by Ray Grigg l Shades of Green
The source of the infectious salmon anemia virus (ISAv) now being
found in BC's wild salmon is almost certainly from imported Atlantic
salmon eggs, the international trade that has provided coastal salmon
farms with most of their stock. The salmon farming industry, of course,
is still denying that ISAv is here, although evidence given at the Cohen
Commission's extraordinary three days of hearings on December 15th,
16th and 19th essentially obliterates that defence.
Of four labs testing for ISAv in wild fish samples, the only one
seemingly unable to find it is the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's
facility in Moncton, New Brunswick, a lab whose detection capability is
known by experts to be notoriously insensitive and inconsistent ‹ an
inaccuracy compounded by attempting to use degraded tissue samples.
Research tests by a reputable lab in 2004 found 100 percent infection
in Cultus Lake sockeye ‹ inexplicably never pursued by federal agencies
responsible for the health of wild salmon. Testimony from Dr. Kristi
Miller showing genomic markers in archaic samples of BC wild salmon
indicates that ISAv has been here since 1986.
Documents presented at the Cohen Commission suggest that the
arrival of ISAv coincides with the early importation of Atlantic salmon
eggs to West Coast salmon farms. Supporting this connection is a
recorded litany of warnings from experts in BC's Ministry of Environment
(MOE) and the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), all
alarmed about the inherent danger of importing exotic diseases to the
West Coast ecology through Atlantic salmon eggs. This evidence is worth
noting.
€ 1982: representatives of Canada's government meet with Norwegian and
Canadian business interests to consider "alternative approaches to
inspection and certification of salmon culture facilities" for the
importation of Atlantic salmon material from Norway.
€ 1984: Canada's DFO approves limited importation of Atlantic salmon material, an event that is not announced publicly.
€ 1985: 300,000 eggs are imported, subject to a "Draft Importation of
Salmonids Policy" requiring a 12 month quarantine. But Dave Narver of
MOE expresses concern to his Assistant Deputy Minister about the policy.
"I am getting increasingly anxious about our importing of Atlantic
eggs," he writes. "My concern is shared by many of my colleagues in both
provincial and federal agencies. The fish health measures agreed to
jointly by DFO and ourselves in the fall of 1984 are not foolproof. They
are based on statistical sampling, so we are taking a risk when it
comes to the introductions of virus. That means a risk to the nearly
one-billion-dollar wild salmonid fisheries of British Columbia." An
additional 130,000 Atlantic salmon eggs are imported from Scotland.
€1986: Narver reiterates his concerns to Pacific Aqua Foods about an
unsigned and non-public policy. "We are deeply concerned with the fact
that the risk of exotic diseases is dependent on both the number of
imports and their size. Government has made a commitment to support
aquaculture, but surely not at the risk of a nearly $1 billion resource
in the wild salmon fisheries of British Columbia. The direction the
aquaculture industry wants us to go will insure that we import unwanted
diseases that can impact on government hatcheries and wild stocks."
Narver sends a similar letter of concern to Stolt Sea Farm Canada Inc.
"To start with a general comment, I am disappointed with what appears to
be the prevailing attitude of a number of companies, that fish health
regulations to protect wild stocks are great, but if we continue the way
the aquaculture industry seems to dictate, we can expect to introduce
new diseases." 1,144,000 eggs are imported from Scotland.
€ 1987: Federal-Provincial Policy for the Importation of Live Salmonids
is signed, but quarantine time is reduced to 4 months to reduce the
industry's cost of dealing with waste water. Pat Chamut of DFO expresses
a trade concern. "If challenged in court over denial of any imports,
what is the legal likelihood we would be successful in denying imports?"
1,281,000 eggs are imported from Scotland and Washington State.
€ 1990: Salmon farmers in the US claim Canada's import restrictions are a
trade barrier. Chamut reiterates his concerns to the Policy Division of
Pacific Rim and Trade. "Continued large-scale introductions from areas
of the world including Washington State, Scotland, Norway and even
eastern Canada would eventually result in the introduction of exotic
disease agents of which the potential impact on both
cultured and wild salmonids in BC could be both biologically damaging to
the resource and economically devastating to its user groups."
€ 1991: Numerous warnings are written by DFO and MOE officials, all
concerning the dangers of importing diseases from foreign salmon eggs ‹ a
danger compounded by trade agreements allowing the salmon farming
industry to import larger numbers of eggs. Narver's letter from MOE to
DFO is typical for 1991. "The proposed revisions not only open the
window indefinitely but essentially allow for unlimited numbers of eggs.
I know your Department argues that this has to done to avoid a Free
Trade ruling." Subsequent to these warnings comes a 1991 letter from BC
Packers' Director of Aquaculture to DFO. "As we have no other
disease-free source available [other than Iceland] anywhere in the
world, I am requesting that you reconsider your position, particularly
in the light of the expected change in the DFO regulations." Regulations
are duly relaxed and from 1991 to 2010 at least 23 million eggs are
imported into BC waters, mostly from sources other than Iceland.
This evidence from the Cohen Commission confirms that international
sources of eggs were known to be rife with disease and that the
aquaculture industry was perfectly willing to import these eggs, despite
known risks and repeated warnings. Given trade agreements and the
political leverage of the salmon farming industry to reduce
precautionary regulations ‹ the direction it "seems to dictate", in
Dave Narver's damning words ‹ the arrival of ISAv and other exotic
diseases in BC's marine ecology was inevitable.
