EUROPE: Warning as infectious salmon disease spreads
from Europe's fish farms to Canada
Anna
Taylor
Discovery of the
deadly salmon virus Infectious Salmon Anaemia in Canada is just latest likely
example of disease spreading to wild fish stocks from the world's mega fish
farms
The
rise of the farmed fish industry in recent years has been accompanied by the
emergence of many infectious diseases of fish. One of the most recent and
serious diseases is the marine viral disease, Infectious Salmon Anaemia (ISA).
First detected in Atlantic salmon farmed along the southwest coast of Norway in 1984, it has since spread throughout the world.
As the name suggests, ISA shows itself by a severe anaemia, with fish displaying pale gills, and often swimming close to the surface of the water, gulping for air. More insidiously, however, many fish show no signs at all until they suddenly die.
An outbreak of the ISA was detected in wild Pacific salmon last October, in the Canadian province of British Columbia. Outbreaks of this virus have previously been detected in fish farms in Chile and Scotland, and although not dangerous to human health, have had serious impacts on the industry and the communities who depend upon it.
Infection spreading to wild fish
Effective management of the diseases of aquatic animals can be problematic. Often, too little is known about the infection itself, and infections can spread via flowing water and populations of wild fish sharing the same waters as farmed fish.
British Columbia’s ISA outbreak in wild salmon was discovered by researchers from Simon Fraser University, led by Professor Richard Routledge. Samples were taken in May and June last year as part of a ten year study into the importance of the Rivers Inlet area to migrating juvenile sockeye salmon.
'It was not until toward the end of the migration season, when we realised how few juvenile sockeye salmon we were going to be able to catch, that we began to consider possible causes of the low catch rate. ISAv was just one of several potential causes that we eventually considered,' said Professor Routledge.
Samples from 48 wild salmon were sent to the reference laboratory at the University of Prince Edward Island, the global centre for tests to detect the virus. They confirmed the presence of ISA in two of the fish. Subsequently, three out of ten fish collected from a tributary of Fraser River, the biggest wild salmon river in the world, also tested positive for the ISA virus. The three fish were all different species: coho, chinook, and chum salmon, and all three died before they had spawned, although the cause of death has not yet been determined.
These results have not surprised many scientists, who see infection in the wild population as inevitable and point the finger of blame at nearby fish farms. Rivers Inlet, where the positive samples were taken, is just 60 miles from the nearest salmon farm, and although there is no definitive evidence, the fact that it was the European strain of the virus which was detected, seems to suggest that this is a distinct possibility.
The aquaculture industry in British Columbia has imported millions of Atlantic salmon eggs from Norway and other countries in Europe for the past 25 years. Previously ISA had been found in ocean-going salmon, but was not deadly until it morphed into a virulent strain in Norway’s fish-farming pens. Poor aquaculture practices are thought to have contributed to the mutation, with unhealthy fish being fed antibiotics and living in densely packed pens. A diseased fish comes into close contact with many other fish, spreading ISA via urine, blood and other bodily fluids. As the fish farm has an open net, disease can be easily transferred to the outside world.
Professor Routledge believes that the fish farms are 'an important potential pathway for ISAv to be spread to wild Pacific salmon.'
Industry rejects call to reform fish farms
Many have been campaigning for years against open net fish farming. The Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform (CAAR), comprising of groups working to promote safe salmon farming in British Columbia, has led efforts to develop a safe salmon farming industry. Will Soltau who works for the Living Oceans Society, one of the member groups, says that CAAR has 'worked for the last decade to stop the expansion of open net-cage salmon farming in BC and advocate for transitioning the open net-cage farms into closed containment technology. That transition would separate the farmed fish from the wild fish and thereby eliminate a lot of the negative effect from the industry to the marine environment.'
Unfortunately, the Canadian Government has not acted on advice and the industry has resisted change. 'We are now faced with the possibility of this disease being introduced to the North Pacific Ocean for the first time and spreading in wild salmon stocks,' adds Mr Soltau.
Campaigners are right to be worried. In 2007, an outbreak of ISA in Chile decimated their lucrative farmed salmon industry. More than 100 fish farms were affected, with over a million fish being killed and 50 per cent of workers losing their jobs. The cost of ISA over the last 4 years is estimated to be around US$2 billion, and the industry is yet to recover from the impacts of the disease.
Scotland too has had to tackle its own outbreaks. In 1998/99, ISA was confirmed at 11 sites, and suspected at 34 additional sites, scattered across virtually the entire salmon farming region. The cost to the industry was estimated to have amounted to £30 million. Ten years later ISA returned, although this time on a much smaller scale. Six infected sites in Shetland were confirmed and depopulated of fish, and only after 2 years of monitoring and testing were they declared ISA free.
Shock of Canada disease outbreak
In British Columbia, salmon farming and the wild commercial salmon sector combined provides over 3,000 full-time equivalent jobs, and contributes hundreds of millions of dollars to the provincial GDP. Salmon sport fishing is also important to the economy, and is a significant employer.
The news of ISA in British Columbia has surprised those in the industry. The British Columbia Salmon Farmers Association stated that their fish health departments regularly test farmed fish for ISA but have never found a positive result. In addition, the Canadian Government has conducted tests on the original wild samples.
They were sent to a laboratory at the University of Bergen in Norway, and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) announced that the lab found no evidence of ISA.
However, this statement is misleading according to Professor Routledge. 'The Norwegian lab was able to generate one positive test result on a sample from one of the two fish that had previously tested positive, but the result was not repeatable. One explanation for the discrepancy that seems highly credible to me is that the samples were by then degraded.' The samples were of too poor a quality for the results to be replicated so the CFIA announced, somewhat controversially, that the results were negative.
Alexandra Morton, the marine scientist and outspoken wild salmon activist who collected the Fraser River samples, cannot understand the government’s response. 'Why would government jump out and deny evidence of ISA virus in BC? If the samples were poor wouldn't it make sense to go back to the places where the positive tested fish came from and take their own samples? How can we take any confidence when government says everything is fine because the virus was found in poor quality samples?' She continues: 'ISA virus is the most deadly salmon virus known, it plagues salmon farms worldwide but Canada is going to ignore the results from two of the top ISA virus labs in the world, because the samples were of poor quality?'
Alaska fears spread to its fish
While the Canadian Government is playing down the fears of ISA, the United States Government has taken the opposite stance. In a statement released by senators from Washington State and Alaska, fears were expressed that the Canadian government may be too close to the multi-billion dollar industry. They called upon the United States to conduct their own tests, as 'we should not rely on another government – particularly one that may have a motive to misrepresent its finding – to determine how we assess the risk ISA may pose to American fishery jobs. We have to get a coordinated game plan in place to protect our salmon and stop the spread of this deadly virus.'
As ‘Salmongate’ (as the North American press have dubbed this debate) continues, it is clear that more tests are needed to confirm the initial findings. 'I believe that top priority needs to be given to collecting, preserving, and analysing new samples under tight protocols to obtain more definitive evidence regarding the presence, geographic range, origin, etc., of the virus in the North Pacific,' says Professor Routledge.
The stakes are high, especially with so many people dependent on salmon-related industries in the Pacific Northwest. Campaigners are viewing the ISA outbreak as one reason why changes to aquaculture procedures are essential, but scientists admit that they are on a steep learning curve. Swift action is necessary, but no country has ever managed to completely eradicate ISA, and reverberations of this outbreak may be felt far and wide for many years to come.
First detected in Atlantic salmon farmed along the southwest coast of Norway in 1984, it has since spread throughout the world.
As the name suggests, ISA shows itself by a severe anaemia, with fish displaying pale gills, and often swimming close to the surface of the water, gulping for air. More insidiously, however, many fish show no signs at all until they suddenly die.
An outbreak of the ISA was detected in wild Pacific salmon last October, in the Canadian province of British Columbia. Outbreaks of this virus have previously been detected in fish farms in Chile and Scotland, and although not dangerous to human health, have had serious impacts on the industry and the communities who depend upon it.
Infection spreading to wild fish
Effective management of the diseases of aquatic animals can be problematic. Often, too little is known about the infection itself, and infections can spread via flowing water and populations of wild fish sharing the same waters as farmed fish.
British Columbia’s ISA outbreak in wild salmon was discovered by researchers from Simon Fraser University, led by Professor Richard Routledge. Samples were taken in May and June last year as part of a ten year study into the importance of the Rivers Inlet area to migrating juvenile sockeye salmon.
'It was not until toward the end of the migration season, when we realised how few juvenile sockeye salmon we were going to be able to catch, that we began to consider possible causes of the low catch rate. ISAv was just one of several potential causes that we eventually considered,' said Professor Routledge.
Samples from 48 wild salmon were sent to the reference laboratory at the University of Prince Edward Island, the global centre for tests to detect the virus. They confirmed the presence of ISA in two of the fish. Subsequently, three out of ten fish collected from a tributary of Fraser River, the biggest wild salmon river in the world, also tested positive for the ISA virus. The three fish were all different species: coho, chinook, and chum salmon, and all three died before they had spawned, although the cause of death has not yet been determined.
These results have not surprised many scientists, who see infection in the wild population as inevitable and point the finger of blame at nearby fish farms. Rivers Inlet, where the positive samples were taken, is just 60 miles from the nearest salmon farm, and although there is no definitive evidence, the fact that it was the European strain of the virus which was detected, seems to suggest that this is a distinct possibility.
The aquaculture industry in British Columbia has imported millions of Atlantic salmon eggs from Norway and other countries in Europe for the past 25 years. Previously ISA had been found in ocean-going salmon, but was not deadly until it morphed into a virulent strain in Norway’s fish-farming pens. Poor aquaculture practices are thought to have contributed to the mutation, with unhealthy fish being fed antibiotics and living in densely packed pens. A diseased fish comes into close contact with many other fish, spreading ISA via urine, blood and other bodily fluids. As the fish farm has an open net, disease can be easily transferred to the outside world.
Professor Routledge believes that the fish farms are 'an important potential pathway for ISAv to be spread to wild Pacific salmon.'
Industry rejects call to reform fish farms
Many have been campaigning for years against open net fish farming. The Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform (CAAR), comprising of groups working to promote safe salmon farming in British Columbia, has led efforts to develop a safe salmon farming industry. Will Soltau who works for the Living Oceans Society, one of the member groups, says that CAAR has 'worked for the last decade to stop the expansion of open net-cage salmon farming in BC and advocate for transitioning the open net-cage farms into closed containment technology. That transition would separate the farmed fish from the wild fish and thereby eliminate a lot of the negative effect from the industry to the marine environment.'
Unfortunately, the Canadian Government has not acted on advice and the industry has resisted change. 'We are now faced with the possibility of this disease being introduced to the North Pacific Ocean for the first time and spreading in wild salmon stocks,' adds Mr Soltau.
Campaigners are right to be worried. In 2007, an outbreak of ISA in Chile decimated their lucrative farmed salmon industry. More than 100 fish farms were affected, with over a million fish being killed and 50 per cent of workers losing their jobs. The cost of ISA over the last 4 years is estimated to be around US$2 billion, and the industry is yet to recover from the impacts of the disease.
Scotland too has had to tackle its own outbreaks. In 1998/99, ISA was confirmed at 11 sites, and suspected at 34 additional sites, scattered across virtually the entire salmon farming region. The cost to the industry was estimated to have amounted to £30 million. Ten years later ISA returned, although this time on a much smaller scale. Six infected sites in Shetland were confirmed and depopulated of fish, and only after 2 years of monitoring and testing were they declared ISA free.
Shock of Canada disease outbreak
In British Columbia, salmon farming and the wild commercial salmon sector combined provides over 3,000 full-time equivalent jobs, and contributes hundreds of millions of dollars to the provincial GDP. Salmon sport fishing is also important to the economy, and is a significant employer.
The news of ISA in British Columbia has surprised those in the industry. The British Columbia Salmon Farmers Association stated that their fish health departments regularly test farmed fish for ISA but have never found a positive result. In addition, the Canadian Government has conducted tests on the original wild samples.
They were sent to a laboratory at the University of Bergen in Norway, and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) announced that the lab found no evidence of ISA.
However, this statement is misleading according to Professor Routledge. 'The Norwegian lab was able to generate one positive test result on a sample from one of the two fish that had previously tested positive, but the result was not repeatable. One explanation for the discrepancy that seems highly credible to me is that the samples were by then degraded.' The samples were of too poor a quality for the results to be replicated so the CFIA announced, somewhat controversially, that the results were negative.
Alexandra Morton, the marine scientist and outspoken wild salmon activist who collected the Fraser River samples, cannot understand the government’s response. 'Why would government jump out and deny evidence of ISA virus in BC? If the samples were poor wouldn't it make sense to go back to the places where the positive tested fish came from and take their own samples? How can we take any confidence when government says everything is fine because the virus was found in poor quality samples?' She continues: 'ISA virus is the most deadly salmon virus known, it plagues salmon farms worldwide but Canada is going to ignore the results from two of the top ISA virus labs in the world, because the samples were of poor quality?'
Alaska fears spread to its fish
While the Canadian Government is playing down the fears of ISA, the United States Government has taken the opposite stance. In a statement released by senators from Washington State and Alaska, fears were expressed that the Canadian government may be too close to the multi-billion dollar industry. They called upon the United States to conduct their own tests, as 'we should not rely on another government – particularly one that may have a motive to misrepresent its finding – to determine how we assess the risk ISA may pose to American fishery jobs. We have to get a coordinated game plan in place to protect our salmon and stop the spread of this deadly virus.'
As ‘Salmongate’ (as the North American press have dubbed this debate) continues, it is clear that more tests are needed to confirm the initial findings. 'I believe that top priority needs to be given to collecting, preserving, and analysing new samples under tight protocols to obtain more definitive evidence regarding the presence, geographic range, origin, etc., of the virus in the North Pacific,' says Professor Routledge.
The stakes are high, especially with so many people dependent on salmon-related industries in the Pacific Northwest. Campaigners are viewing the ISA outbreak as one reason why changes to aquaculture procedures are essential, but scientists admit that they are on a steep learning curve. Swift action is necessary, but no country has ever managed to completely eradicate ISA, and reverberations of this outbreak may be felt far and wide for many years to come.
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HOW
TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE
Protecting wild salmon from pollution Alaska's long-standing wild salmon-fishing industry could be under threat from large-scale mining development |
---------------------
P.E.I.
firm gets OK for commercial production of genetically modified salmon eggs
November
25, 2013 - 12:50pm By THE CANADIAN PRESS
---------------------
HALIFAX
HERALD- THE TRUTH ABOUT FISH
FARMING- SEA LICE- AND DISEASES- AND WE
ARE FED THEM??????
Factory
farming ugly
I
hope people who are paying attention see that true innovators like Aaron Hiltz
should be encouraged and assisted. His free-range laying hen operation is so
much better than the dominant factory farming model where most of our food
comes from.
From
the animals’ point of view, I hope people see the horribly cruel nature of
factory-farm-type battery cage operations. Right now, we have blind acceptance
of the dominant capitalist economic system, where “might makes right,” and
“bigger is better” for everyone.
For
the non-human animals in battery cages, the hens — life is a living hell. Five
to seven birds are stuffed into the 16-inch by 18-inch cages — not even enough
room to spread their wings. Battery cages represent one of the worst
manifestations of industrial farming and inhibit almost all of chickens’
natural behaviours.
Last
month, W5, with the help of the Animal Rights Group Mercy For Animals Canada,
aired an amazing investigative piece:
Shown
is video from inside two battery hen operations in Alberta —employees routinely
“thumped” chickens to kill them, slamming their heads against cages, and
concrete floors, throwing them into piles to die.
Also
shown clearly are the miserable conditions inside the battery cages. If you
Google “killing male chicks,” you will see what happens to the unwanted ones in
this business. They are thrown alive into a macerator, which is a lot like a
wood chipper.
This
is the cost of low price and ignorance. The hidden suffering of these non-human
animals is simply an “externality.” The sickness of the animal exploitation
industry is, for the most part, hidden from public view.
Ty
Savoy, Lake Echo
AND...
Sick
logic
CBC
Newfoundland recently was reported that the Harbor Breton processing plant
would have to be shut down because the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has
ordered the destruction of ISA-infected fish in two cages belonging to Cooke
Aquaculture.
CFIA
had confirmed an outbreak at Hermitage Bay back in June, but “the company had
hoped to grow out and process some of the stock.”
Nell
Halse of Cooke Aquaculture uses the same sick logic regarding the Harbor Breton
cages: “Really, our hope had been we would have been able to grow the rest of
the fish to market and harvest them.”
I
wonder how many people are aware that the 240,000 ISA-infected salmon that were
harvested from the Coffin Island site near Liverpool back in February wound up
on the tables of Canadians, who were totally unaware that the fish they were
consuming would have died of the disease shortly after they were harvested.
Halse
is obviously trying to use this experience to process and market more sick
fish, highly medicated and treated with pesticides to kill sea lice, all for
the good of unsuspecting Canadian consumers.
This
is the company to which the previous government allocated $25 million to expand
operations in Nova Scotia. Fortunately, we don’t have to fight with that
government any more, although the former Fisheries/Aquaculture and Environment
minister still represents Queens/Shelburne as a lame orange duck in a sea of
red.
We
still have to fight the industry, with Cooke Aquaculture an ever-present enemy
to the environment and the people of coastal communities. In the interest of
common sense, health and the environment, ask your grocer if the salmon on
display is from Cooke Aquaculture and refuse it.
Fred
Giffin, Liverpool
--------------------
AND
BIG REASON WHY - NDP LOST ELECTION- IN NOVA SCOTIA- SALMON FISH FARMS- MINK FARMS....
SURRETTE:
Rough seas for NDP idealism at salmon farms
July
7, 2012 - 3:15am By RALPH SURETTE
By
not only endorsing but also financing the problematic open-net concept of
salmon farming, and refusing to consider any logic but fast jobs no matter what
the consequences, the Dexter government has set itself up for trouble, ignored
the real opportunities at hand, and unleashed some serious tension within the NDP.
The
latest group to be alarmed is none other than the lobster industry, which has
been trying to open up markets in Asia based on the image of clean Nova Scotian
water.
One
exporter explained to me that the high-end Asian, particularly Chinese, consumers
they’re courting “don’t eat their own seafood” precisely because their waters
are so polluted by fish farming.
The
Internet-borne word — based on either perception or reality — that the same
thing is happening here could seriously damage those efforts. He said they’re
trying to get through the strangely deaf ear of the Dexter government, but
don’t want to make a public fuss, because a fuss just spreads the word. It’s
that delicate.
As
for the big missed opportunity, it goes like this. Salmon farming is a problem
worldwide, as pollution and disease spread with the chemical-laden industry’s
reckless expansion.
It’s
potentially more serious here than in places like Chile or Scotland because we
have an inshore fishery flush up against the cages. But we also have
world-class oceans and fisheries expertise at Dalhousie University and the
Bedford Institute. The proper approach, as one one insider puts it, would have
been to use that expertise to pursue “a world- scale solution to a world-scale
problem” right here, and export it.
To
do that would have required a temporary moratorium on more open nets.
The
party establishment, however, has its heels dug in. At the party convention a
few weeks ago, the pro-moratorium forces were prepared to vote a resolution to
that effect when the room filled up with MLAs and party staff to vote it down.
That “drove a wedge deep, deep, deep into the party,” says one angry insider.
There’s
background to this. Long-time party loyalists — notably environmentalists,
community activists and so forth, plus some people I’m hearing from who have
held posts in the party — expected to be heard but are shut out, and notably on
the issue of economic development.
As
the government ladles out big money to things like pulp mills and biomass,
they’re asking what’s different in that from what we’ve been doing for 50 years
in Nova Scotia?
One
accuses the premier of being “Harper-like” in his refusal to take counsel. One
thing that rankles is that Voluntary Economic Planning, the Stanfield-era board
that interfaced between the public and government and had gained a positive
reputation beyond these borders, was killed in favour of an online consultation
system that these critics say has not been used.
Deputy
Premier Frank Corbett was quoted at the time as saying, “If it’s not in line
with government thinking, why have it?” That is, indeed, Harper-like.
The
government is blasé about all this, saying that social democratic governments
always spawn disgruntled left wings. A spokesman for the premier points out
that even Tommy Douglas was considered a sellout in his day and says the
cabinet is pretty well studied up on all that.
But
another voice from within says that even if that’s a fact of life, the
salmon-farm caper is still way over the top. It’s not just the hundred or more
groups and businesses from tourism, commercial fisheries, environmental,
community and other sectors who are protesting the takeover of the coast by
open-pen operations.
Significantly,
the federal NDP, which wants communities to have a say as to whether they want
salmon farms or not, and wants closed-pen systems developed, is unhappy that
the province isn’t listening.
For
his pains, MP Peter Stoffer got the brush-off from Fisheries Minister Sterling
Belliveau with the usual form letter about regulations being in place.
Meanwhile,
the sub-headline on the front of Thursday’s paper about new salmon sites in
Shelburne County read “Environmental risk unlikely, Ottawa says.”
Since
“Ottawa” is busy destroying environmental regulations, its assurances should
merely alarm us even more. By using “regulations” as cover for these
operations, the Dexter government risks being linked to Harperism in more ways
than one.
In
political terms, the government is implying that its dissidents will stay in
check because they’d have no one else to vote for anyway, which is likely true.
Neither
the Liberals nor the Tories have any credibility on the issue of industrial
giveaways in the pursuit of quick jobs, nor on the issue of salmon farms where
they too support the floating pig farm concept. The irony here is that the NDP
is not only the government but, on these issues, the opposition as well.
Ralph
Surette is a veteran journalist based in Yarmouth County.
(rsurette@herald.ca)
comment:
Have
you lost your mind?
Overwhelming
support from communities Digby and Shelburne? What you fail to mention is that
the communities that are actually faced with these sewage dumps on their
shoreline are opposed to these industrial feedlots. Please do not attempt to
speak for our communities who have provided countless petitions, signed by over
80% of our residents demanding those feedlots be removed from our bays. You
obviously either work for a fish farm or are very uninformed. As for science
showing no damage from open net, it does not exist. We have requested ANY
documentation from government to support the claim that salmon feedlots do not harm
marine ecosystems. Nothing has ever been presented. If you are talking strictly
about Nova Scotia please understand that salmon farming is in its infancy here.
How about NB? Lots of information there on the effects of open pen..are you
aware of the lobster kills in early 2000 and then again in 2010? The subsequent
charges against CEO Glen Cooke for dumping pesticides used to combat sea lice
into farms resulting is lobster kills in the thousands of pounds? He goes to
trail in September, you should catch the court case. Might learn something.
Take a drive to Shelburne on July 12 and see the presentation by a scientist
who studies the effects of open pen feedlots on the marine ecosystem. Shelburne
harbour is polluted by these feedlots. Currently also quarantined due to a
severely infectious influenza virus in the farmed fish. Need more information
watch www.salmonwars.com
and listen to testimonials from many who have lived with this industry. Stop
trying to lump every day Nova Scotians as environmentalists because we would
like a say in how our coastal water is used for industry. AND the JOBS do not
exist. These are low paying, piece work jobs. Think about the 10 thousand plus
jobs created by the lobster fishery alone. Not to mention clam harvester,
mussel farmer, sea urchin, ground fish...all these put in jeopardy by one
industry: OPEN PEN SALMON FEEDLOTS. Not one person is against economic
development, or other forms of aquaculture, but the disease ridden, pesticide
laden, shit producing salmon feedlot factories are not the saving grace of
rural NS. Please stop drinking the industry created kool-aid.
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