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A open-net pen salmon farm run by Grieg Seafood off Gore Island, B.C. Image: Tavish Campbell / FIS
Mass mortality event kills hundreds of tonnes of B.C. farmed salmon
CANADA
Monday, June 17, 2024, 01:00 (GMT + 9)
The following is an excerpt from an article published by Coast Reporter:
DFO and operator attribute mass die-off to low oxygen, but one scientist who visited one far-flung site in a kayak worries the real cause could be more complicated.
DFO says it's investigating after a boat at Grieg Seafood's North Muchalat salmon farm appears to discharge liquid into the channel following a mass mortality event. Stan Proboszcz
On June 1, Stan Proboszcz loaded up his kayak and caught the ferry from his home in Powell River to Comox on Vancouver Island. The ensuing two-hour drive would take him past snow-crested peaks and deep forested valleys until he reached a boat launch in Gold River.
.jpg) Dipping his kayak into the waters of Muchalat Inlet, Proboszcz set out on an 18-kilometre paddle toward the open Pacific Ocean — and he did it all on an anonymous tip.
A fish scientist at Watershed Watch Salmon Society, a tipster had alleged salmon farms off the coast had been experiencing mysterious and massive die-offs and nobody was saying anything about it.
“Yeah, it was a little crazy,” said Proboszcz of his decision to make the long trip. “But he didn't know why they were dying.”
Before Proboszcz left, a colleague had tracked a number of boats that were allegedly bringing fish all the way around the south end of Vancouver Island and into the Nanaimo area. But the boats had nearly finished shuttling all the fish, according to the anonymous source.
Desperate, Proboszcz had tried to hire a skiff and even a helicopter to see what was going on. But nothing worked out and so he decided to take matters into his own hands.
Five hours into Muchalat Inlet, Proboszcz reached the fish farm he figured was the sight of a big die-off. He sent a drone into the air and captured what he described were “plumes” coming off the farm’s surface.
Grieg Seafood's North Muchakat salmon farm lost nearly a quarter of its stock in a recent mass mortality event, confirmed DFO. Stan Proboszcz
“It’s like a sheen, like a oil sheet. Maybe it's rotting, like dead fish oil coming from the farm,” he said.
A vessel, Knight Dragon, appeared to pump something out of the farm, while another hose appeared to be discharging water from the ship into the open ocean.
Proboszcz said he suspects they were sucking out dead fish that had sunk to the bottom of the farm’s nets, then blowing out the sucked up water out of the ship’s hold. But without evidence, he could prove nothing and figured he had come too late to see the scale of the mortality event.
The scientist camped on the nearby coastline, and when he returned, he contacted the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO).
Ahead of salmon farm phase-out, researchers warn of increase in mass die-offs
Mass die-offs of farmed salmon are increasing around the world, with Canada experiencing some of the biggest and most frequent mortality events, according to a study published in March 2024.
“The worst of the worst cases are getting larger,” Gerald Singh, a researcher in UVic’s School of Environmental Studies and the study’s lead author, said at the time.
Last week, a federal court rejected an application for a judicial review into then Fisheries Minister Joyce Murray’s decision not to renew licences for 15 open-net Atlantic salmon farms in the Discovery Islands. [Continues...]
Author: Stefan Labbé | Coast Reporter | Read the article in full by clicking the link here
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