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A report commissioned by the BC Salmon Farmers Association says millions of juvenile salmon and eggs will be destroyed because of a federal decision to phase out fish farms in British Columbia's Discovery Islands.
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VICTORIA Premier John Horgan took a rare shot at the Justin Trudeau government on Wednesday, blasting it for a unilateral move to close 19 fish farms in the Discovery Islands on the B.C. coast.
“The federal government took action in Discovery without consulting us at all,” Horgan told reporters during his weekly media conference.
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“They told us after the fact,” he added, referring to the 18-month closure notice served by Federal Fisheries Minister Bernadette Jordan the week before Christmas.
Pink, chum and coho populations could all increase, the study found, if given the opportunity. Chinook and sockeye salmon runs were also studied, but enough data wasn’t available to assess their resilience. “(For) example, a population might be at very low abundance, but if every fish is producing four or five surviving offspring that . return to the river, then you expect that in the absence of other factors . that population will grow over time,” said Emma Atkinson, the report’s lead author and a PhD student doing research in the area. Atkinson says some challenges facing salmon health like climate change can’t be controlled at a local level, but there are other actions that would help the fish thrive.
A new study found that since the Industrial Revolution, humans have been adding a significant amount of noise pollution to oceans that is stressing marine life and disrupting their behavior.