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by
Jennifer Dart
The Westerly News
May 17, 2006
The death of
twelve sea lions at two fish farm sites in Clayoquot Sound has prompted
a local company to reconfigure its net structures.
This unprecedented number of deaths occurred at the Dawley Passage farm in Fortune Channel and the Baxter Islet farm, both belonging to Creative Salmon company of Tofino.
News of the deaths came after bear watching companies reported a bear acting strangely and then found two dead sea lions on a nearby beach.
Creative president Spencer Evans told the Westerly the deaths resulted from sea lions getting caught between two parts of the predator nets surrounding both farms. A false bottom is created by a dropped net under each farm, which leaves an open area between it and the actual bottom of the fish pen nets. The second net creates another layer of protection, primarily from dogfish sharks.
Evans said the sea lions chewed through the false bottom and into the open area, in attempts to get at the fish. When they couldn't find their way out again, they eventually drowned.
Creative Salmon employees only became aware of the deaths when the nets floated to the surface on May 10 and 11.
Evans said contracted divers check the nets twice weekly, but rarely dive all the way underneath the farms, which he called "prohibitive".
"It's dangerous to dive between the layers of the nets. We try not to do it," said Evans.
The carcasses had been trapped in the nets for about a month, Evans estimates, before they floated up.
"We've never seen this many [deaths]. We've never encountered anything like this," he said.
Evans and local fishers say California and Stellar sea lions are prolific in the area this year, likely due to an abundance of pilchards. The pilchards are drawn to the farm sites because of uneaten feed and this in turn brings in the sea lions.
The deaths have caused Evans to re-assess the company's shark guard net structure. At a meeting next week Evans will confer with net manufacturers, Creative Salmon managers and their divers to come up with a new type of "shark guard" to mitigate the danger to marine mammals.
While fish farm operators are permitted to use lethal methods to dispose of predators if they have adequate predator licensing, Evans says his company doesn't "go that route".
While fish farm operators are permitted to use lethal methods to dispose of predators if they have adequate predator licensing, Evans says his company doesn't "go that route".
Lara Sloan of Department of Fisheries and Oceans communications confirmed they received the report about the deaths. She said most farms, like Creative Salmon, are looking at non-lethal methods of predator control.
DFO will also be looking into what can be done to prevent such deaths from recurring.
Evans did say the company has obtained a predator license this year for the first time in six years, but firearms are not kept on farm sites and will only be brought in for emergencies.
In 2000, prior to Evans' tenure as company manager, a pit containing several sea lion carcasses was found. Although permitted to dispose of sea lions in this way, they agreed to discontinue the practice, mainly due to the firestorm of publicity generated.
But local fisher Suzanne
Hare said she is "fed up" with the negative effects of the fish
farming industry. "There's a lot of negative aspects with the fish
farming business and this is just another one," she said, referring
to the sea lion deaths. "It's a terrible and unnecessary loss."
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Copyright The
Westerly News, a Canwest Company. Reproduction of this article
or photographs, in whole or in part, is illegal without the written consent
of The Westerly News (westnews@ukeecable.net).
The Westerly News is published each Wednesday in Ucluelet. Phone: 250
726-7029
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