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 concluded that there was no significant link between parasitic lice infestations at B.C. salmon farms and infestations in wild salmon exposed to those farms in four regions.

But a group of 16 professors and research scientists sent an open letter to then-minister of Fisheries and Oceans Canada Joyce Murray, saying they had serious concerns about the processes in the report, and that it “falls far short of the standards of credible independent peer review and publishable science.”

“It should not be this difficult to access information about an industry operating in public waters,” Stan Proboszcz, Senior Science & Policy Analyst, Watershed Watch Salmon Society. “This two-year struggle for the truth begs the question, ‘what are they trying to hide about the harmful impacts fish farms have on B.C. wild salmon?’”

Bob Chamberlin, Chair–FNWSA, said First Nations Nations across BC made formal requests for this data two years ago and never received it or other similar information.

“Key DFO staff defend this industry at the expense of the honour of the Crown.”

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