When multinational corporations based in Norway began buying up B.C. salmon farms, they introduced Atlantic salmon to Canada’s Pacific Coast. Atlantic salmon are the most common species grown in fish farms worldwide. Ninety percent of the salmon raised today in B.C.’s fish farms is Atlantic salmon. The rest are Pacific species: chinook and coho.
Over one million farmed salmon were reported by industry to have
escaped into B.C. waters between 1987 and 1996. It is suspected the
actual total could be much higher as the number of escapes reported by
government is based on figures provided by the industry. Since then, tens of thousands more escaped farmed salmon have been reported.
While B.C.'s industry reported escape numbers indicate declines, the number of farmed salmon escapes is increasing globally. Norway and Scotland reported increased
escapees per unit of production over the past five years. Scottish and
Norwegian salmon farm escape ratios average about one escape per every
300 fish in production. Using the same formula, B.C. averaged one
escape per every 122,832 fish in production from 2004-2006. The B.C. numbers are unbelievably low. The
majority of B.C. salmon farms are operated by the same multinational
corporations that operate in Norway and Scotland and use the same open
net-cage technology. The only difference is the lack of government
monitoring in B.C.
These numbers also don't account for "leakage", the loss of small fish through mesh holes, which can be anywhere from one to five percent of annual production. Assuming that three percent of production is leaked, an additional 350,000 Atlantic salmon are escaping into B.C. waters each year.
The fish farm industry and government said that it was
impossible for escaped Atlantic salmon to spawn in the wild. Nonetheless, in
1998 the first evidence of successful reproduction of
Atlantics in B.C. was found in the Tsitika River. Many more have been
found in Vancouver Island rivers since.
The United Nations, along with many scientists and conservationists, maintains that the introduction of non-native species is second greatest threat to world-wide biodiversity after habitat loss.
University of Alberta biologist Dr. John Volpe is leading the pioneering research on the escape and reproduction of Atlantic salmon in the Pacific Ocean. Read his report Super-UnNatural: Atlantic Salmon in BC Waters Pollution.
