courierislander.com) where she is at a Campbell River, B.C. city council meeting. Vincent Erenst, Marine Harvest Canada managing director is also at that meeting.

Name: Dave Rolston

Date Created: June 16, 2010


Comment:
Mz. Krause has some comments here that are scientifically defensible, while others are not.

Her overall assumption that there are many potential reasons for the decline in Fraser River sockeye, and (unfortunately) the science available to track the life histories of the different Fraser River stocks was not completed by the appropriate authority – is valid.

However, since we cannot “PROVE” that fish farms caused the collapse, neither can we “DISPROVE” the negative influence of the open net-pen industry on outmigrating Fraser River sockeye salmon smolts as they migrate along the coast past the fish farm industry.

However, this unfortunate reality does NOT release us from our responsibility to utilize the precautionary approach with respect to potential impacts, including the open net-cage industry.

That responsibility includes examining the impacts open net-cages have on adjacent wild salmon stocks, and closing them in favour of closed containment, if necessary.