<\/p>\n
Court Challenges<\/h2>\n
On December 17, 2020<\/a>, Fisheries and Oceans Minister\u00a0Bernadette Jordan<\/a>\u00a0announced that no new farmed fish, of any size, can be introduced to the Discovery Islands.<\/p>\n Mowi Canada West<\/a>,\u00a0Cermaq Canada<\/a>,\u00a0Grieg Seafood BC<\/a>\u00a0and an independent company called\u00a0622335 BC Ltd<\/a>, owned by\u00a0Saltstream Engineering<\/a>, are seeking a judicial review to overturn the MInister\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n Margot Venton<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0Ecojustice<\/a>, who represents an environmental coalition consisting of the\u00a0David Suzuki Foundation<\/a>,\u00a0Georgia Strait Alliance<\/a>,\u00a0Living Oceans Society<\/a>,\u00a0Watershed Watch<\/a>, and independent biologist\u00a0Alexandra Morton<\/a>, explained, \u201cWe don\u2019t imagine that lawsuit will be decided for months because of the time that legal proceedings take.\u201d<\/p>\n The immediate battle is for a court order permitting MOWI Canada West to transfer juvenile fish to its\u00a0Phillips Arm<\/a>\u00a0and Harwicke fish farms and 622335 B.C. Ltd to restock the Doctor Bay Farm and adjacent hatchery.<\/p>\n Adapted from Google Maps by Roy L Hales<\/p><\/div><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n Venton explained that one of the DFO\u2019s arguments against this transfer is the possible emergence of treatment resistant\u00a0sea lice<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have no evidence from the monitoring during this outmigration period.\u00a0 So one of the concerns that DFO raised in its decision statement is the emergence of\u00a0treatment resistant lice<\/a>. That is a new issue that the conservation coalition is very concerned about,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cEven if the risk is small for these additional transfers, the salmon that are migrating out through the Discovery Islands right now and will be again next year between next March and June, are among the most vulnerable cohorts of at least the\u00a0Fraser Sockeye Salmon<\/a>. They are the progeny of the lowest return rates ever.\u201d<\/p>\n She added that salmon are already being forced to deal with factors like the\u00a0Big Bar landslide<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0rising ocean temperatures<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cTheir resilience to stress from fish farms, like sea lice transfer, is just all the more reduced. Some of these populations, as we understand, are on the verge of collapse,\u201d said Venton.\u201d<\/p>\n Sea lice (dark spot on the smolt) on pink salmon in the Broughton Archipeligo \u2013 Stan Proboszcz photo<\/p><\/div> Yesterday the industry\u2019s legal team argued that if they are not permitted to transfer their fish, they will have to be destroyed. They explained how devastating the economic impact could be on their businesses.<\/p>\n \u201cThose concerns are serious,\u201d conceded Venton, \u201cIt is just unfortunate the companies have presented that evidence of seriousness and suggest there are no environmental issues. In fact their argument is that all the other considerations that the Minister may have made are irrelevant, or improper.\u201d<\/p>\n She added that the environmental coalition is concerned that these companies are operating in public waters, but will not even acknowledge the potential risk. That risk should at least be acknowledged and weighed against the harm to them.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is one of the issues that the conservation coalition needs to flag for the court. The very nature of open net salmon farming and scientific knowledge and understanding is one where uncertainty is almost always going to be a factor. Our scientific understanding evolves and what worries us, in this context, is the companies suggestion that all the scientific questions about fish farms have been answered.\u201d<\/p>\n She will be permitted to speak for half an hour today.<\/p>\n Most of the proceedings will consist of the DFO\u2019s response.<\/p>\n Campbell River, where\u00a0MOWI Canada West, Cermaq Canada and Grieg Seafood BC have their local offices \u2013 courtesy the city of Campbell River 2019 Annual Report<\/p><\/div><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n Five of the seven First Nations with whose traditional territories are in the Discovery Islands, \u2014 the\u00a0Homalco<\/a>,\u00a0Tla\u2019amin<\/a>,\u00a0We Wai Kai<\/a>,\u00a0Wei Wai Kum<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Kwiakah\u00a0<\/a>\u2014 sought to speak as intervenors in this case, but their application was denied.<\/p>\n Is this a violation of indigenous rights?<\/p>\n Venton said it may be, but that will not be clear until the court explains the rationale behind its decision.<\/p>\n \u201cEcojustice and all the member groups of the conservation coalition are quite concerned that the court is deciding this matter without those voices in the courtroom,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n \u201cThe evidence that was before the Minister, that we are all talking about in court, really indicates that the source of the concern about impacts to wild salmon has come loudly and clearly from First Nations. It seems that it would be important for the judge to hear that. There is some evidence of their concerns still on the record in summary form. We are hoping that the judge will pay careful attention to that.\u201d<\/p>\n Venton said injunctions are usually very specific requests and companies have to explain how they will suffer harm if it is not granted.<\/p>\n That said, \u201cThere are other farms operating in the Discovery Islands that may wish to go to court and ask to be allowed to transfer fish during the phase out period, which is between now and June 2022.\u201d<\/p>\n By Roy L Hales The virtual injunction hearing, for three\u00a0fish farms in the Discovery Islands, began on March 24th.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":49328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[217,222],"tags":[7662,7663,7661],"radio":[252],"origine":[280,266,231],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49324"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49324"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=49324"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=49324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"](\"https:\/\/cortescurrents.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Screen-Shot-2021-03-25-at-5.14.14-PM.png\")
Treatment resistant sea lice?<\/h2>\n
![\"Sea](\"https:\/\/cortescurrents.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/0-1.jpg\")
The industry argument<\/h2>\n
The Environmental argument<\/h2>\n
![\"Campbell](\"https:\/\/cortescurrents.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Campbell-River-View.png\")
No Indigenous voice<\/h2>\n
Is this a test case?<\/h2>\n
Links of Interest<\/h2>\n
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