126
MLCM
FALL/WINTER2016
TOP LEFT
Keeping itwild inAlert Bay. FRANCOISMARTIN / SEA SHEPHERDCONSERVATION SOCIETY.
RIGHT
Sea lice catching a free ride.
BOTTOMRIGHT
This dogfishpaid the price for trying to catch farmed
salmon.
BOTTOM LEFT
The result ofwildPacific Salmonminglingwith farmedAtlantic salmon.Not a goodmix. SIMONAGER / SEA SHEPHERDCONSERVATION SOCIETY
MountainLife:
Is the industryworkingon theseproblems themselvesat all?
I readabouthydrogenperoxidebaths toprevent sea lice?
Tamo Campos:
You know how it is. The work Alex is doing is poking
real holes in this industry so they are trying to respond with Band-Aid
half-solutions and propaganda. Meanwhile, they are getting free open-sea
sewage and the farm fish are eating wild fish, which is an illegal bycatch.
MountainLife:
Farmedfishareeatingwildfish?
Alexandra:
Yes, I filmed wild fish trapped in the pens and being attacked
and eaten by the farm fish. Furthermore, one of our crew dove in and
swam around outside the farm nets. There were thousands of juvenile
herring behaving like addicts. When the farm feeders turned on they made
a humming sound and the herring rushed into the nets to feed on what
looked like the dust particles from the feed pellets. After the feeders shut
down the herring wouldmove away, only to rush back at the next feeding.
So you have herring not migrating, not eating a natural diet and not
acting like normal herring.
Tamo:
Some [fish farm] workers, off record, said that after the spring smelt
and oolichan runs, they would stop the feedingmachines because the
farm salmon were eating somany wild fish. Meanwhile the government
gives these foreign-owned farms tax subsidies as an insurance policy if
their fish die off.
MountainLife:
Youmetwith theMusgamagwDzawada’enuxwFirstNations.
Therehavebeen farmsoperating in their territoryagainst theirwishes for
years, right?
Alexandra:
There are close to 100 fish farms in BC and one third of them
are inMusgamagw Dzawada’enuxw territory. Most nations have signed
contracts with the industry, but they have not, they are unique. They’ve
been saying “no” for 29 years. And they’re right to be concerned, they’re
losing their fish. I’ve done 26 years of research in their territory and last
year they lost 39 per cent of the juvenile salmon leaving their territory to
lice from fish farms. I co-published this reseach in the Canadian Journal
of Fisheries andAquatic Sciences. When Paul Watson gave me the
Martin
Sheen
I brought the boat to the Musgamagw Dzawada’enuxw so they
would have the opportunity to speak to the world about this issue. They
know the value of wild fish.
Spawningsalmonare like the redveins that
give life to theentireWest Coast. Theypump
theblood intoeverything thatBCholds
dear. –TamoCampos
