With no wild salmon in river, salmon groups trade accusations

The debate over the impact of salmon farms on wild Atlantic salmon runs has again come to the fore, as for the first time in 25 years of monitoring no wild Atlantic salmon have returned from the sea this year to the Magaguadavic River fishway in St. George, leading to renewed charges by a wild salmon conservation organization about the impact of farmed salmon escapees on wild salmon runs. However, an area fish farming association, while disheartened by the lack of returns, notes that no farmed salmon breaches have been reported this year and defends the industry's practices, including its reporting requirements. The association is calling for a new approach to help the wild salmon population recover.
In 1983 the Department of Fisheries and Oceans estimated that 900 wild salmon entered the Magaguadavic River to spawn, and the Atlantic Salmon Federation (ASF) bemoans that despite a multi-year cooperative stocking program the rapid drop in the number of wild salmon could not be stopped. The ASF says the loss of wild Magaguadavic River salmon is another blow to the Outer Bay of Fundy population, which is considered endangered by an expert panel, although the federal government has yet to enact formal legal protection.
Atlantic salmon populations are affected globally by changing ocean conditions and overfishing, but the ASF says that beginning in the 1980s the Magaguadavic River was exposed to an additional threat as net‑pen salmon aquaculture developed in the Bay of Fundy, around the river mouth. Today the area has one of the highest concentrations of salmon farms in the world. As the industry grew, so did the number of escapees entering the Magaguadavic from compromised sea cages and streamside hatcheries. Every year since 1994, except 2006 and 2011, more aquaculture escapees than wild fish have been counted by the ASF at the Magaguadavic fishway.
This year is no exception. Despite industry investments in improved containment technology, 15 escapees have been removed from the trap at the top of the fishway. The most recent discovery by ASF researchers was October 3. Initial inquiries to the Atlantic Canada Fish Farmer's Association indicate no known or reported breaches, although the ASF believes the farmed fish being found recently in the fishway could be evidence of a breach at a salmon farm.
"Our experience tells us that only a small portion of escapees enter the Magaguadavic," says Jonathan Carr, ASF executive director of research and environment. For example, in 2005 when vandals released 50,000 large salmon from a Cooke Aquaculture site near Deer Island, only 30 fish matching the description arrived at the fishway in St. George. Escapees have been documented in many other Bay of Fundy rivers, including the St. John at Mactaquac, more than 150 kilometers from the nearest cage site.
According to the ASF, studies have shown that escaped aquaculture fish have interbred with wild salmon in the Magaguadavic and throughout the Bay of Fundy, resulting in a loss of local adaptation. The salmon federation says that aquaculture‑wild hybrids are less fit for survival, and the presence of escapees and hybrids among wild populations is associated with major declines.
It's not unusual for the origin of escapees in the Bay of Fundy to remain unknown, according to Carr. "In fact, 99% of the escapees we've recovered going back to 1992 are unclaimed, and in New Brunswick there is no way to determine who is responsible," he says. "This can be improved. A few miles away in Maine, escaped salmon can be traced to their site of origin through genetic testing."
A regulatory analysis commissioned last year by ASF found New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador have the weakest aquaculture regulations for the protection of wild salmon.
"The result of continued escapes from aquaculture cages into the Bay of Fundy limits the potential these rivers have for recovery of wild populations," says Bill Taylor, president of ASF. "The Magaguadavic should be a cautionary tale. Throughout North America no new open net‑pen salmon aquaculture sites should be allowed in proximity to wild salmon rivers."

Fish farmers challenge ‘hypothetical assumptions’
However, Susan Farquharson, executive director of the Atlantic Canada Fish Farmers Association (ACFFA), responds that the ASF "should be challenged for floating hypothetical assumptions as science to continually blame salmon farming for the demise of wild Atlantic salmon."
She says that the discovery of 15 fish on the river's fish trap has been discussed thoroughly by all partners in the New Brunswick Aquaculture Containment Liaison Committee, which includes the ACFFA, the ASF, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, the Department of Aquaculture, Agriculture and Fisheries, Cooke Aquaculture, Northern Harvest Sea Farms, the New Brunswick Conservation Council and the New Brunswick Salmon Council.
"Our farming companies have conducted thorough investigations in addition to their routine equipment and fish monitoring programs and have found no breaches of containment on their farms to explain the recent discoveries," Farquharson states. "To help determine the origin of the fish, farmers offered to perform genetic testing on the clips taken from these salmon, which ASF has not yet supplied. Through genetic testing, farmed salmon can be traced back to the hatchery and farm where they were raised."
She also maintains that the ASF is well aware of the industry escapee reporting requirements, both federally and provincially. "Our farmers are in fact going above and beyond that. In 2014 we changed our Code of Containment so that companies are now also voluntarily reporting suspected escapes from their farms. Confirmed escapes of over 100 are communicated by the federal regulator to several non‑government organizations, including the ASF." Farquharson says that any farmed salmon escapes are rare in New Brunswick and are largely a result of storms.
She also maintains that the regulatory analysis performed by ASF last year was written with "an anti‑aquaculture agenda, and the author's lack of experience with the subject matter was obvious to anyone with knowledge of the sector." She says that the regulations that oversee salmon farming are rigorous and are being followed. "There is more transparency in salmon farming than any other food producing sector."
Farquharson points out that wild Atlantic salmon populations are impacted by a variety of issues. "Marine survival is considered the most significant factor, and this is being compounded by climate change. Other impacts include acid rain, industrialization, seal predation, unhealthy watersheds, hydro dams, habitat loss and overfishing. To point the finger at aquaculture based on hypothetical assumptions is ridiculous and ignores the cumulative effect and realities of warming oceans and river systems."
The salmon farming industry has been working on wild salmon enhancement efforts in a number of places, including the Magaguadavic River. This week at Fundy National Park the ACFFA and many of its members celebrated the release of a record number of wild Inner Bay of Fundy salmon from a conservation farm on Grand Manan to their native river. The innovative Fundy Salmon Recovery project is seeing salmon return to the river in unprecedented numbers, according to Farquharson.
She states, "If ASF truly wants to satisfy their funders by fulfilling their mandate to recover the region's wild salmon, I suggest they focus more attention on cutting‑edge, collaborative enhancement projects rather than divisive, unsubstantiated finger pointing."