Stan Proboszcz
Right now, across our beautiful province, juvenile pink and chum salmon are emerging from rivers and streams and migrating through our coastal waters. These tiny fish have just begun one of nature’s most incredible journeys which will span thousands of kilometers from their natal streams to the north Pacific and back again.
These little fish will face numerous predators and challenges in their long journey. One threat arises from the numerous open-net salmon farms that occupy B.C.’s coastal inlets, channels and bays. The biomass of farmed salmon at a typical farm is about the same as 480 Indian bull elephants. That’s about 2,400 tonnes of eating, excreting livestock.
One of the big salmon farm threats comes from the parasitic salmon lice that multiply and spread on salmon farms. If these parasites aren’t managed properly on the farms they can drive wild salmon populations towards extinction because they can attach to wild salmon migrating by. Last year we saw in some areas, parasite numbers exploding on farms. This industry is highly secretive about what happens on their farms, but one thing we do know is that it appears these parasites are becoming resistant to the long-standing pesticides used in B.C. We just met with DFO staff and they still suggest everything is going to be alright with salmon lice this year. We will definitely keep track of what’s happening on this.
Help us show decision-makers that people on B.C. want to help these tiny but amazing wild fish by signing and sharing the www.safepassage4salmon.ca petition with friends, family and co-workers.
Please get these fish farms out of our Pacific waters. They’re destroying wild salmon and polluting pristine waters.
Thanks for commenting, Diana.
This is decades long. Time is up. If major changes with fish farms don’t happen this year we will lose these chum and pink runs forever.
It has been long enough. The time for removing these farms is long past.
We must convert to closed containment now.
We have a similar problem with salmon farms here in Australia. We don’t have migrating salmon but we do know fish farms are placing a lot of stress on native fish populations.
The danger of fish farms is a crime against wild salmon. We will lose all wild salmon if we do not move out salmon farms. Wild salmon feed the environment and the economy. I do not know why we have salmon farms. Please do the right thing get the3m out of the water