How is the province involved?<\/h2>\n
\u201cThe licensing for salmon farms is federal, but it is the province that is the landlord. So they\u2019re giving the tenures for the foreshore leases. I noted in the announcement that DFO made on the 28th of September, where they were talking about taking out the Discovery Island farms due to the Cohen Commission recommendation, they said they would be going forward in discussions with First Nations and also the province of British Columbia. So, the province is deeply involved in this,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are also involved in the effluent that comes out of fish farm processing plants. For example at Brown\u2019s Bay, where we found\u00a0piscine reovirus (PRV)<\/a>. It is multi-jurisdictional but it is definitely in provincial hands as well.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe leases are variable. Unfortunately, most of the tenures in the Discovery Islands are in the +2030 \u2013 which is a bit disappointing because twelve years ago the province of British Columbia came out and said that after 2023 the First Nations would have final say on whether these tenures would be renewed. But all the tenures are extended to the point where I believe the Fraser sockeye will simply go extinct.<\/p>\n \u201cThey are also involved in the effluent that comes out of fish farm processing plants. For example at Brown\u2019s Bay, where we found\u00a0piscine reovirus (PRV)<\/a>. It is multi-jurisdictional but it is definitely in provincial hands as well.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn terms of the effluent and pouring the blood water from these industrial aquaculture operations into the Discovery Channel, which is where one third of Canada\u2019s wild salmon are migrating \u2013 it\u2019s such a bad idea. I believe that pipe just has to stop. It has to go into some kind of recycling facility. It has to be loaded into trucks, dewatered, dried out, turned into fertilizer \u2013 something other than just pouring it into the ocean.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been involved in this debate for quite awhile, with several processing plants. They deny that they are releasing live sea lice eggs or pathogens. Yet when divers go down and put plankton nets over these and bring them up to me, they are indeed loaded with pathogens and live hatching sea lice eggs. So, eyewitnesses to that.\u201d<\/p>\n Alexandra Morton in a CKTZ file photo from 2014.<\/p><\/div>\n \u201cThe provinces role with the effluent pipes is they are in control of what comes out of these fish farm processing plants. Plain and simple. It goes into the ocean, which is a federal environment, but the pipes themselves and the act of pouring effluent out of the plants and directly into the ocean, is a provincial jurisdiction.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the things that is so distressing to me is that this morning I saw an article saying the\u00a0Grieg Seafood<\/a>, which is one of the companies using this coast, is investing in land based fish farms in Japan<\/a>\u00a0as the future for their industry. Yet here in British Columbia we are continually being told by the three Norwegian companies \u2013 that\u2019s who our fish farming industry is, just these three companies; here in British Columbia they are saying it\u2019s too expensive,\u201d says Morton.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s not true. If they are investing in Japan, they are\u00a0also investing in Norway<\/a>. There are also\u00a0land based farms in the United States<\/a>.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cThis is what is so frustrating to me. There is such a beautiful way to move forward through this. Let\u2019s upgrade the salmon farms [and] benefit from moving these things on to land. Instantly, there will be an enormous number of jobs just in building these facilities and then manning them. These are jobs where people are going to go home at night, not these camp based situations out on the floathouse.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd then there is this remarkable science in DFO where we can read the immune system of wild salmon and we could turn them back on. We can have both. This is the frustrating thing. We can have both, but the way we are going right now we aren\u2019t going to have either.\u201d<\/p>\nWhen does the lease come up?<\/h2>\n
What can the province do about effluence?<\/h2>\n
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<\/a>What\u2019s the provinces role with the pipes?<\/h2>\n
Moving fish farms on land<\/h2>\n
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