Ecological Concerns of Open Netcage Fish-farms

Page - June 2, 2006

In 2002, 6-65 sea-lice were found on young salmon smolts trying to migrate out of the Broughton.
Of the approximately 3 million Pink salmon that migrated out of the Broughton, only approximately 148, 000 returned, creating one of the most significant crashes of pink salmon ever witnessed in the Broughton Archipelago.
Estimated costs of sea lice (Lepeophtheirus salmonis) treatment and loses in Canadian aquaculture·
Estimated costs of Lice treatment, and losses incurred by Canadian aquaculture industry were approximately $25 million by 2000. (Roth, M. 2000, Salmon Health Consortium, Ottawa Ont.)
In BC alone, estimates of annual cost/loss due to sea lice treatment is approximately $400k per farm a year. (Orr C. May 02)

Over 1.6 Million Heritage farmed salmon in the Broughton region were slaughtered in Feb 2002, (Times Colonist, March, 2002). Successive outbreaks continued on farms in the Broughton, including Omega and PNA, over the spring and summer destroying many Atlantic farms' stock.
Poor containment of the farms' massive outbreaks contributed to stresses on local herring populations and spawning areas. In addition there are significant concerns over safe transport and dumping of dead IHN-infected Atlantic Salmon.

1994-2002: approx. 60,000 Atlantics escaped from Broughton Archipelago alone, this does not include unknown escapes. (Kwakiutl Territorial Commission Society Guardians).
2002: 600,000 farmed fish escaped from farms in the Faroe Islands, Denmark; approximately 1 million escaped from farms in Scotland & approximately 5 million escapes from fish farms have been recorded since 1997 in Norway. (Atlantic Salmon Federation, 2002, N.B. Canada)
Waste flow from farms and oxygen depletion on the ocean floor under and around open netcage farms
Dye dispersion tests show waste flow from open pens spans from 100-1000 meters in only 2 hours. (1997, DFO, Page et al. in Werring J, SLDF, 2002))
Oxygen depletion from waste build up smothers the ocean bottom & there are considerable concerns that de-lousing waste and residue may kill certain crustaceans.

It takes 3-5 tons of wild sardines, mackerel and anchovy protein to produce 1 ton of farmed salmon. (Sergio Paone, unpublished, DSF, May2002)
Indigenous peoples of Peru and Chile are loosing their access to local wild fish to feed Northern fish farms and markets (Don Staniford, Puerto Chile, Sustainability of the Salmon Industry in Chile and the World, 2002).
Finfish aquaculture consumes 75% of the world's fish oil and 40% of the world's fishmeal. (Alt cit.)