Submitter: Colin Commandeur

Community: Abbotsford

Date Submitted: October 25, 2023

Summary:

The strength of the 2010 sockeye return does not prove that fish farming causes no harm, just as one cold winter does not disprove global warming. Studies by Scandinavian countries have found that sea lice, disease and concentrated waste from open net-pens are harmful to wild and hatchery-raised salmon. Fish farms, unlike other factors affecting salmon, are one variable that can be controlled, and they should be removed.

Submission:

The fish farm industry would like us all to believe that 1 strong salmon return on the Fraser equates to fish farms cause no harm and this is proof. This is like saying one year With a cold winter or colder than average temperatures and global warming is just a myth. If only ecosystems were linear systems then this simple argument would hold true.



My friends dad worked to service the aqua farms around alert bay, he talked of nets that were damaged and salmon escaped. When I volunteered at Goldstream hatchery, there was people up island that found Atlantic Salmon spawning in the river.



The fish farm industry is no different than the tobacco or oil industries that fund studies and hire lobbyist to distort the truth and prolong their cash grab.



I heard that the scandanavian countries have done enough studies to conclusively have found sea lice, disease, and concentrated waste from pens are harmful to natural or hatchery fish passing and reduce their survivals. How long do we wait until it is too late for salmon runs.



Fish farms are not the only problem impacting survival of salmon, but they play a roll, a roll we as humans can control, unlike ocean temperatures where we really can’t make changes quick enough to matter.



Why not remove or limit the one variable we as humans can control and do what we can to keep natural wild or hatchery salmon in our rivers viable.



Thank-you