BC: Save Wild Salmon, Save Orcas

by sara star | November 15, 2008 at 07:15 am

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Canadian government faces suit over killer whales (Orcas)

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Alexandra Morton says wild salmon will be killed off if fish farms are allowed to flourish. That will, in turn, affect British Columbia’s whales, which feed on the salmon. The authorities don't seem to be listening. Next time you eat salmon in the restaurant or buy some at the fisherman's wharf, ask if it has been farmed.

Morton noses her workboat away from her dock here, she is on a crusade, seeking not orcas, but evidence against the salmon farms she believes drove most of the killer whales away, in part by infecting the wild salmon the whales eat with parasites called sea lice. Her work is a challenge to the salmon farm industry and to the Canadian and British Columbia officials who regulate it.

Once dismissed as an outsider and amateur, Morton has gradually gained the respect of fisheries experts like Ray Hilborn, a University of Washington researcher. "She doesn’t come from a science background but she has had a lot of influence in highlighting the issue," he said. Daniel Pauly, director of the Fisheries Center at the University of British Columbia, calls her "a spunky hero."

That may be because she takes the issue personally. The disappearance of the orcas in the Broughton "ruined my life, absolutely," Morton said one day recently as she headed off to net baby salmon and check them for sea lice. "A lot of people have lost stuff they set out to do but, yeah, it ruined my whole plan."

According to the British Columbia Salmon Farmers Association, farms produce $450 million worth of Atlantic salmon a year in British Columbia. At any given time, 70 to 80 farm sites operate in provincial waters, perhaps 15 or so in the Broughton, a hardly inhabited area across Queen Charlotte Strait from the north end of Vancouver Island. Typically, each installation has a collection of net pens, usually crossed by metal walkways, floating in a cove or bay. Individual sites typically contain 500,000 to 750,000 penned fish.

As tiny young wild salmon, smolts, pass by these pens on their way to sea, they can pick up so many lice they die, Morton and other researchers have reported.

Farm operators like Marine Harvest, a Norwegian concern that is a major presence in salmon farming here, concede that penned fish are vulnerable to microbes and parasites but say drugs and pesticides minimize the problem, virtually eliminating the risk to wild fish stocks.

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SparkyLeigh

at 20:36 on November 17th, 2008

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sparkyleigh/3004847/ (goes with my previous comment)

rowanlea51

at 13:00 on November 18th, 2008

Unfortunately apart from sea lice problems, fish farms are notoriously bad for escapees which may threaten the genetic integrity of wild salmon stocks.

rowanlea51 has contributed a photo to this story.

Paschen

at 07:28 on November 15th, 2008

Fish farm are a double edged sword of sorts, on one hand they help reduce the over fishing of the Ocean and on the other they contribute to the pollution of the same oceans and the death of wild life. A dilemma of sorts.

sara star

at 08:55 on November 15th, 2008

I want to agree, but has the overfishing of the ocean been reduced??

Paschen

at 09:17 on November 15th, 2008

No it has not, for two reasons though, one we have a incredible increase in Fish consumption and two we do have a fishery that is being kept alive artificially in some countries with subsidies. I could add a third one wish would be consumers irresponsible shopping and our immense amount of waste as well.

sara star

at 10:57 on November 15th, 2008

Increased consumption, I agree.

A country 's value is judged by its growth in economy. Buy, buy, buy = bye bye bye
Our insatiable appetite to keep buying to fill the void inside us is the very definition of cancer.

sara star

at 13:58 on November 15th, 2008

sara star

at 10:58 on November 15th, 2008

Fairbanks

at 11:02 on November 15th, 2008

has the overfishing of the ocean been reduced?? . . .

Yes, the quota for this year for some of Alaska's commercial salmon has been reduced to the lowest in several years.

Amy Judd

at 13:50 on November 15th, 2008

It will indeed affect the Orcas if they have nothing to feed on.

I can't believe they would rather farm all the fish and allow the wild species to just die - it's beyond me.

sara star

at 14:04 on November 15th, 2008

Sometimes I think that corporations want to kill nature because it is free. If we can live naturally for free, then there is no money to be made.

Like why do we have to have GMO"s when we have plenty of natural seeds.

sara star

at 14:23 on November 15th, 2008

Glad to hear.

From Canada.com Sept 28/08 (http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/comment/story.html?id=87f8880d-10de-4697-afda-4f190c8ff575)

Since the mid-1990s wild salmon stocks have plummeted between 70 and 90 per cent. Some experts now believe the fishery is headed the way of the Newfoundland cod industry -- total collapse. That would cost B.C. $500 million and 25,000 jobs.

.... A recent study, published in the magazine Science ...authors looked at 11,000 fisheries around the world. Most are managed on a quota basis -- just like B.C.'s salmon industry.

Virtually all of these quota fisheries are headed in the same direction -- total collapse. On one estimate, 100 per cent of them could be extinct by 2048.

THERE IS SOME HOPE ... the study also provides an element of hope. In the few fisheries where user groups are given ownership of the resource, the results are quite different. The trend toward collapse has been halted, and in some cases reversed.

mofiac

at 20:30 on November 15th, 2008

I will be paddling and filming the northern pod next week. Once I've edited the footage, I will post a link.

Paschen

at 20:58 on November 15th, 2008

Keep in mind that fishing practices do play a great role in the depleting fish stocks, if those where rectified and proper ethical fishing would be practised even with the volume fished today we would still be able to maintain stock levels.

Paschen

at 21:00 on November 15th, 2008

Fairbanks, keep in mind that many of those regulations are being violated and that it is not only the amount that counts, but more so the way we fish.

Roccotaco

at 18:34 on November 17th, 2008

I was just a tourist to the San Juan islands and was stunned by the beauty of the ecosystem. Coming from a big city it was amazing to me how close the whales, seals and eagles were to civilization.

Roccotaco has contributed a photo to this story.

moelynphotos

at 19:13 on November 17th, 2008

moelynphotos has contributed a photo to this story.

muffinman71xx

at 19:21 on November 17th, 2008

trainer for a day, backstage with shamu. seaworld, orlando, fla.
enjoy... e brumble. see more of my photos on flickr... muffinman71xx

muffinman71xx has contributed a photo to this story.

Lokipix

at 20:10 on November 17th, 2008

SparkyLeigh

at 20:35 on November 17th, 2008

The photo I was asked to offer here was taken off the outer west coast of Vancouver Island and is a northern transient and they do not feed on salmon, but the Resident Orca for sure are suffering from low returns of salmon. So these same Resident Orca will cruise the open ocean in search of salmon, which they have been doing more of as the years go by.

My focus in the text I originally wrote for the photo Sara asked me to add to this good story was then to bring awareness to the Orca being caged and used for entertainment shows:

SparkyLeigh

at 20:39 on November 17th, 2008

Thanks for your good work on this Sara

dylan.edwards38

at 00:18 on November 18th, 2008

My friend caught this 8ib6oz fish on fly , he battled with it for nearly an hour not far from where I live here in North Wales,UK it was one of only 10 fish caught this season on the River Conwy

dylan.edwards38 has contributed a photo to this story.

e7newton

at 09:49 on November 18th, 2008

I was whale watching off the Coast of San Juan Island in Washington. As a pod of orcas was swimming by I was lucky enough to get this photo of one of them breeching. They truly are a majestic animal.

e7newton has contributed a photo to this story.

makeupanid

at 10:24 on November 18th, 2008

Excellent story

Both the Southern and Northern residents populations are as Sparky said already suffering from the lack of salmon. Let's hope something is done to improve this situation. My photo of Echo is A55 one of Simoom's calves in the A12 pod-it was so thrilling seeing them!