Infectious Salmon Anemia: A Ticking Time Bomb
by Ray Grigg
The Infectious Salmon Anemia virus (ISAv) is a ticking time bomb
that could explode under BC's salmon farming industry and their open
net-pens. If this industry has imported such a disease into the ecology
of the Pacific Northwest via infected Atlantic salmon material, the
results could be an ecological catastrophe.
Whatever remains of the
industry's besieged environmental reputation would be ruined, as would
any vestige of confidence in the Department of Fisheries and Oceans
(DFO). But the real and lasting damage would be to Pacific wild salmon,
together with the entire West Coast marine ecology and culture that
depends on them. ISAv could dwarf sea lice as a scourge because it would
be a persistent threat to the health of all wild salmon and herring,
once established, the disease would be intractable and permanent.
ISAv was first detected in Norwegian salmon farms in 1984. It
existed previously in Norwegian rivers as a benign infection that did
not kill salmon. However, in a change that biologists call a "stochastic
event", it mutated to become lethal, probably in fish farms "because
there is no reason for it to live lightly in fish destined for
slaughter" (alexandramorton.typepad.com/). The lethal version was then
carried with Atlantic salmon brood stock to salmon farm hatcheries where
it was distributed by the industry throughout the North Atlantic and
overseas to Canada and Chile, its arrival in Chile in 2007 nearly
decimated the country's entire salmon farming industry.
The first evidence of ISAv's arrival in Canada was in New
Brunswick salmon farms in 1996. In 1998, the Friends of Clayoquot Sound
were expressing concern about its arrival in BC. In January of 2009,
David Suzuki, Chief Bob Chamberlin, Professor Larry Dill, Alexandra
Morton and over 100 other concerned citizens wrote a letter to the
Premier of British Columbia, requesting "that B.C. immediately prohibit
the importation of live farm salmon material (all species of broodstock,
milt and eggs) to protect BC from the spread of Infectious Salmon
Anemia."
In June 2009, Alexandra Morton wrote another letter of concern. "I
am not hearing how the [salmon farming] industry can possibly safeguard
British Columbia from contamination with their ISA virus. Infectious
Salmon Anemia is a salmon virus that is spreading worldwide, wherever
there are salmon farms." She highlighted her concern with the
authoritative prediction of Professor Are Nylund, head of the Fish
Diseases Group at the University of Bergen, Norway. He warned that,
"based on 20 years of experience, I can guarantee that if British
Columbia continues to import salmon eggs from the eastern Atlantic,
infectious salmon diseases, such as ISA, will arrive in Western Canada."
The inevitable may now be the reality. At least two media outlets, The Tyee and Pacific Free Press, have reported the possibility that ISAv is in BC marine waters. The Globe & Mail
(May 03/11) reported that "there are approximately 35 indications of
the existence of ISA identified in [the Cohen Commission] records to
date" and that these records contain "information showing provincial
inspectors found signs of a disease, infectious salmon anemia, or ISA,
had been detected in British Columbia."
The salmon farming industry is certain that ISAv has not reached
the West Coast because high mortality in its pens would be an obvious
indicator. But such mortality would not occur with the
difficult-to-detect non-lethal form of ISAv (Ibid.). And DFO, in
concert with the industry's position, has repeatedly assured concerned
British Columbians that regulations are in place to prevent ISAv from
reaching the West Coast. Given DFO's overtly supportive relationship
with the salmon farming industry, however, Morton decided to "ground
truth" this assurance. She found "that at every location where they
could have caught ISAv there was a gaping hole.... except where trade
sanctions loomed, then the proper documentation surfaces" (Ibid.).
If Plan A fails, will Plan B work? Even if ISAv is brought to the
West Coast with farmed Atlantic salmon, Pacific salmon are supposed to
be immune to the disease ‹ supposed to be. But as every biologist knows,
and as ISAv has already demonstrated in Norway, such viral diseases are
mutational acrobats. Wild Pacific species would be an irresistible
opportunity that ISAv could reach simply by mutating. The result would
be an unmitigated disaster for everything from ecology to culture
associated with BC's iconic wild salmon. Morton writes that she has
found Broughton Archipelago herring with the symptomatic ISAv bleeding
around their fins but has been unable to get a laboratory to test the
samples (Ibid.).
Meanwhile, the Cohen Commission's inquiry grinds on. From August
25th to September 9th, 2011, it will examine the relationship between
disappearing Fraser River Sockeye, West Coast salmon farming and the
gauntlet of open net-pens that wild smolts have to pass on their
out-migration to the sea.
The salmon farming industry, meanwhile, has been doing its legal
best to prevent the release of privileged information it has been forced
to divulge to the Commission, arguing that this release to the public
could cause them "reputational and economic damage". The public
availability of such confidential information previously hidden from
open environmental scrutiny, it contends, would create a "media circus".
"Media circus" is the industry's term for losing control of a
public relations agenda that for decades has been construing
conspicuously damaging environmental practices as harmless. ISAv could
blast that benign image out of West Coast waters. Indeed, a whole
minefield of bombs are ticking under the industry's open net-pens.
