{"id":26235,"date":"2020-12-09T13:35:50","date_gmt":"2020-12-09T18:35:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=26235"},"modified":"2020-12-09T13:38:16","modified_gmt":"2020-12-09T18:38:16","slug":"a-60-day-window-salmon-farms-in-the-discovery-islands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/a-60-day-window-salmon-farms-in-the-discovery-islands\/","title":{"rendered":"A 60 day window: Salmon Farms in the Discovery Islands"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Roy L Hales<\/p>\n

The licenses for all\u00a018 salmon farms in the Discovery Islands<\/a>\u00a0are due to be renewed by December 18th, 2020.As these sites are within the traditional territories of the\u00a0Holmalco<\/a>,\u00a0Klahoose<\/a>,\u00a0K\u2019omoks<\/a>\u00a0Tla\u2019amin<\/a>,\u00a0We Wai Kai<\/a>\u00a0 (Cape Mudge),\u00a0Wei Wai Kum<\/a>\u00a0(Campbell River) and\u00a0Kwiakah<\/a>\u00a0First Nations, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO<\/a>) sent them letters stating they have a 60 day window to respond before a final decision is made.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

Approximate locations of the 18 fish farms - Roy L Hales<\/p><\/div>\n

A mountain of data to process within 60 days<\/h2>\n

Newly\u00a0elected Hegus (Chief) John Hackett<\/a>, of the Tla\u2019amin First Nation, found himself confronted by, \u201ca mountain of scientific data. Luckily we have very close relations with our sister nations, the Klahoose and Homalco. They got me up to speed very quickly. We share the same vision. We do not want the fish farm licenses renewed here because of the low sockeye returns. Basically, we\u2019re just getting our data together and forming a united front. We\u2019re just going to see what is going to happen this December 18th. That\u2019s when they told us they are going to make a decision on renewing it. We are united in saying we do not want it there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Are all seven nations in agreement?<\/h2>\n

Cortes Currents asked, \u201cDo you know if any of the other seven nations are actually in favour of the fish farms?<\/p>\n

Chief Hackett replied, \u201cI doubt they are. I\u2019m not too familiar with all the seven nations. I\u2019m not sure if any of them have employees that work at the fish farms. That might soften their approach to renewing it. I just know what our stance is.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Tla\u2019amin, Klahoose, Homalco, and K\u2019\u00f3moks are among the\u00a0101 First Nations that signed a joint letter supporting the transition to a closed containment system<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the K\u2019omoks First Nation emailed, \u201cWe are not commenting at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

None of the other Nations named by the DFO have replied to Cortes Currents\u2019 queries.<\/p>\n

Sea Lice<\/h2>\n

Chief Hackett described a joint effort by the Tla\u2019amin, Klahoose and Homalco, \u201cWe teamed up together to hire someone to sort through the papers they gave us, to justify renewing the fish farms. It\u2019s like, \u2018hang on, wait a minute, let\u2019s go through this.\u2019 So we ended up retaining a fish biologist to go through the data.\u201d<\/p>\n

The biologists were concerned about the amount of\u00a0sea lice<\/a>\u00a0found at salmon farms.<\/p>\n

As Chief Hackett explained, \u201cSitting in with the biologists doing the research, they\u2019re telling us that a lot of the sea lice affecting our wild stocks are affecting everything, and they are getting immune to the treatments. And the timing of the treatments does not match with the migration of the wild fry \u2026 If they timed the treatments sooner, it might take effect during the migration of the sockeye going out to the ocean. They are getting hit on the way out. Almost 95% of them are getting hit and if they are under one gram and have a sea louse, the mortality is 100%.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prior to announcing that the salmon farms posed minimal risk to sockeye migrating through the Discovery Islands, the DFO carried out nine assessments. Though sea lice is probably the most widely evidenced problem, is was\u00a0not on the list to be considered<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The perceived threat<\/h2>\n

\u201cIt is not only the preservation of salmon, our traditional diet, that we are losing out on. We\u2019re losing out on teaching our young ones how to capture the resource; how to preserve it through jarring it, smoking it. It is a tradition that we\u2019ve had for thousands of years that is lost now because of poor management on the part of the DFO. It is really saddening,\u201d said Chief Hackett.<\/p>\n

\"Sea<\/a>

the average number of sea lice per fish reported by fish farms within the Discovery Islands<\/a>. (They are allowed up to three before actions must be taken) \u2013 Courtesy DFO<\/p><\/div>\n

Meeting with the Minister<\/h2>\n

\u201cWe had a sit down with DFO Minister Bernadette Jordan, expressing our concerns. We got a report together, to present to her about the effects of renewing these fish farms and the spin-offs on many different levels: of how it affects the wild stocks,\u00a0 First Nations,\u00a0 our culture.\u201c<\/p>\n

Links of interest<\/h2>\n