by
Daivid Wiwchar
Ha-shilth-sa Reporter
February 10, 2005
Gold
River - Norwegian-owned Grieg Seafoods is suffering major
problems at its three fish farm sites in Muchalet Inlet (Nootka Sound),
and the Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nations have now launched a judicial
review of one of Grieg’s tenures within their traditional territories.
Two years after a toxic algae bloom killed 250,000 fish (more than 900
tonnes) at their Esperanza Inlet farm (westcoastaquatic.ca/article_fish_die_off.htm),
Grieg has lost a further 33,000 fish in one escape, 1.8 million smolts
to a disease outbreak, and are facing serious concerns about one of their
farms being located over an abalone bed.
33,000
fish escape:
Eight months after a four-inch hole first appeared in the side of a net
pen at Grieg Salmon’s Muchalet South fish farm in Muchalet Inlet
in May 2004, the company has finally revealed the loss of 33,000 Atlantic
salmon (westcoastaquatic.ca/article_fish_farm_escapes0205.htm).
Under the company’s own estimates, that means at least 500 foreign
fish are still swimming around the Nootka Sound area, looking for a place
to spawn. Meanwhile, the adjacent Kleeptee Creek system is clinging to
a meagre returning stock of 100 wild sockeye salmon, and the neighbouring
Burman River had less than ten pink salmon return last year. Many people
fear that any further competition by Atlantic salmon could spell the end
of these, and other endangered runs in the Muchalet Inlet area.
Grieg Seafoods’ Environmental and Lease Manager Tim Davies claims he advised the provincial government of the escape within 24 hours of it having evidence an escape occurred, and was told they didn’t have to report the number of escapees until its next grading, which didn’t happen until November, which is when the 33,000 total was reported to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries (MAFF). Davies said a registered letter was sent to Mowachalet/Muchalet in September 2004 requesting consultation meetings, but did not receive a reply. “Now we have been informed that the investigation has been passed on to the Ministry of Water Land and Air Protection (MWLAP) for assessment of any charges related to the event, and that’s pending at this point,” Davies told a reporter from the online Intrafish newsletter. As a result of this investigation, Davies would not comment on what caused the tear in the net pen.
Critics of the salmon farming industry are complaining of a government cover-up for failing to provide salmon escape figures for 2004, which many say will be at least 1,000 times higher than the 30 escapes reported in 2003. “The timing of this is highly suspect,” says Dr. John Volpe, professor at the University of Victoria’s School of Environmental Studies. “There remains no trace of this escape in provincial and federal databases, even though these agencies have apparently been in receipt of this knowledge for months and have published – indeed even campaigned on escape numbers that we now know are false. Public accountability with regard to farm escapees is sorely lacking. Until a transparent, auditable system is in place the public will be kept in the dark regarding what happens on these farms,” he said.
“Grieg Seafood’s
belated actions are a case of shutting the cage door after the salmon
have bolted,” said Don Staniford, Friends of Clayoquot Sound (FOCS)
aquaculture campaigner. “This incident is the latest in a long line
of unnatural disasters. Rivers, streams and sounds across the West coast
of Vancouver Island have been inundated with alien Atlantics and there
is scientific evidence documenting the spawning of Atlantic salmon in
Pacific waters. Mass escapes of Atlantics invaders are threatening BC’s
native wild Pacific salmon. How many more years before there are more
farmed Atlantic salmon escapees roaming the Pacific than native wild Pacific
salmon? The only solution to this problem is a transition into closed
containment, and this shift is a matter of urgency.”
(www.focs.ca/1newsreleases/050201.htm)
According to Friends of Clayoquot Sound figures, this mass escape brings reported escapes of Atlantic salmon into the Pacific waters of British Columbia to over 400,000 since 1991. Since 1987 more than 1.4 million farmed salmon (Chinook, Coho, Steelhead and Atlantics) have escaped – many into the waters of Clayoquot, Nootka and Kyuquot Sounds.
Since the escapees that survive aren’t expected back into the freshwater area until the fall, Davies said there is plenty of time for the company and the government and concerned stakeholders such as First Nations, the Atlantic Salmon Watch Program and Nootka Sound Watershed Society to prepare an appropriate plan to intercept them. In the past, laser-sited spear guns were used to catch escaped salmon and remove them from the affected waters. “The Atlantic Salmon Watch Program, along with MAFF, has been very successful at selectively removing fish from rivers before,” Davies told Intrafish. “You don’t want to go in and net the river, then you don’t know what you’re catching.” (www.intrafish.com/articlea.php?articleID=51277)
Since the escape, Davies says Grieg has changed its operations to prevent future escapes and is planning a meeting with stakeholders this month to coordinate a response plan. Environmental groups and other opponents of salmon farming say escaped salmon are a danger to wild salmon because they intermingle with the wild population, can spread disease such as sea lice and can form feral populations. “Certainly there is time to develop and well-planned response,” Davies said.
Grieg knows how the salmon escaped, but Davies said he couldn’t say what happened because the investigation isn’t concluded. He expects it may be completed in the coming weeks. “We actually know how the event occurred and we’ve taken steps to ensure it doesn’t occur again. Since we are still under investigation, it is not necessarily advisable for me to discuss it further at this point. We will happily disclose those details once the assessment of charges is dealt with,” he told Intrafish.
The BC Government can levy civil penalties against the company for the escape, including fines, but Davies hopes that doesn’t happen. “We’re hopeful they won’t do this,” he said. “We believe we took due diligence in preventing an escape, but an escape did occur and we have since changed our protocols to ensure it doesn’t happen again.” Davies also disputed a claim by Friends of Clayoquot Sound that the company waited until January to invite stakeholders to participate in developing a response strategy, saying the company contacted First Nations in September, but the tribal organization did not respond. The company then worked through MAFF to contact First Nations and made a formal invitation to the group last month to take part in the upcoming February meeting. Sources within the First Nation say they are unaware of such a request being received in September, and they only heard of the escape late last year, but no dates or numbers were known.
1.8
million smolts die:
Sources within
the fish farm community have also indicated that 1.8 million Atlantic
salmon smolts recently died at the Grieg Seafoods smolts hatchery after
an outbreak of furunculosis. The hatchery is located at the former Bowater
mill site near the Gold River estuary. Davies confirmed a large number
of fish were culled due to a furunculosis outbreak, but would not say
how many fish were affected. Furunculosis is a common bacterial disease
that can be a problem in both the freshwater and marine life stages of
Atlantic salmon. It causes boils on the flanks of fish.
In 1985, furunculosis
was discovered in salmon farms in Norway (transferred salmon smolts from
Scotland carried the disease); by 1988, 32 farms were infected; by 1992,
it had jumped to 550. It is largely assumed that massive escapes in 1988
and 1989 helped contribute to the epidemic. Additionally, more than 74
natural waterways were infected. As a result, the fish at more than 20
farms were slaughtered in an attempt to eradicate the disease. Total damage
was put at more than $100 million, although costs to wild salmon populations
have not been calculated and the costs are ongoing. The disease is so
widespread that no waters with resident salmon populations are considered
free of it
(www.ems.org/salmon/disease_parasites.html).
Grieg is now rumoured
to be investing more than $1 million in sterilization equipment at its
Gold River hatchery, in an attempt to prevent further outbreaks, but many
local residents remain concerned about the effect of the hatchery effluent
water may have on local stocks. Davies would not comment on how Grieg
is dealing with the furunculosis problem at the hatchery site.
Fish
farm sited over Abalone bed:
The Mowachaht/Muchalaht
First Nation has also raised serious concerns about the siting of Grieg’s
fish farm at Atriveda Point, directly over one of the last remaining Abalone
beds in the area. A historically rich source of Abalone for the Hleepteeaht
group of the Mowachaht/Muchalaht confederacy, there are concerns fish
farm wastes will further decimate local Abalone stocks, which are already
listed as a threatened species under the federal Species at Risk Act (westcoastaquatic.ca/article_abalone_nootka1103.htm).
“We conducted Abalone surveys prior to the site being authorized by DFO and monitoring of those Abalone is required,” said Davies. “We’ve finished that survey and will be finalizing a report in the next few weeks,” he said.
Even within their own Department, many people at Fisheries and Oceans Canada are concerned about the siting of fish farms near Abalone beds. “Abalone numbers are in trouble, and we want to ensure we don’t lose critical Abalone populations,” said Laurie Convey, a DFO management biologist and chair of the Abalone Recovery Team. “We’ve asked for additional research on how far away fish farms need to be from Abalone beds because we’re not sure what the impact is,” she said. “We’re developing protocols on having Abalone researchers respond to siting developments, and we would like DFO to be aware of that in the siting of fish farms”. According to Convey, in only three decades Abalone numbers have dropped from an average 2, to 0.09 Abalone per square metre along BC’s west coast. The reasons for this are thought to be human poaching, and to a lesser degree sea otter predation. “At least low numbers it’s very hard to detect statistical changes in populations,” said Convey.
SLICE
(Emamectin Benzoate):
Over
the past few months Mowachaht/Muchalaht have tried to get information
on the use of SLICE (an anti-sea lice chemical that also kills crabs and
prawns) but MAFF has claimed such information is confidential. Mowachaht/Mulachaht
argue that the use of such chemicals in areas where many of their members
fish for crabs and prawns is both a public health, and an Aboriginal rights
issue. Even simple information regarding how many fish were stocked at
each site was deemed confidential by MAFF, which led to Mowachaht/Muchalaht
to pursue litigation. Tim Davies of Grieg Seafood admitted SLICE is being
used in Muchalet Inlet, but would not say whether or not his company would
have released that information to Mowachaht/Muchalaht if asked. “I
can’t speculate on that because they didn’t reply to our letter,”
he said.
Davies said SLICE is prescribed by a veterinarian once sea lice levels reach a certain threshold, and the company does not have to announce when it uses the product, even though the effects of the drug on area flora and fauna is still being studied. But according to Grieg Seafood’s website: “We place special emphasis on the welfare of our farmed fish, and uncompromising focus on fish health issues to avoid the use of medicines and feed additives. All our products, therefore, come with a full history of traceability”.
Mowachaht/Muchalaht
launches Judicial Review:
The
Mowachaht/Muchalaht Nation has launched two judicial reviews asking the
Federal Court and BC Supreme Court to overturn the permits for the open-net
cage fish farm (westcoastaquatic.ca/article_muchalat_fishfarm0903.htm).
They would like to see the Mowachat South fish farm tenure in the hahoulthee
be a closed-containment system.
When asked why the relationship between Grieg and Mowachaht/Mulachaht has come to the point of litigation, Davies blames a breakdown in communications between the two groups. “I think there needs to be better communication from both parties,” said Davies. “I think our letters are evidence that we’re trying to communicate with Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nation, and keep them informed on our activities,” he said. “I think there has to be recognition of the existing regulatory framework, and that we are being monitored and we’re required to do monitoring.”
Of Grieg’s 45 employees, five are of First Nations ancestry.
Because these issues
will be going before the courts in the next few weeks, Mowachaht/Muchalaht
Tyee Ha’wilth Mike Maquinna could not speak about these issues until
after a judgement is released.
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