Hello
Sorry for another email so soon, but a paper released a few days ago warns of a new disease in Norwegian salmon feedlots and its threat to wild salmon. The Minister of Fisheries Gail Shea MinDFO-MPO.GC.CA is still allowing eggs into BC under the impression that disease surveillance will protect us. Please consider writing to the Minister if you are concerned, below is my letter.

Also Damien Gillis reports on salmon feedlot impact in Clayoquot Sound. http://thecanadian.org/k2/item/178-clayoquot-sound-video

July 15, 2010

Fisheries Minister Gail Shea
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6

Dear Minister Shea:

A new virus has been identified in Norway’s feedlot industry. I am writing once again to communicate that importing Atlantic salmon eggs into British Columbia is an unacceptable risk to the people of the west coast of Canada.

You have expressed confidence in disease screening, but this is not protecting B.C. unidentified diseases. July 9, 2010 a new Atlantic salmon feedlot disease was reported. It has spread to over 400 feedlots in Norway over 11 years and is threatening wild salmon. http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0011487

This paper contains strong warnings:

“Both poultry production and aquaculture confine animals at high density in conditions that are conducive to transmission of infectious agents and may reduce resistance to disease by induction of stress.

Unlike terrestrial animal farming, where contact between domestic and free ranging wild animals of the same or closely related species is easily monitored and controlled, ocean based aquaculture is an open system wherein farmed fish may incubate and transmit infectious agents to already diminishing stocks of wild fish”

Minister Shea, your mandate is to protect wild salmon. You must test the Atlantic salmon in British Columbia for this virus as the scientists state it is a threat to wild salmon. You must also see the wisdom in closing the border to further imports.

Your ministry has found Fraser sockeye RNA is carrying a strong signal suggesting exposure to a virus. As well, there is correlation between IHN virus outbreaks in salmon feedlots and the Fraser sockeye decline.




Government is extremely reluctant to release salmon feedlot disease information
http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2010/07/12/FishFarmSecrecy/index1.html. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency reports Canada is failing international fish disease reporting standards http://www.gazette.gc.ca/rp-pr/p1/2009/2009-12-19/html/reg1-eng.html .

The new salmon feedlot regulations your ministry has written offer lesser disease reporting for some salmon feedlot sites http://alexandramorton.typepad.com/

All of this suggests salmon feedlot disease outbreaks are problem. The companies have stated release of their disease outbreak information could impact the price of their shares. But what about the interests of the public you are hired to protect?

If we get a healthy return of sockeye to the Fraser River this year we will know the ocean and the river can still produce fish and that the fate of the other lineages is likely due to something else. You must take all precaution and steps to identify the problem.

Test the Atlantic salmon and Fraser sockeye for the newly identified HSMI virus so that we can know with certainty. Close the border to eggs if we were lucky enough to escape this virus. There are already more Atlantic salmon in BC than Fraser sockeye. There are no grounds for you to ignore the science and continue putting public fisheries at risk by importing ever more Atlantic salmon into British Columbia.

We need to hear from you as to how you are handling the risk of HSMI to British Columbia.

Sincerely,
Alexandra Morton