Fish farms in the Strait

Emergency closure of five salmon farms required to protect migrating salmon

Juvenile Sockeye salmon with sea lice. Female louse with egg strings. Photo by Jody Eriksson

Five open net-cage salmon farms must be permanently removed from a salmon migration route in the northern Georgia Strait in order to protect thousands of juvenile salmon from sea lice and other potentially fatal diseases.

Georgia Strait Alliance, with our partners at the Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform, are demanding that all fish farms be removed from Okisollo and Hoskyn Channels along the east and north of Quadra Island, the Wild Salmon Narrows. This is a necessary emergency measure to protect wild salmon, including Fraser River Sockeye, from sea lice infection from fish farms.

Take a video tour of the Wild Salmon Narrows. Visit the five active fish farms in Okisollo Channel and learn about the juvenile salmon that migrate through this area just as they begin their 2010 journey out to sea.

Learn more and take Urgent Action!

Fraser River Salmon at risk from open net fish farms?

Fraser River Salmon are at risk from myriad challenges. It appears that fish farms in the northern Georgia Strait are adding one more challenge to the list. The weight of scientific evidence is clear that salmon farms breed sea lice that kill wild juvenile pink and chum salmon, and the latest research in the northern Georgia Strait indicates that sea lice are also affecting juvenile sockeye. We know from preliminary studies and local and traditional knowledge, that Fraser River juvenile salmon migrate close by the fish farms in this area. This raises the possibility that the sea lice are impacting Fraser River Sockeye and other stocks, in addition to local salmon runs.  If this is indeed the case, the devastation of fish farms has farther reaching impacts than we had suspected. It appears that fish farms are not just a local, coastal problem. Fish farms may be adding serious pressure to the Fraser River salmon, but this is one challenge that can be removed. 

This fall, Georgia Strait Alliance and the Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform will be working with Fraser River Basin communities to help take the pressure off the wild salmon and move the fish farms out of our coastal waters and into closed containment where they belong. We are asking for support of our Provincial budget initiative of a minimum of $10 million for a Closed Containment Fund as well as a real plan for the transition of the industry to closed containment.

Read more on Fraser River Sockeye at Risk from Fish Farms. Follow these links for further information on the impacts of salmon farming and on closed containment technology.

NORTHERN GEORGIA STRAIT

• Strathcona Regional District zoning bylaw voted down at fourth reading for proposed Gunner Point fish farm in Sunderland Channel. - March 23, 2010
• Salmon Farm Companies Seek Massive Expansion of Current Open Net-Cage Production Sites - November 19, 2008
• Xwemalhkwu First Nation and Marine Harvest reach agreement to close Church House fish farm, March 31, 2007
• PanFish's Expansion Application (Hardwicke Island), and our response – December 2006
• GSA submission re: proposed sablefish farm at Brew Bay, Cortes Island - Oct. 5, 2005 (PDF)
• Xwemalhkwu (Homalco) First Nation Win Historic Court Case (with links to backgrounder and reasons for judgement) - March 3, 2005
• GSA submission re: proposed Raza Island rezoning - May 18, 2004

SOUTHERN GEORGIA STRAIT

• GSA submission regarding proposed netcage fish farm at Raven Bay, Texada Island (PDF) - Oct. 31, 2005

Fish Farms in the Strait Archives