Farmed fish escape leads to renewal of call for changes

Approximately 138,000 juvenile salmon were lost in late December from a fish farm off Grand Manan after high winds tore the netting on the cages. The losses occurred at two new cages at an Admiral Fish Farms site off Pumpkin Island, near White Head Island.
Following that escape, along with two other recent losses, the Atlantic Salmon Federation (ASF) renewed its call to locate salmon farms on land, to prevent the possible interbreeding of the farmed fish with wild salmon. The Atlantic Canada Fish Farmers Association, though, believes the possibility of any of the escaped fish surviving in the ocean is very slim and the risk of disease transfer is slight.
The other recent escapes include 33,000 farmed salmon from a site owned by Northern Harvest Seafarms at Long Island, Grand Manan, at the end of November. The breach occurred when a net was torn by a submerged weir stake. In October, some 13,000 salmon escaped from a farm owned by Admiral Fish Farms in Western Passage off Deer Island. That breach was the result of damage to a net caused by a seal.
As required by provincial regulation, Admiral Fish Farms and Northern Harvest reported the breaches to the provincial government. Glen Brown, president of Admiral Fish Farms, says that in order to prevent future breaches the company does not plan to place fish in this type of cage until the design issues have been resolved. "Fish containment is a top priority with our company, and we take any breaches very seriously."
Concerning the most recent loss at the Grand Manan site, Brown says that workers first noticed the breach on December 26, but strong winds prevented confirmation of the total loss until December 30. The breach occurred when a vertical rope and chain came in contact with nets for an extended period of time during high winds. Workers were prevented from being able to recapture any of the fish because of heavy winds that continued over several days, but the fish farm company believes that survival of such young fish in the wild is very unlikely.

Risk to wild salmon debated
However, Bill Taylor, president of the Atlantic Salmon Federation (ASF), says that although the salmon are small they are capable of surviving in the ocean. "Recapture efforts must be implemented to reduce the impacts of escaped farm salmon on populations of wild Atlantic salmon, which are at critically low levels throughout the Bay of Fundy and nearby Gulf of Maine," says Taylor. "The best solution to the problem of escapes, however, would be to locate salmon farms on land. It would also eliminate the spread of sea lice and disease to wild salmon."
Taylor says that the ASF is pleased that the industry is demonstrating more transparency by reporting these most recent escapes. Knowing when, where and how many fish escape will help fisheries officials address the problem.
Approximately 38,000 of the escaped fish from the Pumpkin Island site were from a hatchery in the upper Saint John River, while 100,000 were from a hatchery on Grand Manan. Although the fish are not now sexually mature, ASF and other conservation organizations are concerned that over the next two years some of them could survive to maturity and enter rivers on both the Nova Scotia and New Brunswick sides of the Bay of Fundy. A major threat is that farmed fish will interbreed with wild salmon, producing weaker genetic strains of fish that are less likely to survive in the natural environment.
The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) recently recommended that the entire Bay of Fundy and southern coast of Nova Scotia's wild salmon stocks be designated endangered under the federal Species at Risk Act. "Aquaculture was identified by COSEWIC as posing a threat to wild Atlantic salmon stocks," says Taylor. "The Atlantic Salmon Federation is urging the federal government to use the precautionary approach and not approve any new cage site operations in the Bay of Fundy or southern Nova Scotia until wild stocks of Atlantic salmon have been restored."
Pamela Parker, executive director of the Atlantic Canada Fish Farmers Association, says the industry has a zero tolerance for escapes and takes the issue very seriously. "Our members support new reporting regulations based on the industry's Code of Containment, which is also consistent with NASCO's [North American Salmon Conservation Organization] Guidelines for Containment," says Parker. "Our historical track record on containment is excellent. Fewer than 10 farmed salmon have been found in New Brunswick river systems in the past five years. We employ equipment that has been especially designed to withstand weather and environmental conditions of our area and the best husbandry practices."
She also points out that all fish are certified disease free before they are placed into the marine environment and that fish farms only stock local strains of salmon. Parker maintains that farmed salmon are domestic animals and that very few of escaped adult salmon will survive to enter salmon rivers. She says some estimates of the survival rate are as low as 1%.
According to Parker, a recent study by the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans examined 44 closed containment trials around the world for raising fish on land, including one trial in New Brunswick, and found that they all failed. "To date, no closed system has successfully grown Atlantic salmon on a commercial scale," says Parker. "We're wholeheartedly supportive of new ideas and improved technology, but at this point in time closed containment farming is not the magic solution that some make it out to be."