BC’s smallest First Nation is taking great strides toward the creation of an innovative stewardship economy that puts sustainability and conservation first. The Kwiakah First Nation, led by munmuntle, Chief Steven Dick, consists of 19 members mostly based on Vancouver Island. The community is launching a “return home” by transforming a former open-net pen salmon […]

After months of meetings, written requests and public pressure, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) has finally responded to a 1.5-year-long wait for information requested on a widely condemned DFO report. Contrary to mountains of peer-reviewed evidence showing that sea lice infestations from open-net pen salmon farms impact wild Pacific salmon, DFO’s report found that sea […]

Canada’s Office of the Information Commissioner has ordered Fisheries and Oceans Canada to fully disclose the records in its 2022 report into sea lice. This week, Canada’s Information Commissioner ruled that DFO improperly withheld this data and must fully disclose it. In 2023, The Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat Science Response from Fisheries and Oceans Canada […]

Completely unacceptable—Mowi, the world’s largest salmon farmer who also operates salmon farms in BC, has confirmed the loss of an entire cage of 178,534 fish during a routine delousing procedure at their farm in Norway. While Mowi Canada West is promoting new in-water technology, like sea lice skirts, their record with “innovative” technology tells a […]

Washington State has now banned all commercial fish farms that use open-net pens, making British Columbia the only jurisdiction on the upper West Coast to permit open-net pen salmon farms. The ban from Washington’s Board of Natural Resources followed an executive order in November 2022, directing the department to make necessary changes to end commercial […]

Washington State previously garnered international attention for successfully removing all ocean-polluting commercial net pens from Puget Sound. Now, with a new statute permanently banning this industry from ever returning, Washington is the first place in the world to both entirely eliminate open-net pens and permanently ban future operation of commercial net pens in marine waters. […]

On the West Coast, Justin Trudeau will be remembered for his decision to phase out open-net pen salmon farms, which has been delayed until 2029 to allow for a transition to land-based closed containment farms. It was a 2019 Liberal election campaign promise: transition all Pacific open-net pen salmon farms to closed containment systems as […]

Washington State has now banned commercial open-net pen fish farming after disaster struck in 2017 when an open-net pen operated by Cooke Aquaculture near Cypress Island collapsed, releasing 250,000 non-native Atlantic salmon in the Puget Sound. In its quest to ban the practice completely, the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) cited that even open-net pen […]

“I’m extremely upset that these fish farms are still even here despite our efforts to be rid of them. We are always force-fed these decisions to keep fish farms in our territory, but we’re not going to tolerate that anymore,” said Haa’wilth Kla-kwa-skum Jordan Michael from the Nuchatlaht Nation. The recent diesel spill from Grieg […]

A diesel spill of up to 8,000 litres at Grieg Seafood’s Lutes Creek salmon farm near Zeballos, B.C., is wreaking havoc on marine life and Indigenous traditions. The Ehattesaht First Nation has issued a clam harvesting alert and beach closures, disrupting their ability to gather food during critical low winter tides. For the nations impacted, […]