MOUNTAIN LIFE - Coast Mountains | Fall Winter 2018

80 MLCM FALL/WINTER 2018 Salmon are fun to catch and damn tasty to eat but a recent trip to the sushi bar with friends from out-of-province surprised me—not everyone knows the difference between wild and farmed salmon, and why what you put on your plate has ramifications that extend far beyond your personal health and deep into every stretch of British Columbia wilderness. THE ENVIRONMENT The BC coastline is littered with foreign-owned fish farms raising Atlantic salmon in giant open net- cages. Like any high-density feedlot, these farms are susceptible to disease. Very susceptible—the industry itself admits it has a problem with sea lice and the piscine reovirus issue. These lice and viruses can easily escape open net pens and affect wild salmon, particularly juveniles as they pass the farms on their way out to sea from spawning beds. Wild salmon are literally the lifeblood of the BC wilderness, they provide food for everything from orcas to eagles to bears and wolves—and the annual spawning migrations up BC’s rivers transfer the energy and nutrients needed to keep our province green (researchers have found salmon DNA in the treetops of old- growth forests.) If the wild salmon die, this province has a very serious problem. YOUR HEALTH “Some people prefer farmed salmon because it has more fat content,” explains Hiro Kitaura, one of Sea to Sky’s most popular sushi chefs for the past 17 years. “People like the richness and there is a perception that fish fat oils are good for you.” But that might not be the case with farmed salmon. “There are studies showing the fat in farmed salmon is contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) other dioxin-like PCBs,” says fish biologist Alexandra Morton, who has been working to protect wild salmon in BC for almost 20 years. “A few years ago a pediatrician in Norway came out with an article saying any female planning to have a child should severely limit her intake of farmed salmon because these toxins transfer to the child during gestation and nursing.” To add to the health concerns, Morton has personally found piscine reovirus in 90 per cent of the farmed salmon she buys at BC supermarkets. Piscine reovirus is a blood virus highly-contagious in fish, but no one has ever really studied how it affects humans. As well, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFA) recently waived the requirement to freeze all farmed salmon before human consumption (a common practice used to destroy parasites in fish that will be served uncooked). The CFA says this is because farmed fish only eat food pellets, but underwater video captured by First Nations fighting to have fish farms removed from their territories shows wild salmon and other fish within the open net farms. “It’s not just food pellets—no one knows exactly what those salmon are eating,” Morton says. “I suspect they waived this because the farmed salmon product won’t stand up to freezing because the fish are lacking in muscle.” THE BAD NEWS Many fish farms are operating in unceded First Nations territory. And while some nations have given their consent, many—particularly in the Broughton Archipelago, have not. By allowing these farms to continue, the Canadian government is in direct opposition to its stated goals of reconciliation with First Nations. Which kind of makes us a country of hypocrites bought off by foreign companies. Not cool. THE GOOD NEWS Closed containment fish farming works. Vancouver Island’s Namgis First Nation is already running a pilot project to produce land-raised farmed salmon (Kuterra, Google it). And in the Eastern US there are two massive land-based operations under construction that, when completed, will deliver bigger harvests than BC’s entire fish farm industry. “The industry is realizing they can’t control their virus and sea lice issues,” Morton says. “In tanks, they can control water temperature—and there are no algae blooms, no lice, no wild fish passing by. Closed containment is a fabulous solution and one BC needs to adopt to thrive and survive. We can have both: people who like fatty farmed salmon can eat that, and the rest of us can have lean, high-omega wild salmon... and keep our orcas, bears, eagles and trees.” The BC government will decide on the tenure status of BC’s fish farms this November 2018. SALMON: WILD VS FARMED Mountain Life joins the debate at the sushi bar FOOD words :: Feet Banks Not all salmon are created equal.