Friends of Clayoquot Sound: News 050201

Immediate Release - Tuesday February 1, 2005

Hidden Escape Reveals Holes in BC policy

33,000 salmon go wild on the West Coast

TOFINO, BC - In what is believed to be the single biggest escape in recent history, Norwegian multinational Grieg Seafood lost approximately 33,000 farmed Atlantic salmon in May 2004 from their Muchalet Inlet farm in Nootka Sound on the West coast of Vancouver Island. Mass escapes from Atlantic salmon farms during 2004 therefore show at least a thousand-fold increase on 2003 official figures (when only 30 farmed Atlantic salmon escapees were reported). However, despite a request by FOCS, the BC Government has still not published escape figures for 2004 and does not have a public register of all escape incidents.

Grieg Seafood reported a four-inch hole in one of their nets in May 2004 but only confirmed the escape of alien Atlantics in late November 2004. As late as January 2005, nine months after the escape, Grieg Seafood finally invited stakeholders to participate in developing an escape response strategy. Grieg Seafood estimate that ca. 300 to 500 adults have survived and may return to area rivers but thousands could be littering rivers and streams throughout Nootka Sound as well as neighbouring Clayoquot and Kyuquot Sounds.

"The timing of this is highly suspect," says Dr. John Volpe, professor at the University of Victoria's School of Environmental Studies. "There remains no trace of this escape in provincial and federal databases, even though these agencies have apparently been in receipt of this knowledge for months and have published - indeed even campaigned on escape numbers that we now know are false. Public accountability with regard to farm escapees is sorely lacking. Until a transparent, auditable system is in place the public will be kept in the dark regarding what happens on these farms. Thus government is complicit in making it impossible for seafood consumers to make an informed choice."

Don Staniford, Friends of Clayoquot Sound (FOCS) aquaculture campaigner, said:

"Grieg Seafood's belated actions are a case of shutting the cage door after the salmon have bolted. This incident is the latest in a long line of unnatural disasters. Rivers, streams and sounds across the West coast of Vancouver Island have been inundated with alien Atlantics and there is scientific evidence documenting the spawning of Atlantic salmon in Pacific waters. Mass escapes of Atlantics invaders are threatening BC's native wild Pacific salmon. How many more years before there are more farmed Atlantic salmon escapees roaming the Pacific than native wild Pacific salmon? The only solution to this problem is a transition into closed containment, and this shift is a matter of urgency."

This mass escape brings reported escapes of Atlantic salmon into the Pacific waters of British Columbia to over 400,000 since 1991. Since 1987 ca. 1.4 million farmed salmon (Chinook, Coho, Steelhead and Atlantics) have been reported escaped from their cages - ca. 250,000 Atlantic salmon alone since 1998 many into the waters of Clayoquot, Nootka and Kyuquot Sounds. Clayoquot Sound, immediately south of Nookta Sound, was designated a Biosphere Reserve by the United Nations' Environmental, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 2000. Friends of Clayoquot Sound are members of the Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform.

-30-

For more information please contact:

Don Staniford, FOCS Aquaculture Campaigner, (250) 725-4218, don@focs.ca
Dr. John Volpe, School of Environmental Studies, University of Victoria, (250) 472 4298, jpv@uvic.ca

Backgrounder:

[1] Since 1991 over 400,000 Atlantic salmon have been reported escaped in BC. Official statistics reveal that 348,060 escaped between 1991 and 2003 (this figure is incorrectly tallied, however, and should read 375,984). Figures for 2004 have not been published yet: http://www.agf.gov.bc.ca/fisheries/escape/escape_reports.htm#Summary1989-2000

Background information on escapes is provided by MAFF: http://www.agf.gov.bc.ca/fisheries/faq.htm#escape

However, the Government's "Atlantic Salmon Watch Program" is still to report on escapes in 2003 and 2004: http://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/sci/aqua/ASWP_e.htm

[2] Don Staniford is co-author of "A Stain Upon the Sea - West Coast Salmon Farming", published by Harbour Publishing (with Stephen Hume, Alexandra Morton, Betty Keller, Rosella M Leslie and Otto Langer). More details via: www.focs.ca

-30-

Contact us!

Friends of Clayoquot Sound
PO Box 489, 331 Neill St., Tofino BC V0R 2Z0
Tel: 250-725-4218 Fax: 250-725-2527
Email: info@focs.ca