Salmon farm. (Photo: BC Salmon Farmers Association)
Federal Govt do not properly manage salmon farming, environment commissioner claims
CANADA
Friday, April 27, 2018, 01:30 (GMT + 9)
The federal government are not properly managing the risks that farmed salmon pose to their wild counterparts nor are they doing enough to ensure the country is meeting its international commitments on biodiversity and sustainable development, warns a report by the environment commissioner.
In the report, tabled in the House of Commons, commissioner Julie Gelfand points out that the Department of Fisheries and Oceans has no requirement to monitor the health of wild salmon or the status of the ocean floor beneath penned salmon farms, and that it is also providing better funding for research related to fish farms than it is for research to help monitor their impact, The Canadain Press reported.
"The department is at risk of being seen to promote aquaculture over the protection of wild salmon," Gelfand said after the report was tabled in Parliament together with other two audits.
On the other hand, the commissioner considers that the research gaps are extensive enough that there is no way to determine the impact of fish farms on wild fish.
“Canada also lacks an impact threshold to determine when to shut down or limit fish farming,” she added.
In response to Gelfand's report, Minister Dominic LeBlanc said the government is "committed to ensuring all of her recommendations are acted upon and acted upon quickly."
In addition, he said the government is "wide open" to discussing with the provinces a change in management structure, he added -- one that would make clear that the federal government's primary responsibility is to ensure "there's no harmful interaction" between salmon farms and wild fish populations.
Gelfand's spring reports also look at Canada's commitment to the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, both of which, she warned, could become the latest international environment agreements Canada signs but does little to actually implement.
She cited a lack of government leadership to address the targets in those agreements, saying there is no way to properly assess how effectively government policies can contribute to meeting those goals.
Gelfand’s salmon farm findings sound alarms about a CAD 1-billion industry on Canada’s coasts and raise questions about the effectiveness of about CAD 30 million in annual government spending aimed at overseeing fish farms.
The audit is released amid the controversy faced by the salmon farming industry, which has been under fire on the west coast, particularly, since the release of thousands of farmed salmon off the coast of Washington, US.
Washington State decided to phase out its non-native fish farms, following Alaska, which prohibits fin fish farming.
Related article:
- Advisory council recommends aquaculture firms obtained First Nations approval
- Washington passes Atlantic salmon farm ban law
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