A CTV News report examines growing calls from First Nations leaders to remove open-net pen salmon farms from British Columbia’s coastal waters over concerns about their potential impacts on wild Pacific salmon populations. The segment features perspectives from both sides of the debate, including First Nations leaders advocating for stronger protections for wild salmon and […]
New research examining open-net pen salmon farms in British Columbia’s Broughton Archipelago has found outbreaks of heart and skeletal muscle inflammation (HSMI), a viral disease affecting farmed Atlantic salmon, at most of the farms studied. Conducted through the Broughton Aquaculture Transition Initiative, the research brought together scientists from the Pacific Salmon Foundation, Fisheries and Oceans […]
Samonix is developing a large-scale land-based salmon farm in Quebec’s Outaouais region that would produce up to 10,000 metric tonnes of Atlantic salmon annually. The proposed facility would use a high-recirculation Recirculating Aquaculture System (RAS), treating and reusing approximately 99 per cent of its water while raising salmon entirely on land. According to Samonix, the […]
With less than three years remaining before the federal government’s June 30, 2029 deadline to end open-net pen salmon farming in coastal British Columbia, Wild First Chair Tony Allard says Ottawa has yet to provide a clear plan for how it will deliver on that commitment. Fisheries Minister Joanne Thompson said in August that the […]
A new report from the Changing Markets Foundation challenges the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s goal of increasing global aquaculture production by at least 75 per cent by 2040. It warns that rapid growth in feed-intensive aquaculture (species like salmon) will significantly increase demand for wild-caught fish used to produce fish feed, depleting resources […]
New research published in Aquaculture has found that heart and skeletal muscle inflammation (HSMI), a disease caused by piscine orthoreovirus (PRV), was more widespread on B.C. open-net pen salmon farms than previously documented. Researchers examined 749 farmed Atlantic salmon from seven farms in the Broughton Archipelago, diagnosing HSMI at five sites. Nearly seven per cent […]
In a recent Fish Farmer Magazine article, the Sámi Parliament Council in northern Norway is calling on the Norwegian government to tighten rules on salmon farming and move the industry to closed-cage systems. The Council says salmon lice and what it calls “toxic emissions” from open-net farms are threatening wild salmon in Sámi territories. It […]
In a recent article in The Tyee by Sarah Cox, the Hupačasath First Nation has served an eviction notice to Cermaq’s Boot Lagoon hatchery near Port Alberni, which supplies Atlantic salmon smolts to the company’s 14 open-net pen farms in Clayoquot Sound. Hereditary Chief Alton Watts says the Norwegian-owned company never sought the Nation’s permission […]
A new assessment from the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research found genetic material inherited from escaped farmed salmon in two-thirds of the wild Atlantic salmon populations studied along Norway’s coast. Researchers examined samples from 73,522 salmon across 263 populations. They classified 19 populations as having poor genetic integrity and 73 as very poor. While more […]
New research from the Pacific Salmon Foundation is examining how a marine bacterium may contribute to disease and mortality among wild Pacific salmon. Dr. Emiliano Di Cicco is studying Tenacibaculum, a common bacterium known to cause ulcers and death in infected fish. His work builds on a recent study by the Pacific Salmon Foundation and […]