A bad case of sea lice

I feel I must circle back around and address the recent explosion of sea lice on the west coast and the continued persistence of open-net pen fish farms in British Columbia waters.

First, I must restate my dissatisfaction with the decades of poor resource management in our province.

In recent months, I have been working on several fronts, primarily forestry, fish, wildlife, oil and gas development. For an entire year my colleagues and I drew considerable attention to the urgent crisis with wild salmon on the British Columbia coast.

Policy decisions in a half dozen Ministries impact the wellbeing of wild salmon. Our work has shone a light on the historic mismanagement of watersheds, over-logging and the impact of poorly designed infrastructure. Fish farms are another significant threat to wild salmon in coastal waters.

Background

Open-net pen fish farms have been a major source of frustration for British Columbians. There is a growing body of evidence to support the need for a wholesale change to the industry. With aquaculture tenures in the Broughton Archipelago set to expire last June, the provincial government was under substantial pressure to not renew them. In the end, they let the tenures revert to a month-to-month scenario. The province then undertook “government-to-government” negotiations with the First Nations in the Broughton. In December of last year, the province announced an agreement with three First Nations in the area, the ‘Namgis, Kwikwasut’inuxw Haxwa’mis and Mamalilikulla.

This was widely regarded as a positive step forward in a decade-long struggle with open-net pen fish farms. I had substantial concerns that the celebration was premature. The government did a good job with First Nations in the Broughton Archipelago but that is it. Dozens of other fish farms remain on the British Columbia coast.

Helping wild salmon?

This spring, we again see the impacts of the provincial and federal governments lack of action.While they plan to spend more than $140 million on wild salmon over the next five years on one hand, they fail to act definitively on removing fish farms which remain a significant threat to those same fish. We have seen a growing body of evidence that open-net pen fish farms are a major source of disease and parasites.

Just this week, we see another story about the devastation of sea lice on the wild salmon in Clayoquot Sound. This is not a new problem and yet the response from Minister Jonathan Wilkinson (Fisheries and Oceans Canada) is to write a letter to aquaculture operators in the area to ask them to comply with the regulations. This is clearly not good enough.

Both the federal and provincial governments soak in the attention of multi-million dollar announcements; however, if they are unwilling to make the tough decisions on aquaculture license holders then it is a waste of money. The province wants to be seen as leading on government-to-government relationships with First Nations. They did a fine job with three of the five First Nations in the Broughton Archipelago. Salmon are a critical species for First Nations on the coast and in the interior. Where were those voices at the table? How were their interests represented? They weren’t. The federal government wants be seen as making difficult decisions on salmon conservation, but their wild salmon policy is confusing, inconsistent and desperate.

Transition

I am thankful that our effort has successfully injected some momentum into wild salmon initiatives in British Columbia. It’s proven that persistence pays off. We will not stop this work.

Last week I received a letter from Wild Salmon Forever, a powerful group of wild salmon advocates responsible for the Wild First campaign. The list of their supporters is an impressive collection of British Columbians from all walks of life. They are environmental, social and business activists of all socio-economic backgrounds, political stripes and philosophies. They gather together around a single message: we need to get open-net pen aquaculture operations out of coastal British Columbia waters.

It does not end there though. They have done the work to show the federal and provincial governments that there is an economic case to aggressively transition the current industry to closed containment.

Attached to their letter to me was the outline for a plan that would position British Columbia as a global leader, while addressing the substantial environmental concerns about the current industry. The six aspects of the plan include:

1. A permanent moratorium on open-net pen aquaculture in the Discovery Channel and a freeze on all new open-net farms,
2. Expansion of testing and treatment of smolts infected with pathogens, parasites and viruses such as Piscine Reovirus (PRV),
3. Leveraging the license renewals to seek better regulatory compliance, induce the adoption of new technologies and move to closed-containment,
4. Consent of Indigenous peoples,
5. Comprehensive program to attract an emerging land-based aquaculture industry to British Columbia, and
6. Skills training and workforce readiness programming.

Moving ahead

Maintaining the status quo is easy. However, British Columbians do not want to carry the liabilities for industries that are much to willing to offload their environmental costs onto the public purse.

This is not just saying no. Rather, it is embracing the opportunity in front of us. Let’s say yes to an industry that is environmentally and socially acceptable, with partners who are willing to act responsibly. Both the federal and provincial governments have in front of them a plan that clearly shows the economic, social and environmental benefits of a land-based closed-containment aquaculture industry in British Columbia. Now we just need the political will that extends beyond a Ministerial letter-writing campaign to bold action. Let’s do it!

Photo credit: Tavish Campbell