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 […]
A recent article from The Narwhal examines how declining wild salmon populations are affecting food security, cultural practices and community life for First Nations across British Columbia. For generations, Indigenous communities have harvested and preserved salmon to sustain families through the winter. Today, fewer returning salmon, rising costs and increasingly limited fishing opportunities are making […]
In a recent opinion piece for The Globe and Mail, Wild First Chair Tony Allard argues that Canada must take stronger action to protect declining wild salmon populations and the ecosystems, communities and cultures that depend on them. Wild Pacific salmon continue to face pressure from a range of threats, including climate change, habitat loss, […]
New research from the Marine Directorate of the Scottish Government has found farmed salmon DNA across roughly one fifth of Scotland’s salmon river network, adding to concerns about the long-term impacts escaped farmed salmon can have on wild populations. The study, Scotland’s most comprehensive assessment of wild salmon genetics to date, tested 6,639 juvenile wild […]
In a recent Penticton Western News article by Black Press Media, both wild salmon advocates and the aquaculture industry say the federal government has gone quiet on how it intends to implement the ban on open-net pen salmon farming in British Columbia, scheduled to take effect in 2029. Fisheries Minister Joanne Thompson said in Victoria […]
In a recent Globe and Mail article, First Nations leaders and conservation groups are raising concerns that the federal government may retreat from its commitment to phase out open-net pen salmon farming in British Columbia by June 30, 2029. The concerns follow a lack of clarity from the Carney government about whether it intends to […]
New research from UBC and the Pacific Salmon Foundation has documented tenacibaculosis in wild Chinook salmon for the first time. The bacterial disease, which causes skin and fin ulcers and can lead to death, was detected in 16% of Chinook sampled in Barkley Sound, with high associated mortality. Tenacibaculosis is already one of the most […]