A total of 19 sites, owned by Mowi, Cermaq, Grieg Seafoods and two smaller firms, will be phased out in the region after the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) consulted with representatives from the aquaculture sector and First Nations groups who have traditional territories in the area, including the Homalco, Klahoose, K’ómoks, Kwaikah, Tla’amin, We Wai Kai (Cape Mudge) and Wei Wai Kum (Campbell River) First Nations.
Licenses for the 19 sites were scheduled to expire on Dec. 18. Of those, nine are fallow.
Fish that are currently in Discovery Island netpens will be allowed to complete their production cycle, but must be completely empty by June 30, 2022.
This Year May Decide the Fate of BC’s Wild Salmon
UPDATED: Today’s federal government decision to close Discovery Islands fish farms offers some hope for the survival of our West Coast icon.
Tyee contributing editor Andrew Nikiforuk is an award-winning journalist whose books and articles focus on epidemics, the energy industry, nature and more. SHARES A young wild salmon infected by sea lice migrating through Discovery Islands in May 2020.
Photo by Tavish Campbell. [Editor’s note: Andrew Nikiforuk filed this breaking news update on the afternoon of Dec. 17, updating this piece published early in the morning.]
Acting on the wishes of seven First Nations in the Discovery Islands DFO Minister Bernadette Jordan has not renewed fish farm licenses in the Discovery Islands but ordered the phase out of all 19 Atlantic salmon feedlots owned by Norwegian-based companies. That means juvenile salmon will not have run through a gauntlet of fish farms and
by Alexandra Morton on December 13th, 2020 at 9:18 PM 1 of 3 2 of 3
Fisheries Minister Bernadette Jordan, MP for South Shore St. Margarets, Nova Scotia, will make a decision within the next week that will decide the fate of the Fraser River sockeye salmon.
Already in 2020, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) has landed two cruel blows against this remarkable fish. Now the final decision in the trilogy hangs like an executioner’s guillotine over the fish and the future of the B.C. coast.
In 1997, one of Canada’s most prominent scientists, Jeff Hutchings of Dalhousie University, was the lead author in a paper that described the DFO decisions that led to the collapse of the North Atlantic cod.