Fish Farm Industry Poised for Massive Expansion

The fish farming industry is awaiting approval of five applications to expand existing farms in the Discovery Island area of the northern Georgia Strait, as well as two new farm applications for that area and one at Texada Island. Given that the marine environment and especially wild salmon are suffering negative impacts at current levels of production, expanding the industry would be ecologically disastrous, not to mention the impact on other industries such as commercial and recreational fisheries, and tourism.

Emerging evidence suggests that not only are pink and chum salmon susceptible to sea lice infection from fish farms, but so are juvenile herring and sockeye salmon, potentially including Fraser River sockeye.

These expansions are being discussed behind closed doors, and the public has not been consulted. In fact, two of the expansion applications in Frederick Arm, shown on the expansion map, were approved in April 2008, without consulting or even informing the public.

Please make your voice heard on this important issue.

Learn more:

• Read the Press Release
• Read the Media Backgrounder
• Map of proposed expansion of Salmon Farm tenures in northern Strait of Georgia/Discovery Islands
• Map of proposed expansion of Salmon Farm tenures in the Broughton Archipelago
• Fish Farms in the Strait