Canada’s federal government and the B.C. provincial government both support, promote and favor the expansion of the open net-cage salmon aquaculture industry.
Federal Government
Canada’s government is failing wild salmon.The primary mandate of the federal ministry responsible for our oceans, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), is the conservation, health and sustainable use of ocean resources and wild fish populations. It is DFO’s responsibility to ensure aquaculture does not negatively impact wild fish populations. At the same time, DFO is also the leading federal advocate for the aquaculture industry. They spend significant taxpayer dollars on both the promotion of fish and shellfish farming, and science undertaken in the interests of the industry (e.g.: growth and feed conversion rates, treatment of disease and parasites on farmed fish).
While governments in Europe (with long experience in salmon farming) openly and frankly acknowledge that sea lice breed in open net-cage salmon farms and the lice infect and kill passing wild fish, our government fights to deny, refute and debate the growing global weight of scientific evidence.
DFO generally does not release their own studies and refuses to subject them to external peer-review. They seldom publish any information on the issue in reputable scientific journals. The few studies that have been published by DFO researchers on the question of sea lice claim to prove there are no impacts; but DFO studied lice on adult salmon when the threat is to tiny juvenile salmon. They do, however, question peer-reviewed and published studies by academics and independent scientists.
CAAR works with federal government scientists and officials, and whenever possible, meets with elected officials to call for change in Canada’s policies on open net-cage salmon farming.
The Provincial Government
Since the first Salmon Aquaculture Review in 1989, CAAR member organizations have worked through provincial processes, dialogue and engagement to change salmon aquaculture management in B.C.CAAR believes that with progressive provincial government policy in place, B.C. can prove to be a world leader in advancing technological innovation and securing economic opportunity without undermining the health of our environment and the future of our wild salmon. But first the government must act on the data and recommendations that have been accrued from numerous government processes.
CAAR Member groups participated in:
- the first industry review in 1989
- the second Salmon Aquaculture Review in 1995
- the B.C. Aquaculture Research and Development Council (BCARDC),
- the Special Legislative Committee Hearings on Sustainable Aquaculture in 2007
