Alarming Rise of Premature Deaths in Farmed Salmon
Over the past decade, scientists have found 865 million instances of farmed salmon dying prematurely.
The frequency of these mass die-offs is rising over time for ocean-polluting Atlantic salmon farms operating in Norway, Canada and the UK. The potential maximum losses for any single mass mortality event are estimated at 5.05 million farmed fish in Canada.
“In addition, production practices, and technology that is increasingly pushing production into riskier conditions and allowing for greater production per site may expose larger and larger populations of fish to conditions that cause mortalities,” says Dr. Gerald Singh, University of Victoria.
Farmed salmon are plagued by sea lice and disease, suffer from stressful handling and treatments, and live a monotonous life in barren, crowded cage. The salmon farming industry has shown itself to be incapable of, or unwilling to, reform.
It’s time to remove open-net pen salmon farms from BC waters. Say “NO” to licence extensions of up to six years now.