Dumped farm fish surface off Vancouver Island
Vancouver Sun

Nicholas Read
September 20, 2002

A three-kilometre-long slick of dead, rotting Atlantic salmon was discovered earlier this week by scientists researching ground fish west of Vancouver Island.

The salmon, which numbered about 250,000 and weighed more than 900 tonnes, were dumped there by a Campbell River fish farm after an algae suffocated the fish.

And that presents an unacceptable risk to the wild marine environment and the ground fishery, says the head of the Canada Groundfish Research and Conservation Society.

In a letter sent to federal Fisheries Minister Robert Thibault on Thursday, society executive director Bruce Turris said: "How could the federal government permit as much as a quarter of a million pounds of dead, exotic, possibly diseased, antibiotic-laced fish to be allowed to foul and damage important fishing grounds and habitat?

"If a trawl vessel had caught those dead Atlantics in a commercial trip, it could have contaminated the entire catch."

On Monday, Grieg Seafood B.C. Ltd. of Campbell River dumped 250,000 salmon -- about 919 tonnes -- off the coast of Nootka Sound after receiving approval to do so from Environment Canada in consultation with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

The fish, which represented 30 to 40 per cent of Grieg's stock, were killed by naturally occurring algae that suffocated them, said company environment manager Tim Davies.

He said the fish died within 24 hours and the farm's nets in Esperanza Inlet on the west coast of Vancouver Island were in danger of sinking or breaking under the weight.

Consequently, the company sought permission from the federal government for an emergency ocean dump. Normally, dead fish are taken to the Lower Mainland for rendering, said Davies, but there wasn't time.

"It took us a week to dispose of 919 tonnes at sea. That would have taken at least four weeks to do by truck, if not more.

"And all that time those dead fish were on the bottom of the nets attracting other wildlife, which could have harmed other fish and fish habitat in the area."

Turris said a society research vessel spotted a 3.2-kilometre swath of floating dead fish near Nootka Sound on Monday.

"The skipper said there were floating salmon as far as the eye could see," he said.

The vessel, which is doing a deep-water assessment survey of groundfish, said its nets also brought up 71 dead Atlantic salmon and several species of groundfish with salmon in their stomachs.

Turris said such bottom-dwelling species as long-spined thorny-headed rockfish and sable fish (also known as black cod), don't eat Pacific salmon as part of their normal diet, and that Atlantic salmon could have a deleterious effect on them.

"The point is that we don't know whether or not the discarding of such a large quantity of Atlantic salmon will foul the habitat. Those fish are clearly exotic. We don't know if they have disease. We don't know what medicines they may have been taking; what antibiotics may have been used."

Otto Langer, director of marine conservation for the David Suzuki Foundation, said the dumping sets a "bad precedent."

"Fish farmers seem to be immune to the Fisheries Act," Langer said. Under normal circumstances, the act forbids dumping of dead fish at sea.

"Raised or farmed salmon do have higher levels of contaminants in them," he added. "They're not the cleanest fish to dump in the ocean.

"We think it's a loose permit and it was rushed."

Fisheries and Oceans spokeswoman Christian Coté said a permit was issued because the situation was an emergency, and because the fish were not diseased. Therefore, she said, the department decided dumping the fish did not present an undue risk to the environment.

Turris disagrees. "It's certainly a risk we don't think the [fishing] industry should have to face especially when there are other options for disposing of fish that would minimize risk to wild resources."

He said samples of the dead salmon have been taken and will be presented to the DFO for analysis when the society's research vessel completes its research early next week.