---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 17 Dec 1997 15:43:16 -0800
From: Howard Breen <HBreen at island.net>
To: hbreen at island.net
Subject: BC Aquaculture News 17/12/97
BC Aquaculture News 17/12/97
ASSOCIATED PRESS NEWS WIRE Monday, December 16, 1997
(Seattle) -- "Fish Farming" The largest commercial salmon-farming
operation in Washington state has been charged with permit violations
for the accidental release of 300-thousand Atlantic salmon last
summer. State officials ordered Global Aqua USA to report on the
release and on how it will prevent such releases and minimize their
impacts in the future. The fish got loose on July 18th when a net pen
ripped open while being towed from Manchester across Puget Sound to
Vashon Island to avoid a toxic algae bloom. Global Aqua president
Morten Blomso says the company already had developed the data in
efforts to evaluate the accident and prevent it from happening
again. Washington's Pollution Control Hearing Board has ruled that
Atlantic salmon are "pollutants" because they could compete with
native runs. The panel will begin hearings today (Monday) on calls
by environmental groups for tighter restrictions on net pens.
GLOBE AND MAIL Friday, December 12, 1997
Pg. A17 "Virus ravages N.B. salmon farms" New Brunswick is going to
start killing its farmed Atlantic salmon in a desperate attempt to
save them. A deadly virus known as infectious salmon anemia has been
discovered in several sea cages in the Bay of Fundy where the
province's lucrative and fast-growing aquaculture industry is based.
The disease has never been found on the West Coast. The provincial
government is monitoring Atlantic salmon raised in B.C. but expects
no infections, said provincial agriculture and fish ministry
spokeswoman Barbara Carver.
VANCOUVER PROVINCE Wednesday, December 17, 1997
Pg. A47 "Food for thought on food, water sources" Is the food we eat
and the water we drink fit for human consumption? The vegetables are
laced with pesticides. The farmed fish, meat, poultry and dairy
products contain antibiotics and growth hormones. Even the water is
no longer clean. My dog, since it lives in the Lower Mainland, is
given distilled water to drink and organically grown carrots on which
to chew. The failure of our governments to carry out their
responsibilities has brought us to where we can't easily even get
food and water that is fit for our animals, let alone humans.
Author:
Gordon K. Johnson, Mission
SEATTLE TIMES Monday, December 15, 1997
"U.S. sets rules on what food is organic" The federal government is
getting involved for the first time in regulating organic foods, a
tiny but fast-growing segment of the grocery business. Agriculture
Secretary Dan Glickman this morning was unveiling proposed
regulations governing foods grown or raised without the use of
pesticides and other synthetic chemicals or growth hormones. The
rules would implement the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990, which
became law as interest in natural products grew among the baby-boom
generation. Although organic products account for only about 1
percent of food sales nationwide, sales have grown by more than 20
percent annually since 1990 and account for $3.5 billion in annual
sales.
COASTAL PLAN DRAWS CRITICISM -- Victoria Times Colonist, p. A5, No byline,
11/12/97 -- Completion of Vancouver Island's land-use plan includes
charting the future of the Island's coastal marine areas, but critics say
it make no sense to plan a strip of land along the coastline and planning
for such areas should be done in conjunction with the Department of
Fisheries and Oceans, Parks Canada and the coast guard.
BLUEPRINT FOR ISLAND HARD TO DECIPHER -- Victoria Times Colonist, p. A5,
Malcolm Curtis, 11/12/97 -- The 210-page document called resource
management Zones for Vancouver Island, released by the province last week,
will be difficult to understand for the people interested in responding to
the proposals outlined for the future of 60 per cent of the Island. The
plan divides Crown land into special and general management zones and
enhanced development zones, previously known as low intensity, general
forestry and high intensity areas, and for each piece a range of planning
objectives is given.
Study Finds Alien Plankton In Alaskan Waters
By Yereth Rosen
ANCHORAGE, Alaska(Reuters) - Tankers loading oil from a
trans-Alaska pipeline have helped introduce alien forms of
plankton consisting of animals in Prince William Sound, a study
issued this week says.
The study found that oil tankers heading to the sound
carried in their ballast water four non-indigenous species of
zooplankton, or plankton consisting of animals, that originally
came from Asia and later spread throughout San Francisco Bay.
Whether the tiny organisms pose a threat to the icy sound
would be the subject of further study, said Gary Sonnevil, a
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service fisheries biologist who served as
project manager for the pilot study, coordinated by a citizen's
group monitoring pipeline operations in the region.
Ballast water, often gathered from far away, is used to
balance empty or partly empty cargo vessels such as tankers.
Because of its busy traffic from oil tankers, Prince William
Sound ranks third in the United States in the volume of ballast
water released in the region by ships, Sonnevil said. He said
the sound appears less contaminated by alien species of
zooplankton than other marine areas with heavy vessel traffic.
San Francisco Bay, for example, has over 200 known
non-indigenous species.
Well-known alien species that have caused ecological harm
are the Asian clam, introduced by shippers to San Francisco Bay,
and the zebra mussel, introduced to the Great Lakes, officials
said.
One possible threat to Alaskan waters is the European green
crab, introduced more than 50 years ago to East Coast waters and
discovered a decade ago in San Francisco Bay, Sonnevil said. It
has been spotted as far north as Coos Bay, Oregon.
``We're a little concerned that it's going to be a
competitor for the same food sources that the Dungeness crab
likes,'' he said. Dungeness crab is one of Alaska's commercially
harvested crab species.
The ballast water study was coordinated by the Prince
William Sound Regional Citizens Advisory Council, which was
established by Congress after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in
1989.
.........................................................................
Letter from Wild Salmon Advocate Lynn Hunter
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear Ministers;
This government, through its numerous actions over the recent past is now
seen as a defender of salmon and the people who depend on them. The
initiatives that have been taken have been sincerely appreciated, not just
by those directly affected, but by the population as a whole. That is a
significant achievement. Thank you for the energy and commitment taken thus
far.
I understand you are now in the process of developing the government's
response to the Environmental Assessment Office's Salmon Aquaculture Review
released last September. With this in mind, I write to bring to your
attention something of which I am certain you are well aware: your
decision on the salmon aquaculture issue will have profound implications for
our wild salmon stocks, the communities which depend on them and for our
broader economy in British Columbia. If the wrong decision is taken, all
the good will
and confidence building developed over the recent past could be lost.
As you are aware, there are now safe, closed loop containment systems operating
successfully in Puget Sound. These systems provide protection for the
ecosystem and the fish growing within them. While the initial capital costs
for these systems are higher than the open net pens currently operating in
British Columbia, the investment is paying impressive dividends over the
longer term. I urge you to call upon the aquaculture industry to implement
a transition strategy for safe, closed loop systems for British
Columbia.
I have met with many members of First Nations and environmental
organizations over the past number of months and they are all in favour of
this technology as a means of protecting the environment, the wild fish and
the jobs in their communities.
I'm sure the B.C. aquaculture industry is working to convince you that this
technology is not economically feasible. I argue that the costs associated
with continuing net pen salmon aquaculture are prohibitively higher. I
speak of both the environmental costs of lost habitat and salmon stocks put
at risk and also the hard dollar costs of compensating industry when their
"crops" fail.
Just last week, the Globe and Mail reported an outbreak of infectious
salmon anemia in New Brunswick salmon farms. The New Brunswick Minister of
Fisheries, Danny Gay, was quoted as saying "interest free loans and loan
guarantees...will be available from the Province. We are also exploring
...the creation of a recovery fund to assist affected farmers." The
question arises of why the taxpayers should be expected to compensate an
industry which is unwilling to invest in preventative measures?
Such an eventuality would be avoided in British Columbia if you insist that
the industry here make the necessary preventative investments now in safe
closed loop containment systems.
Thank you again for all you have done in recent years to protect salmon and
the people who depend on them. I look forward to that enviable record
being maintained in your response to the Salmon Aquaculture Review.
Yours sincerely,
Lynn Hunter
c.c
The Honourable Glen Clark, Premier;
The Honourable John Cashore, Minister of Aboriginal Affairs;
The Honourable Andrew Petter, Minister of Finance;
The Honourable Dan Miller, Minister of Employment and Investment