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. […]

An 8,000-litre diesel spill caused by Grieg Seafood has contaminated waters near Zeballos, directly affecting Nuchatlaht and Ehattesaht First Nations territories. Grieg attributed the spill to “human error”, stating they are reviewing fuel transfer procedures: “We apologize for the disruption this has caused.” “It is clam season and our people should be out there digging […]

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, […]

“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 […]

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 […]

“We’ve seen good returns across species and populations,” said Greg Taylor, senior fisheries advisor to Watershed Watch Salmon Society. “This is one of the best returns that there’s been for the last 20 years I would suggest,” Peter McCully, biologist and longtime volunteer with Goldstream Hatchery. As DFO hands more responsibility for salmon management to […]

Under the Federal Fisheries Minister’s “strict new Conditions of Licence”, sea lice are supposed to be maintained at 2.8 per fish or less. In August and September, 60-72% of MOWI’s farms were over that limit, with levels as high as 22 sea lice per fish. View Sea Lice Reports from Mowi’s salmon farms in BC […]