The Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance (CAIA) is a national industry association, headquartered in Ottawa that represents Canadian aquaculture operators, feed companies and suppliers, as well as provincial finfish and shellfish aquaculture associations.

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Government of Canada Pushing Boat Out on Canadian Seafood Marketing

News release

June 21, 2010

Minister Gail Shea (DFO), Minister Gerry Ritz (AAFC) and Stephen Stewart (Confederation Cove Mussels Inc.), who represented CAIA, celebrate the investment announcement in PEI.

CHARLOTTETOWN, PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND--(Marketwire - June 19, 2010) - The Government of Canada is investing in marketing focused on boosting international sales for Canadian seafood producers. Agriculture and Agri-Food Minister Gerry Ritz and Fisheries and Oceans Minister Gail Shea today announced an investment of over $1 million for the Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance (CAIA) to promote the high quality and diversity of their products globally.

"We know we have the best seafood in the world," said Minister Ritz. "This investment will help drive that message in the global marketplace and put more of Canada's great seafood products on kitchen tables around the world."

"Canada's seafood producers and processors depend on exports," said Minister Shea, Member of Parliament (Egmont). "International trade creates more than just revenues for the sector, it creates industry stability, jobs and prosperity for all Canadians."

New promotional activities will feature the high quality and safety of Canadian salmon, mussels and sablefish to increase international sales. The marketing initiatives include a salmon public relations campaign, an in-store tasting program for farmed mussels, an industry-wide promotional tour for mussels and outgoing missions of industry representatives.

"Today's announcement is great news for the growth of the Canadian aquaculture industry. With this funding, our industry members can continue to deliver the powerful message to international markets: that Canada is a world leader in the environmentally sustainable production of high quality farmed seafood products," said CAIA Executive Director Ruth Salmon.

This $1.2 million investment is provided through the AgriMarketing program, which helps producers and processors to increase exports of Canada's safe, high-quality products around the world. The program provides funding to implement long-term international strategies which include activities such as international market development, consumer awareness and branding and industry-to-industry trade advocacy.

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This science is fishy

Financial Post

June 18, 2010

Terence Corcoran

There's a national science battle underway over salmon. It is a battle over the fate of one part of the salmon industry, salmon farms, and the work of activists who claim to have scientific evidence that fish farms are killing wild salmon and are a threat to the very existence of wild salmon, ocean fisheries and ecosystems.

The science conflict, steeped in politics and green activism, has been raging for the better part of a decade. It has many facets, but it reached a climax of sorts n December, 2007, when researchers at the Centre for Mathematical Biology (CMB) at the University of Alberta published a paper that claimed sea lice from fish farms in British Columbia were contaminating wild pink salmon. In a sensational press release at the time, the University of Alberta's public relations crew declared the coming collapse of wild salmon: "Fish Farms Drive Wild Salmon Populations Toward Extinction." The release claimed the study -- headed by fisheries ecologist Martin Krkosek and including eco-activist Alexandra Morton -- proved that pink salmon populations have been rapidly declining for four years. "The scientists expect a 99% collapse in another four years or two salmon generations, if the infestations continue."

Nothing of the sort has happened. Today, officials report high levels of wild pink salmon in the areas of B.C. where a crisis supposedly loomed. The level of sea lice, a natural parasite, is also declining in both wild and farm salmon. The great salmon farming scare proved to be a false alarm. The CMB science was wrong.

Still, the extinction report lingers and dominates public opinion. The 2007 story received global coverage and the research paper, published in Science magazine, became the touchstone for anti-fish farm activists. Public opinion, revved up by junk science, NGO extremism, Hollywood stars and the David Suzuki Foundation, is now reportedly permanently and adamantly so opposed to salmon farming that no amount of counter-effort could possibly change the public mood.

Fish farming on a mass scale, using giant open-netted pens in natural waters, is a legitimate science controversy. The environmental issues are complex and a debate over the science is warranted and legitimate. Brian Riddell, a former federal fisheries official who debunked the 2007 extinction report as flawed science, nevertheless believes that fish farming may well be environmentally unjustifiable. "Five years ago, I would have been more optimistic that we can manage the impact of open-net aquaculture. I'm not sure I'm that optimistic any more," Mr. Riddell said in an inverview. Now head of the conservationist Pacific Salmon Foundation, he says the fish-farm message around the world is far from positive and, in his view, "we have more wild salmon to lose here in B.C. than they have dealt with anywhere in the world."

On the other side of the fish-farm issue is Ben Koop, Canada Research Chair in Genomics and Molecular Biology at the University of Victoria. Mr. Koop believes fish farming does have a future in B.C. and around the world. Fish farming, he said in an interview, can be managed. "If we are going to eat fish in the next 20 to 50 years, it's not going to come from the wild." Fish farms can protect and offset the damage done to wild fish by changing climates and overfishing. "That's a major issue, and that's partly why I'm at least partially supportive of aquaculture." One role of science, he said, is to minimize the impact of fish farming on wild fish stocks. Ideally, "science takes a lot of different perspectives and [then] combines and debates."

This fish farm science debate, however, never got out of the water in British Columbia. The battle was lost before science got around to working out the facts and reach conclusions. There is plenty of evidence that the sea lice extinction scare is an epic creation of junk science. Thanks in large part to the heroic persistence of Vivian Krausse, a lone self-funded B.C. researcher, there is also evidence of what looks like a trail of back-room financial and scientific manipulation that goes back almost 10 years. By Ms. Krausse's estimate, NGOs and other groups and associations supporting the anti-fish-farm effort have received $126-million in funding over the last decade from four U.S. foundations: the Pew Foundation, the Moore Foundation, the Hewitt Foundation and the Packard Foundation. The Moore foundation, for example, has provided backing to Brian Riddell's Pacific Salmong Foundation.

With all this financial backing hitched to a willingness to hype and exaggerate ill-founded science, it's no wonder the fish farm industry is under siege and the real science issues are all but lost in an avalanche of junk science.

We begin in the year 2000, when a staggering 3.1 million wild pink salmon returned to spawn in the Broughton Archipelago, a 5,000-square-kilometre area near the northern tip of Vancouver Island. Wild salmon returns are notoriously irregular. Two years later, the record 2000 return crashed to 147,000 fish in 2002. According to Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), the exceptionally high return in 2000 was roughly eight times the historical average and higher than all previous returns observed in the past 50 years -- even though fish farms were established around the archipelago 13 years earlier. There are about a dozen active fish farms in the area.

What caused the 2002 decline in wild salmon? The Centre for Mathematical Biology (CMB) at the University of Alberta, in a 2005 paper, targeted fish-farm sea lice as the culprit. In a paper titled "Transmission dynamics of parasitic sea lince from farm to wild salmon," ecological statistician Martin Krkosek and Prof. Mark Lewis, a mathematical ecologist, claimed to produce evidence that farm fish created sea-lice conditions that were "four orders of magnitude greater" than natural conditions.

But the data were skimpy and the mathematical models widely criticized. Data from only one salmon farm were sampled. One critic, Scottish aquaculture consultant Alastair McVicar, said it is "bizarre in the extreme to make conclusions on the transmission of sea lice from farm to wild salmon without including any information on the status of the farm involved at the time of the study." Wild salmon in adjacent areas were sampled, and the data was then extrapolated via mathematical models to conclude that the farmed fish were forcing sea lice onto wild salmon.

Official criticisms of the 2005 CMB went largely ignored. The federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans scientists said the sea-lice findings ran contrary to their own surveys of the same areas during the same time periods. In 2006, the CMB produced another mathematical modelling paper and the conclusion that "farm-origin sea lice induced 9%-95% mortality in several sympatric wild juvenile pink salmon and chum salmon populations."

The 95% figure jumped out in media reports, even though the spread began at 9%, effectively rendering the 95% figure meaningless. But 95% fast became part of fish-farm folklore and the growing urban myth building around fish farming. The University of Alberta press release read, "Wild Salmon Mortality Caused By Fish Farms." The release said: "Recently published research has confirmed that sea lice from fish farms kill wild salmon.... The result is the death of up to 95% of wild juvenile salmon." The Globe and Mail picked up the headline verbatim: "Sea lice killed up to 95% of salmon, team finds."

Mr. Krkosek told USA Today, "We see them before they get to the farm with no lice, and then we see them being colonized with lice at the farm." But no sea lice were actually observed. The paper was in fact based on "mathematically coupled extensive data sets" and computer-generated hypothetical data. David Groves, an industry consultant (now retired), said the 2006 CMB study "appears to result not from mathematical errors...but from oversights, omissions and inaccuracies in the biological assumptions on which the model is based." The paper also assumes that sea lice and only sea lice are responsible for the fluctuations in wild salmon stocks, an unsupportable claim. Even less valid is the idea that fish farming is a cause of wild stock fluctuations, since huge changes in year-over-year wild counts go back 50 years.

The sea-lice science scare flared to dramatic levels in 2007, when the journal Science published a third, even more alarming CMB paper, "Declining Wild Salmon Populations in Relation to Parasites from Farm Salmon." It claimed that sea lice from salmon farms put wild salmon at risk of extinction. "If [lice] outbreaks continue, then local extinction is certain, and a 99% collapse in pink salmon population abundance is expected in four salmon generations." Mr. Krkosek told BBC World News: "It means that the probability of extinction is 100% and the only question is how long it is going to take." This conclusion, however, was based on some trick methods and cheap cherry-picking of dates and data.

Brian Riddell, in a formal response published by Science, said the 100% prediction "is inconsistent with observed pink salmon returns and overstates the risks from sea lice and salmon farming." Mr. Riddell also said Krkosek et al. cherry-picked the data. "Their conclusions follow directly from their data-selection process." He said the alarmist conclusion was the result of using 2000 as the starting point--the year of the largest wild salmon count in history (see graph) and then manipulated later data.

In an interview this week, Mr. Riddell said the projected, dramatic rate of decline in wild salmon was a logical outcome of fudging the data. "If you start from an all-time record high return [2000] and you go immediately to the all-time record low return [2002] and you add two other data points [2005 and 2006]. Any mathematical model with that extreme is going to be negative."

Aside from the selective data mining and wonky models, there's the problem with fish biology. Mathematical ecology is one thing. Actual fish science is another, says Ben Koop. "Do sea lice actually affect swimming ability? It's fine to make that statement, but it's another thing to do the tests that [show] that in fact is true." Do sea lice kill wild salmon? "Around farms, you are going to have an increased number of lice at various points. It's controllable, yes. But it's going to alter the natural scheme. Does that translate into dead natural stocks? That's a leap that has not been proven."

So the sea-lice scare is, essentially, a mathematical fabrication. It is inconsistent with the reality of the data and the science of sea lice. While supposedly heading to extinction, the fact is that wild salmon returns bounced back to an above-average 906,284 in 2009.

But none of this seems to matter. The activists' strategy worked. Real science was hijacked by junk science, leaving an industry and all Canadians as victims.

- For a comprehensive record of science and other documents related to the B.C. fish farm industry, along with the lively opinions of independent researcher Vivian Krause, visit www.fair-questions.com

Salmon farm battle about competition

Financial Post

June 17, 2010

Kevin Libin

Last month, 1,000 British Columbians showed up on Government Street in Victoria for a protest against salmon farms. Their signs read “ban fish farms.” They called them dangerous. Said they spread disease to wild salmon stocks. They’re messing with ecosystems. The fish is bad for you. They violate traditions of coastal First Nations. Their messages seemed heartfelt; their victory felt imminent.

“I’m thinking we get to keep our salmon,” Alexandra Morton, the activist biologist who led the protest, said to cheers.

She had reason to be optimistic they were winning their battle. The movement against fish farms on the Pacific coast has proved a potent one. The B.C. government has been paralyzed on the issue. In 2008 it slapped a moratorium on granting any new licenses to fish farms on the north coast, despite record demand from Europe. Last year, Ms. Morton sued the province in court arguing that oceans were a federal matter, and the province had no right to even regulate aquaculture: the province lost.

The Cohen inquiry, launched this week, will bring a microscope to the fish-farm industry on the Fraser River, where wild salmon stocks collapsed last summer. Last week, William Shatner endorsed a federal NDP push to bring more regulation to fish farms. And dozens of environmental NGOs (ENGOs) including Greenpeace and the David Suzuki Foundation are behind Ms. Morton’s efforts to restrict B.C.’s farmed salmon industry. More to the point, the environmentalists have millions of dollars to help their cause from a quiet but powerful ally: Americans.

This is not a conspiracy. The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute admits it has received “lots of private foundation money” from billion-dollar funds such as the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and the Pew Charitable Trust to help fight B.C.’s fish farms and pressure stores and restaurants to boycott their products. The foundations aren’t concealing it, either. B.C. fish farms threaten Alaska’s wild salmon industry, after all, and the coastal communities that depend on it. Nothing personal; this is business.

“The issue is not the environment. I think the issue is competition,” says Vancouver seafood industry researcher Vivian Krause. “American wild- fish interests are thwarting the [Canadian] farm-fish interests in the name of science, sustainability and conservation.”

From 2000 to 2008, U.S. foundations granted US$126-million to B.C. groups opposed to fish farming, according to tax returns Ms. Krause has compiled; the Packard foundation alone has spent more than US$75-million, through 56 organizations to convince retailers and restaurants to avoid farmed B.C. fish. Marketing efforts for so-called sustainable fish going by the name of “Seafood Choices” have moved Wal-Mart to favour “Marine Stewardship Council” certified seafood — of which Alaskan salmon comprises 95%. B.C.’s Overwaitea Food recently announced it will favour only salmon from land-based farms, not ocean pens.

The U.S.-backed groups’ “objective is not to find solutions to make this a more sustainable industry; their objective is to not have the industry,” says Ruth Salmon, Executive Director of the Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance. “The upside of the scrutiny we’ve been under is that we have an industry that’s come a long way in the last 25 years . . . but the ENGOs don’t give us any recognition for that.”

Fish farming in Canada goes back centuries, really, but when commercial aquaculture began to ramp up in recent decades, Alaska was hardest hit. Its waters are too cold for farming, so they rely on wild salmon. Prices for Alaskan wild-caught salmon collapsed in the ’80s and ’90s: the value of a harvest plunging from more than $700- million a year to $125-million in 2002. Fishing communities were devastated. In 2003, then governor Frank Murkowski announced the solution lay in finding “a new way of marketing”: branding Alaska’s fish as superior to farmed products.

Since then, the pressure on B.C.’s fish farms has been intense. Widely publicized studies from interest groups suggested farmed Pacific salmon contain higher levels of cancer causing PCBs, and campaigns to warn pregnant women to avoid it. The studies have been refuted as misleading and Health Canada advises there is no higher risk in farmed salmon than in the wild-caught variety, and that the benefits of eating either are substantial. But the myth persists.

Then came environmental scares. The latest: alarm over sea lice spreading from farms to migrating wild salmon. In tight quarters it makes sense that lice might breed more actively in fish farms, says Robert Scott McKinley, UBC’s Canada Research Chair for Aquaculture and the Environment. But there is no evidence that it’s a problem, he says, or that it’s being transferred to wild salmon. Testing the hypothesis is possible with the right research; it just hasn’t been done.

Still, the anti-fish farm movement is running with it: of all the public submissions on the Cohen commission’s website, roughly half claim it’s fish farms and their ecological impact — most mention sea lice — behind the reason just 1.2 million of an anticipat ed 10 million expected sockeye returned to the Fraser River in 2009. (Interestingly, while environmentalists publicly warned three years ago that pink salmon would be extinct by 2011, due to sea lice spreading, Brian Riddel, CEO of the Pacific Salmon Foundation, says pink salmon have in the last few years been returning in historically high levels.)

The strategies have worked: since 2002, prices for Alaskan salmon has more than tripled — something for which America’s Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations explicitly and publicly gives credit to the Packard foundation — while Ms. Krause admits that Canada’s aquaculture industry has yet to land many punches in fighting the anti-fish farmers. Their dollars, she says, can’t match those coming from the American foundations. And though the industry employs about 6,000 people in coastal towns hard hit by declines in logging and wild fishing, environmental types are more numerous. The industry, worth about $6-billion, could be twice that, she believes, if it were only given permission to grow.

Even Ms. Morton, godmother of the anti-fish farm movement, acknowledges that too many anti-fish-farm groups have been captured by American interests. She says she cut her own ties from U.S.-connected funds two years ago.

“If you become a [heavily funded] environmental organization, you will be tied back into the same roots of the tree that’s growing these big corporations, which, biologically, are causing havoc on our planet,” Ms. Morton says. “I want to be free of that whole life-support system.”

Oprah.com

June 16

Response to 'How to choose healthy, eco-friendly seafood'

http://www.oprah.com/food/How-to-Choose-Healthy-Eco-Friendly-Seafood/1

It’s great to see Oprah Magazine turning its attention to sustainable seafood. Given half the world’s seafood is now farmed, it’s also useful for readers to know that farmed shellfish – such as mussels and oysters – are a particularly sustainable choice.

We farm both in Canada. Unfortunately, steering readers away from farmed salmon with the vague criticism of being ‘environmentally irresponsible’ is misleading and will needlessly put more pressure on declining wild salmon stocks.

One reader, from a group that has made a business out of attacking our industry, has provided the same old ‘laundry list’ of allegations. As just one example, they talk about the use of antibiotics on farmed fish, yet Canadian farmed salmon commonly grow to maturity without any antibiotics, and antibiotic use on salmon farms is now far lower than that of any other agricultural animal producing industry in the world.

To get the latest facts about Canadian farmed salmon, please visit http://www.aquaculture.ca/files/species-salmon.php

Ruth Salmon
Executive Director
Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance

New England Health Advisory
June 1, 2010

Response to 'How to make healthier fish choices'

http://www.nehealthadvisory.com/2010/05/how-to-make-healthier-fish-choices/comment-page-1#comment-157

Comparing salmon farms to ‘floating pig farms’ is sensational and misleading. Far from excessive amounts of uneaten feed, as your article suggests, Canadian salmon farmers employ state-of-the art feed monitoring systems that use real-time technology – such as underwater cameras and sensors – to detect uneaten feed and adjust feed delivery to the appetite of the salmon.

The scenario of Atlantic salmon taking over rivers in the Pacific has not occurred. Did you know that in the early 1900s, about 8 million Atlantic salmon were deliberately placed into BC lakes and rivers to establish Atlantic salmon in the BC wild? The attempt failed.

Contrary to what the article would have you believe, farmed salmon commonly grow to maturity without any antibiotics. Antibiotic use on salmon farms is now far lower than that of any other agricultural animal producing industry in the world. Nor are they ‘doused’ with pesticides, which are administered sparingly through feed to control sea lice only when necessary. In BC, where much of the controversy is focuses, sea lice levels were the same – and in some cases higher – where there were no salmon farms.

Ruth Salmon
Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance

CKNW live interview, Vancouver
April 23, 2010

Ruth Salmon discusses a new economic impact report that outlines aquaculture's $2.1 billion contribution to the Canadian economy.
CAIA CKNW Ruth Salmon Interview Transcript (PDF 90KB)

Fish Farming International
April 2010

Integrated multi-trophic aquaculture is a mouthful, but it might also be one of the best models for farming multiple species with the least impact on the environment.
The future of fish farming? (PDF 5.3MB)

3-minute salmon farm tour

April 27, 2010

www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXG6DVjb4LQ

Response to CBS.com

April 23, 2010

www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/04/22/earlyshow/contributors/main6420933.shtml

Katie Lee no doubt has good intentions in her attempt to ‘demystify’ food health issues, but her farmed salmon facts need to be corrected. The omega-3 levels (DHA and EPA) in farmed Atlantic salmon are 3,650 grams per serving vs. 3,000 grams for wild salmon. Farmed salmon commonly grow to maturity without any antibiotics, and antibiotic use on salmon farms is now far lower than that of any other agricultural animal producing industry in the world. Contrary to the myth that farmed salmon are ‘dyed’, they are fed carotenoids – part of the vitamin B family – to mimic their diets in the wild. In addition to giving farmed salmon their characteristic pink/orange color, carotenoids are antioxidants that are necessary for the salmon’s health. Sea lice levels on salmon farms are strictly monitored and controlled, and a recent study found that wild salmon in an area where there were no farms had as many sea lice as wild salmon in an area where salmon farming occurs. In BC, sea lice numbers of both farmed and wild salmon have been declining over the past five years, and wild pink salmon populations are thriving. For more information, visit www.Aquaculture.ca

For immediate release

April 23, 2010

CANADA’S AQUACULTURE INDUSTRY CONTRIBUTES $2.1 BILLION TO NATIONAL ECONOMY

Ottawa, ON – Canada’s finfish and shellfish farming industry generates $2.1 billion annually for the Canadian economy, according to a new report commissioned by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

The report explores both the economic and social impacts of aquaculture in Canada, with data broken down according to major production areas.  In addition to direct activities such as hatcheries, grow-out sites and processing, the economic impact analysis factors in goods and services supplied to the industry, plus the impact of spending by aquaculture employees.

“This study is an important benchmark for our industry, particularly with heritage industries like forestry on the decline,” said Ruth Salmon, Executive Director of the Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance. “Aquaculture provides the equivalent of nearly 15,000 full time jobs across Canada, and the total number of workers employed by our industry is even higher because of seasonal peaks in activity. The average full-time income is $32,000, and most of those jobs are in rural and small coastal communities.”

Aquaculture takes place in all ten provinces and the Yukon Territory. British Columbia accounts for 50 percent of total seafood production, followed by approximately 30 percent for New Brunswick. Canada grows more than a dozen types of seafood. Atlantic, Chinook and Coho salmon, trout, Arctic char, blue mussels, oyster and clams are well established facets of the industry, whereas halibut, sturgeon, tilapia, sablefish and scallops are at various stages of development.

Based on three key indicators – GDP, employment and labour income – the table below outlines the $2.1 billion impact of Canada’s aquaculture industry in 2007, by province ($000s):

“This study recognizes the economic impact of our industry and, just as importantly, identifies the growth barriers we face as we try to create more job opportunities for Canadians,” said Salmon. “We grew more than four-fold between 1990 and 2006. That was great progress, but we’ve lost momentum over the last few years. We need to educate Canadians about our industry, which is technologically advanced, produces fresh, safe and healthy food all year-round, and has the potential to become a global competitor.”

While Canada has earned an international reputation for farming sustainable, high quality seafood, the rules governing our aquaculture industry are inconsistent from province to province. Federal aquaculture legislation would address overlapping – and often conflicting – legislation, ultimately attracting investment and creating jobs.

The report also singles out a lack of ‘social license’ as a barrier to the expansion of aquaculture –salmon farming in particular. The Canadian aquaculture industry only represents 0.2 percent of global farmed seafood production.

“Because our industry is continually improving and changing, people still see the industry the way it was 10 or 15 years ago,” she said. “It’s more sustainable, innovative and science-based than what you read about in the media. People need to realize that we don’t deplete natural resources, and we provide jobs for rural Canadians. We’ve got the world’s longest coastline, and access to a huge market south of the border. We could be a much larger player on the global stage, but Canadians need to embrace this industry.”

About the Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance The Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance (CAIA) is a national industry association, headquartered in Ottawa that represents the interests of Canadian aquaculture operators, feed companies and suppliers, as well as provincial finfish and shellfish aquaculture associations.

Website: www.Aquaculture.ca

Twitter: @CDNaquaculture  

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Globe and Mail
Letters to the Editor
April 14, 2010

Response to: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/bc-bands-seek-class-action-status-to-sue-over-fish-farm-regulation/article1533369/

The B.C. First Nations class action lawsuit directed at the provincial government won’t address the real threats to wild salmon, which include fishing, logging, development, habitat destruction and changing ocean conditions. (B.C. bands seek class-action status to sue over fish-farm regulation).

Leading the charge is Chief Bob Chamberlain, who says sea lice from fish farms are affecting wild pink salmon. Yet sea lice levels on farmed fish are tightly controlled, and the latest data shows wild pink stocks have not been ‘decimated’, as the activists like to say.

Chamberlain says ‘the arrival of farms in the area coincides with a period of decline of stocks.’ In fact, the single largest return of wild pink spawners in recorded history occurred in 2000 – more than 10 years after the start of salmon farming in BC’s Broughton Archipelago.

Closed containment is an interesting concept, and one that is being investigated by our industry. However, the current technology is not commercially viable on a large scale, and such a move would needlessly increase our carbon footprint.

He says many first nations villages must ‘rely heavily on natural resources’. That’s exactly why aquaculture is needed, and why some first nations have partnered with our industry to create jobs.

Released in 2009, the Pacific Salmon Forum acknowledged a range of impacts on wild salmon, and put the interaction between salmon farms and the marine environment into perspective. In short, the report sent a strong message that aquaculture is here to stay, and that protecting wild fish is everyone’s responsibility.

Ruth Salmon
Executive Director
Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance

Huffington Post article, 'Eco Etiquette: 5 Farmed Fish That Get The Green Light’: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jennifer-grayson/eco-etiquette-5-farmed-fi_b_519649.html#postComment

CAIA response

April 1, 2010

Jennifer Grayson makes wise recommendations in her article ‘5 Farmed Fish That Get The Green Light’. As a representative of Canada’s aquaculture industry, I agree that shellfish don’t get the attention they deserve for being excellent sustainable seafood choices. Few consumers realize the vast majority of mussels and oysters – two species that Canadian growers sell fresh to US markets – are farmed, rather than collected in the wild. Also farmed in Canadian waters, Rainbow Trout (another ‘Green Light’ choice) are delicious, sustainable and available fresh, year-round.

However, Grayson paints a misleading and outdated picture of ‘large-scale fish farming’. For instance, farmed fish commonly grow to maturity without the use of any antibiotics – which are much more prevalent in land-based animal husbandry. Also, fish convert feed into mussel much more efficiently than beef, pork or poultry. Vegetable-based proteins like soy are indeed being used in fish feed; that’s good news, since the aquaculture industry uses less wild fish oils in their feed – while still growing healthy fish that contain high levels of heart-healthy, omega-3 fatty acids. Since the ‘waste’ she refers to is rich in nutrients, fish farmers operate in well-flushed waters, and use fallowing, crop rotation and low stocking densities to limit nutrient pollution.

With a 40 million tonne seafood shortfall predicted by 2030, we’ll need such ‘large-scale fish farming’ to feed a growing global population.

Check out www.Aquaculture.ca for the latest information.

Ruth Salmon
Executive Director
Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance

Huffington Post article, '9 Surprising Fish Farming Facts’:
www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/31/9-surprising-fish-farming_n_518724.html#s77073

CAIA response

March 31, 2010

In his photo-essay, ‘9 Surprising Fish Farming Facts’, Travis Walter Donovan (an intern at the Huffington Post) correctly points out that overfishing is steadily depleting the world’s wild fish stocks. With the global population on the rise, and with many wild fisheries in decline, the United Nations predicts a seafood shortage of 40 million tonnes by 2030.

Aquaculture – the farming of shellfish, finfish and sea plants – is already providing half the world’s seafood, and will play an increasing role in taking pressure off wild stocks.

Unfortunately, Donovan’s criticisms of aquaculture are broad and don’t account for responsible practices in specific countries. As a representative of Canada’s aquaculture industry, I can tell you that our farms are strictly monitored by five government agencies and governed by an extensive framework of 73 pieces of federal and provincial legislation. In short, our sustainability guidelines are second-to-none.

Under the header ‘Pollution’, Donovan warns of excess ‘waste’. The waste he refers to is actually rich in nutrients, and is closely monitored. Farms are located in well-flushed waters, and fish farmers use fallowing (similar to land-based agriculture), crop rotation and low stocking densities to limit nutrient pollution. He also warns of unconsumed feed. Did you know that Canadian fish farmers use underwater cameras and sensors to detect uneaten feed and adjust feed delivery to the appetite of the fish? Plus, farmed fish commonly grow to maturity without any use of antibiotics, and – thanks to vaccinations – antibiotic use on fish farms is far lower than that of any other agricultural animal producing industry in the world.

When it comes to raising salmon, Canadian feed manufacturers are developing new feeds that are replacing some of the fish-based ingredients with those from sustainable sources such as vegetables – yet still provide high quality, nutritious farmed salmon. We use an average of 30 percent fish meal and oil in our feed, meaning only 0.5 lb of wild fish meal and oil are needed to grow 1 lb of farmed salmon.

Aquaculture is a globally diverse industry. If you’re buying seafood farmed in Canadian waters, rest assured you’re getting sustainable product that helps – not hinders – the world’s oceans.

Our website, www.Aquaculture.ca, is full of current information about our proud, fast-moving industry.

Ruth Salmon
Executive Director
Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance

Huffington Post article, '9 Problems Destroying Our Oceans’:

www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/29/9-problems-destroying-our_n_511937.html#s75799

CAIA response

March 31, 2010

In his photo-article, ‘9 Problems Destroying our Oceans’, Huffington Post intern Travis Walter Donovan should be commended for conveying a central – but often overlooked – point: The environmental issues affecting our oceans are numerous and complex.

The wild fishery, while widely acknowledged as being a significant drain on global fish stocks, continues to extract protein from the oceans. An age-old practice, fishing has the benefit of being widely accepted. Reforms to this industry, such as quotas, by-catch restrictions and endangered species protection, come about slowly – and often too late.

In terms of acceptance, the same goes for land-based agriculture – which leads to marine ‘dead zones’ from fertilizer runoff. Humans have been farming on land for thousands of years, so the public has little appetite for challenging this industry.

Other problems are even harder to confront, since no single industry is to blame. For instance, ocean acidification, which is caused by CO2 absorption, has a well-documented and far-reaching impact. But addressing the culprit – fossil fuel combustion around the globe – presents a daunting challenge.

In the debate surrounding seafood sustainability, special interest groups focus much of their campaign on aquaculture without putting this misunderstood industry into context. Donovan includes ‘Irresponsible Fish Farming’ in his list of ocean threats, and his use of the word ‘irresponsible’ is an important distinction.

As a representative of Canada’s aquaculture industry – which includes the farming of shellfish, finfish and sea plants – I want readers to know that our operations are strictly monitored by five government agencies: Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, Environment Canada, Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Health Canada. Our companies comply with a framework of 73 pieces of federal and provincial legislation, which set clear guidelines around everything from stocking density to nutrient build-up under net pens. Readers should also know that antibiotic use on salmon farms is far lower than that of any other agricultural animal producing industry in the world. The Canadian industry is evolving quickly, and we’re working hand-in-hand with globally respected NGOs, such as the World Wildlife Fund, to continue improving our track record of sustainability.

We’re a proud industry that grows fresh, healthy and affordable seafood all year-round. I welcome anyone who’s interested in learning more to visit www.Aquaculture.ca, or contact us directly via the website.

Ruth Salmon
Executive Director
Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance

Response to Dr. Weil's Q&A on farmed salmon:

www.drweil.com/drw/u/QAA400697/Safe-Sustainable-Farmed-Salmon.html

Posted March 24, 2010

Dr. Weil may be a famous nutritionist, but he hasn’t done his homework before scaring consumers away from farmed Atlantic salmon. Instead, he’s turned to the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program – which has a history of knocking Canadian farmed salmon – and ended up publishing a factually incorrect laundry list of tired allegations against this healthy food.

Firstly, land-based ‘closed containment’ methods of raising salmon are not feasible on a large commercial scale. Fish belong in the ocean where they swim in natural currents, not in land-based tanks, which require huge amounts of energy for water circulation. Salmon farming provides seafood that’s available fresh all year-round and is affordable for working families.

Dr. Weil questions the heart-healthy attributes of farmed salmon, yet farmed salmon offers the same Omega-3 benefits as their wild cousins. Farmed salmon is full of essential vitamins and minerals and is lower in saturated fat than other sources of protein, including chicken and pork. All the food we eat contains trace levels of contaminants, yet these contaminants are present in higher quantities in common foods like beef, eggs and butter. When it comes to growing salmon, Canada’s pristine growing conditions and food safety guidelines are second to none.

If you want information about farmed salmon – or any type of food for that matter – talk to the hard working men and women that grow it.

Posted by CAIA on behalf of Canada's salmon farming industry

Letter to NBC

from the BC Salmon Farmers Association

March 5, 2010

Bob Epstein,
Executive Producer, NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams

30 Rockefeller Plz
New York, NY 10112

cc: Geraldine Moriba Meadows,
Senior Producer, Standards and Practices

Dear Mr. Epstein

I am writing with regard to a piece that aired on March 3’s NBC Nightly News. Tom Brokaw, wrapping up his coverage on the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, reported about the challenges facing the west coast’s wild salmon stocks for a segment of Our Planet.

We agree that Pacific salmon are a marvel of nature and a key cultural symbol of the West Coast, which is why B.C. salmon farmers are so committed to environmental sustainability and the survival of wild fish stocks.

In the story, Mr. Brokaw briefly mentions that rising ocean temperature and urbanization are considered causes of the population decline – then goes on to spend the next half of the story talking about the ‘impacts’ of salmon farming on the wild stocks. It’s a story heavy on insinuation and light on fact: so we wanted to share the facts with you and insist that you begin to correct the record by amending the story online.

To say that farmed salmon are the cause of the sea lice infestations is simply wrong. To allude to the idea that sea lice is causing the decline in wild salmon stocks is also untrue.

For the first year of their life, all farmed salmon are raised in freshwater hatcheries on land. When the fish are placed in ocean pens they are lice free. Since sea lice are a naturally occurring marine parasite, they are originally found on wild salmon, herring, sticklebacks and other marine life. The transmission of such lice actually occurs from wild salmon to farmed salmon, not the inverse as your report suggests.

B.C. salmon farms follow strict regulations regarding sea lice infestations – monitoring regularly year round but particularly during the spring out-migration of young wild salmon. If sea lice in farms reach a level of three per fish, all are treated by a medication prescribed by a veterinarian.  It is the most stringent level of sea lice regulation found in the world.

Testing has shown time and again no difference in the concentration of sea lice on wild salmon in regions with salmon farms and those without in B.C. (references below). Other research shows that Pacific salmon, by the time they’re migrating, are in fact large enough that they are no longer susceptible to the parasite.

Despite dire predictions by critics, returning pink salmon stocks last year in areas around fish farms reached historic highs – and over 50 years of data collected by the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans shows that some of the highest returns in history have come within the 20 years that salmon farming has been occurring. The federal government is very clear in its research: that it is not sea lice that are killing juvenile salmon and fish farming cannot be blamed for low returns. Your report fails to note this clear, independent and demonstrable science. For more on the results of this research visit www.dfo-mpo-gc.ca, the Facts About Sea Lice.

Salmon are a key part of B.C.’s economic and cultural history, making this topic a passionate one. The spread of unverified allegations like this does little to find the real causes and solutions for the wild salmon decline. The Fraser River Sockeye Inquiry, which is beginning this spring, will hopefully help.

B.C. Salmon Farmers care about the environment and have developed a sustainable industry that we believe will help alleviate the pressure on challenged wild stocks by providing a renewable, local food source to meet a growing global demand.

Thank-you for your attention to this matter,

Mary Ellen Walling
Executive Director
BC Salmon Farmers Association
(250) 286-1636

Beamish, R.J. et al, “Exceptional marine survival of pink salmon…” (2006) ICES Journal of Marine Science, 63: 1326-1337.

Nagasawa, K. “Annual changes in the population size of the salmon louse,” (2001) Hydrobiologia, 453.

Trudel, M., et al, “Infestations of Motile Salmon Lice on Pacific Salmon,” (2007),  American Fisheries Society Symposium 57.

The politics of farmed salmon

Globe and Mail

Letter to the Editor

Published February 20, 2010

Using the Canada versus Norway men’s hockey game as a hook to criticize Norwegian investment in B.C.’s salmon farming industry was a clever tactic by a well-oiled activist campaign (Fast To Protest Norwegian-Owned Salmon Farms Ends – Feb. 17).

But scaring off foreign investment in B.C. would hurt the provincial economy, remove a healthy protein choice for consumers, and increase pressure on wild salmon stocks.

Norway is Canada’s eighth-largest trading partner. We import more than $6-billion of Norwegian goods every year; our exports to Norway are worth nearly $3-billion.

Every year, B.C. grows 18 million salmon, an affordable source of heart-healthy protein available fresh year-round that – best of all – doesn’t deplete wild salmon stocks.

Ruth Salmon, executive director, Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance

Eat Smart Age Smart

CAIA reader response

Published February 16, 2010

I appreciate your effort to help readers eat healthy food. But, as a representative of Canada’s farmed salmon industry, I must correct your most serious inaccuracies about farmed salmon. For instance, Vitamin D levels in farmed salmon are comparable to those in wild salmon. The levels of PCBs and dioxins in our farmed salmon are lower than in other commonly eaten foods such as beef, chicken, pork, eggs, and butter. Only about 9 percent of the PCBs and dioxins in our food supply come from seafood; more than 90 percent comes from meats, vegetables, and dairy products. Advising readers to limit farmed salmon consumption to once every five months is ridiculous, given the American Heart Association recommends eating oily fish at least twice a week – and doesn’t make a distinction between farmed or wild fish. Farmed salmon commonly grow to maturity without any antibiotics, and the use of antibiotics on salmon farms is far lower than that of any other agricultural animal producing industry in the world. And, readers should know that much of Alaska’s “wild-caught” salmon are ranched – meaning they are initially raised in hatcheries like farmed salmon. Overall, I’m proud to say that Canada’s farmed salmon is safe, nutritious, environmentally smart, and delicious. Plus it’s affordable and available fresh, year-round.

Ottawa Citizen
Letter to the Editor

Submitted February 12, 2010

Re: Fishing for Answers, February 11

I have both kudos and criticisms regarding your recent story on sustainable seafood. As a representative of Canada’s aquaculture industry, I commend the Ottawa Citizen – and retailers you reference, such as Loblaws – for making an effort to help consumers make smart seafood decisions. You correctly acknowledge that many farmed products, including shellfish and Arctic char, are smart choices, and wisely question the sustainability of wild salmon because of reduced Fraser River wild sockeye stocks.

However, you need to have all the facts before making recommendations on what to eat and what to avoid. For instance, the article says farmed salmon ‘damage the natural habitats surrounding the open ocean pens, and can give the wild species sea lice.’ Approvals for salmon farms are subject to environmental review according to both federal and provincial legislation, including the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, and salmon farms can only be sited in areas where water currents provide optimal conditions for fish health and environmental sustainability. Sea lice levels on salmon farms are strictly monitored and controlled, and a recent study found that wild salmon in an area where there were no farms had as many sea lice as wild salmon in an area where salmon farming occurs. Moreover, sea lice and wild salmon have been coexisting for millions of years – long before salmon farming began.

Ruth Salmon
Executive Director
Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance

US retailer’s move away from farmed salmon won’t benefit consumers or the planet

January 27, 2010

As recent news stories indicate, a US retailer is moving away from selling farmed salmon. Unfortunately, this wrong-headed decision will not result in healthier product choices for consumers, who have a right to know that Canada’s proud salmon farming industry abides by some of the strictest environmental and food safety standards in the world.

Our farmed salmon is rich in vitamins and minerals, low in saturated fats, and one of the best sources of heart-healthy Omega-3 fatty acids. The American Heart Association and Health Canada both advise eating two servings of fish every week – either wild or farmed – and a Harvard study revealed that even modest consumption of farmed salmon could reduce the risk of death from coronary heart disease by 36 percent.

When it comes to the health of our oceans, the retailer’s decision will not have a positive environmental impact. According to the United Nations, global demand for seafood is forecast to grow 50 percent by 2030, and aquaculture production must double to keep pace with that demand. Grown in pristine waters and available fresh year-round, our farmed salmon is an affordable, high quality protein that takes pressure off over-fished wild stocks.

The facts are clear: farmed salmon makes sense for your health, pocket-book, and our planet.

Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance

Ruth Salmon, Executive Director

KARE 11.com, Minnesota

Submitted January 12, 2010

Attn: Jeff Olson, reporter,

I read with interest your article titled "So called 'superfoods' a must for getting fit" on Kare 11.com

You are absolutely right to include salmon as one of the 'superfoods' for women. The benefits of omega-3 fatty acids have been thoroughly documented, and include protection from stroke, heart attack and Alzheimer's Disease.

Unfortunately, you are incorrect when you report:  "The American Heart Association (AHA) recommends two servings a week of wild rather than farm-raised salmon." While it's true the AHA is a strong advocate of eating fish, they do not recommend eating wild over farmed fish.

The following statement - posted on the AHA website - is clear: "The American Heart Association recommends eating fish at least twice a week, especially species high in omega-3 fatty acid such as salmon, mackerel, herring and trout, regardless of whether they are wild or farmed."

Farmed salmon is affordable, nutrition, heart-healthy protein that helps take the pressure off wild stocks.

More information on Canadian farmed salmon is available here:

www.aquaculture.ca/files/species-salmon.php.

Sincerely, 

Ruth Salmon

Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance

Ruth Salmon, Executive Director

Bus Phone: 250-951-9866

Cell Phone: 250-701-1431

email: ruth.salmon@aquaculture.ca

CNN.com Health

Submitted January 11, 2010

RE: Is farm-raised salmon as healthy as wild?

In responding to a reader’s concerns about the health attributes of eating farmed vs. wild salmon, Dr. Melina correctly points out the American Heart Association recommends eating oily fish (such as salmon) at least twice a week.

Unfortunately, Dr. Melina quotes the Environmental Working Group, which sensationally alleges farmed salmon are "polluted with toxic PCB chemicals, awash in excrement flushed out to sea and infused with antibiotics.” While trace amounts of PCBs are present in the most common foods we eat, the good news is that PCB levels in both wild and farmed salmon are well below the 2,000 parts per billion safety threshold set by both the US Food and Drug Administration and Canadian Food Inspection Agency. To put the issue into perspective, PCB levels in beef are about eight times higher. Salmon farms can only be sited in areas where water currents provide optimal conditions for fish health and environmental sustainability. Salmon smolts (babies) are often individually vaccinated, which greatly reduces the incidence of disease in the net pens – and results in a reduced use of antibiotics.  In fact, farmed salmon commonly grow to maturity without any use of antibiotics during their lives. Antibiotic use on salmon farms is now far lower than that of any other agricultural animal producing industry in the world.

Misguided opposition to farmed salmon will sadly scare people away from this healthy, affordable and delicious protein that helps take the pressure off our depleted oceans.

Ruth Salmon
Executive Director
Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance
www.Aquaculture.ca

Read the BC Salmon Farmers Association response

Read the National Fisheries Institute response

Huffington Post

Reader response

Posted January 8, 2010

Andrew Knowlton, aka BA Foodist, is correct in pointing out farmed fish is the way of the future. However, spreading fear about 'levels of toxic chemicals' will needlessly scare people away from a sustainable source of heart-healthy protein. As a representative of Canadian salmon farmers, I can assure you the Canadian Food Inspection Agency regularly monitors farmed salmon to ensure the fish we export are safe to eat. Health professionals recommend the consumption of oily fish like salmon at least twice a week.

Ruth Salmon
Executive Director
Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance
www.Aquaculture.ca