In 2007, eight Cermaq salmon farm sites were renewed for 20 years, even though they lie within or on the boundaries of newly designated Rockfish Conservation Areas in Clayoquot Sound. These areas were established along the BC coast to protect rockfish species, which are in decline. Open net-cage salmon farms pollute the ocean and smother the ocean bottom with antibiotics, chemicals, untreated sewage (fish feces) and uneaten fish feed. They also harbour diseases and parasites and attract predators. A 2006 study found elevated levels of toxic mercury in rockfish living near salmon farms. Salmon farms and Rockfish Conservation Areas should not mix!

Mainstream's Saranac Farm

• On March 25, 2009, a humpback whale swam into the predator net at Cermaq's Mussel Rock farm through a gap in the net as it was being installed. The humpback (a threatened species) was able to escape unharmed but could have become entangled in the net and drowned.
   
• In September 2007, a net cage containing about 25,000 Atlantic salmon was ripped during harvesting at Cermaq’s Saranac Island farm. The 2007 British Columbia Marine Finfish Aquaculture Compliance report states that 19,168 Atlantic salmon escaped into Clayoquot Sound. As of October 2008, conservation officers and personnel from Ministry of Agriculture and Lands are still investigating the escape.
   
• As of March 2003, Infectious Hematopoietic Necrosis (IHN) virus had swept through at least five of Cermaq's salmon farms within Clayoquot Sound. Cermaq only started re-stocking its salmon sites in Clayoquot Sound again in early 2004, after more than a year of inactivity because of disease problems.
   
• In January 2003, Cermaq pleaded guilty in Provincial Court to 11 charges of violating the BC Fisheries Act, including massive overstocking of fish at several farms in Clayoquot Sound.
   
•  In 2002 and 2003, the BC government issued 100 non-compliance notices to Cermaq in Clayoquot Sound, including for failure to report escapes, mass mortalities, overstocking, failure to keep drug records, poor maintenance of predator nets and waste discharge.
   
• In March 2002, an outbreak of Infectious Hematopoietic Necrosis (IHN) virus -- the first time it had been detected on a salmon farm on the West coast of Vancouver Island -- was confirmed at Cermaq's Mussel Rock farm.
  


•  In January 2002, about 8,000 Atlantic salmon escaped from Cermaq’s Saranac Island farm.
   
• In September 2001, a mass fish mortality and escape occurred at Cermaq’s Bedwell Sound farm. Two hundred tonnes of dead Atlantic salmon (some 80,000 fish) were found floating in a yellow sludge in the affected net-cages.

  Cermaq’s/Mainstream Canada’s 14 salmon farm sites in Clayoquot Sound are:

  • Fortune Channel
  • In Bedwell Sound: Bare Bluff, McIntyre Lake, West Side Bedwell, East Bedwell, Rant Point
  • In Cypress Bay area: Mussel Rock, Cormorant, Saranac Island
  • In Herbert Inlet: Binns Island, Bawden Point
  • McKay Island/Ross Passage
  • Millar Channel
  • Dixon Point/Bay

Click here to see a map of salmon farm sites in BC (Large File - 1.6 MB).