Wild B.C. salmon test positive for 'lethal' virus linked to fish farms

Fish farms, the gift that just keeps on giving.

Wild sockeye salmon from B.C.'s Rivers Inlet have tested positive for a potentially devastating virus that has never been found before in the North Pacific.

Infectious salmon anemia is a flu-like virus affecting Atlantic salmon that spreads very quickly and mutates easily, according to Simon Fraser University fisheries statistician Rick Routledge.

ISA can be fatal to Atlantic salmon, especially those confined in fish farms. Its effect on wild sockeye is unknown.

The virus detected in sockeye smolts by the Atlantic Veterinary College in P.E.I. — Canada's ISA reference lab — is the European strain of ISA, the same virus that devastated fish farms in Chile four years ago.

LINK (Via: The Vancouver Sun)

Scientists in Washington state are already working to improve testing for the marine virus as a precaution.

If the virus news was not grim enough.....

Environment Canada isn’t sure it can fully protect wild fish stocks if it approves the commercialization of a hatchery of genetically engineered salmon eggs.

Salmon and Pesticides

Just in case you needed more proof that farmed raised salmon is bad for the environment.

A drug long used by the fish farming industry to control sea lice infestations has become increasingly ineffective on the East Coast and is under scrutiny on the West Coast, according to federal government documents obtained under Access to Information.

Slice, which is administered to farmed salmon in their feed, is the only fully registered sea lice treatment in Canada. But the documents show its declining efficacy has forced the industry to seek alternatives – raising concerns that toxic pesticides are being released into the ocean under emergency authorizations.

LINK (Via: The Globe and Mail)

Alpha Max is the alternative being used in areas where Slice has become ineffective.

According to the Fisheries and Oceans Canada website:

While AlphaMax ™ is used successfully in other jurisdictions; concerns may arise about its effect on other marine species and the eco-system in the vicinity of aquaculture cage sites. With this in mind, the release of AlphaMax ™ in the region includes specific environmental requirements, such as research, monitoring, and surveillance as components of proper risk management.

Testing will take place while the pesticide is in use to efficiently observe any negative effects against other species. Should this occur the use of the pesticide would stop immediately.

Salmon in the Trees

Salmon in the Trees tells the story of the remarkable connection between salmon and trees in the Tongass rain forest of Alaska.

Salmon-Eating Sea Lions Targeted For Good Taste

NPR reports on the ongoing battle to euthanize sea lions on the Columbia.

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Alexandra Morton may soon give up her campaign against fish farms

After almost two decades campaigning against open-net fish farms on B.C.'s coasts, biologist Alexandra Morton said Thursday that she is nearly ready to throw in the towel.

Morton said that with the election of a majority Conservative government in Ottawa, which she claims is in support of the fish farm industry, she can't see how she can continue her campaign.

LINK (Via:The Vancouver Sun)

Trying to manipulate the salmon's natural migration is like "trying to replace Beethoven with Yanni."

Sally Mauk, news director at KUFM, Montana Public Radio, in Missoula, interviews David James Duncan on the decline of Pacific Salmon. Duncan was featured in the recent Nature program Running the Gauntlet that documents how dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers have made the salmon's survival the poster child for human interference.

LINK (Via: KUFM)

Some background on the image.

Lost River, a limited edition print with an essay by renowned author and conservationist David James Duncan, was released in 2005 by Save Our Wild Salmon. The image was created by photographer Frederic Ohringer and the project was underwritten by Patagonia. The words are just as poignant today as they were 6 years ago.

I dreamed the people who fished the river never knew want, seldom knew confusion, & with the salmon’s self-sacrifice to guide us we could always find love. I dreamed I obeyed the river so gratefully the name of every rapid, fall & riffle engraved itself on my tongue, & the salmon came back to us again & again, & I never once doubted they would bless my family’s table forever.

I dreamed Big & Little Dalles & Methow & Priest Rapids & Lodgepole & Entiat Rapids. I dreamed Coulee Bend & Kettle Falls & beautiful Celilo. I dreamed Chalwash Chilni & Picture Rocks Bay & Spanish Castle & Victoria & Beacon Rocks. I dreamed Black Canyon & Deschutes & Klickitat Canyons & Rocky Reach & Ribbon Cliff. I dreamed I fished by the peach groves of the place called Penawawa, drunk on the river’s sweetness within the fruit.

I dreamed I fell asleep to the sound of water, & when I woke a cloud had enveloped the minds of the ruling pharaohs, & they had attacked the river as if its song & flow were curses. I dreamed 227 dams clogged the river & all that I knew was submerged.

I dreamed the salmon young lost strength & direction in the slackwaters, couldn’t reach the sea, & when they no longer brought the ocean back to us we grew as lost as they. I dreamed my people stood shoulder to shoulder in casinos the way we’d once stood by the river, our fists full of quarters, our minds full of broken hope & smoke.

I dreamed I asked why the salmon had to die & the pharaohs told me, “So wheat can ride the slackwater in barges.” I dreamed I tried to reason, telling them of wheat shipped by railroad, & they laughed & marched off to conduct business hard to distinguish from war.

I dreamed I led the last salmon people out into the wheat fields, & in a golden light we launched our dories, & we went fishing in the stubble. I dreamed I cast the Spey of a Nez Perce named Levi, & the beauty of hidden salmon gleamed in field & sky, & our fishing became prayer. But still the pharaohs ruled the water. I dreamed the one who reads even lost rivers then said, “It is finished,” & the last salmon floated by us as a cloud above us.

I dream I am an old man, & Levi & the farmer whose fields we sailed sit with me at Penawawa beside a river finally freed. I dream we hold rods in one hand, sweet peaches in the other, & our lines run true as prayer into the shine. But whether the salmon come, whether they bring the lost ocean back to us, my dreams, like the river, refuse to say.  

– David James Duncan