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Submitter: Carol Agocs
Community: London
Date Submitted: June 16, 2010
Summary:
While there may be a number of causal influences on the decline of Fraser River sockeye salmon, there is evidence that open net fish farming, in particular, poses hazards for wild salmon and may be a primary factor. A solution may be to replace open-net with closed container aquaculture, which is likely to produce positive outcomes for wild fish stocks, as well as aide the development of an approach to aquaculture that is safer for the environment and for consumers.
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Submission:
While there may be a number of causal influences on the decline of the Fraser River salmon, there is evidence that open net fish farming, in particular, poses hazards for wild salmon and may be a primary factor. To test this possibility, why not prohibit open net fish farming in areas frequented by the Fraser River salmon, and replace this practice with closed container fish farming? The results of this policy could, in time, provide valuable evidence regarding the Fraser River stocks: if they improve, then open net salmon farming is implicated. As well, replacing open-net with closed container aquaculture would give impetus to an emerging approach to the business of fish farming that poses minimal threats to the environment, and produces a product that is more heathful for humans than open-net farmed fish.
As a consumer, I will not buy, serve or consume farmed salmon available in Ontario, from BC or anywhere else, because of the load of toxins and anti-biotics they carry as a result of open-net farming practices. People I know who work in the salmon farming industry in Nova Scotia will not eat farmed fish for the same reason. Why not respond to the Fraser River salmon crisis with a solution that is likely to produce positive outcomes for wild fish stocks, as well as aiding the development of an approach to aquaculture that is safer for the environment and for consumers?
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