Standing in Tofino, looking out at the rainforest-covered mountains, you would never know that up the inlets, trouble is brewing…
Floating open-net pen fish farms dot the inlets. These facilities spread pathogens, parasites and poop, and are pushing wild salmon to the brink of extinction.
The crowded open net pen facilities do nothing to contain tiny viral particles or salmon lice. Most farms are infected with PRV, a deadly virus from the Atlantic ocean. Because fish breath through gills, it is dead-easy for a wild salmon migrating past to become infected. Salmon farms are parasite incubators. The lice pass freely through the nets to infest baby wild salmon, which are too young to have developed protective scales. One louse can be a fatal load…
Then there’s the poop and uneaten pellets. These simply drop out the bottom, smothering any creatures living on the ocean floor. One fish farm emits salmon sewage equivalent to a city of 150,000 people! And there are 20 fish farms in the Clayoquot Sound UNESCO Biosphere Region…
Removing fish farms works!
On a good note, removing fish farms from the ocean works. Forty percent of salmon farms in BC waters have been removed since 2020, thanks to First Nations on the east coast of Vancouver Island.
And those Nations are being richly rewarded, with abundant returns of wild salmon. This has been going on since 2022, when the first Pink salmon runs not exposed to fish farms returned to their natal streams. And every cycle, they return in greater abundance!
More good news: the Canadian government has banned open-net pen salmon farms from BC waters as of July 1st, 2029. This winter, the Federal Court of Appeal upheld the Minister’s right to use the precautionary principle when making decisions, noting the dire consequences that declining wild salmon stocks could have for First Nations rights, the economy, and the social fabric of British Columbia.
Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations stopped the loggers on Meares Island in 1985. During Clayoquot Summer 1993, nearly a thousand people chose to commit civil disobedience to protect ancestral forests. It paid off—30 years later, local First Nations were able to announce with the BC government that 62% of their territories is protected from industrial logging. Now it’s time to ensure wild salmon will continue to feed these rainforests for years to come!
130 First Nations want salmon farms removed from the ocean—along with 75% of British Columbians. Washington State has banned fish farms. BC is now the only jurisdiction on the west coast of North America allowing fish farms in the ocean.
As someone who loves, visits, or lives on the west coast, you have an opportunity to take a stand for wild salmon. Take action, no matter how small. Refuse to purchase farmed salmon—always ask your server ‘is your salmon wild or farmed?’. Please take a moment to sign our petition, reminding government officials that people like you care about protecting Nature.
Dan Lewis is Executive Director of Clayoquot Action.
