Submission 0071-BLAISDELL

Submitter: Jill Blaisdell

Community: La Canada

Date Submitted: June 16, 2023

Summary:

Research suggests that the transmission of the infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus from farmed salmon to wild salmon may have been a factor in the collapse of the Fraser River sockeye population. Fish farms should be removed from the ocean environment and relocated on land in order to eliminate water transmission of disease and parasites between British Columbia’s farmed and wild fish.

Submission:

Research suggests that the transmission of the infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus from farmed salmon to wild salmon is a factor in the collapse of the Fraser River sockeye population. Fish farms should be removed from the ocean environment and relocated on land in order to eliminate water transmission of disease and parasites between British Columbia’s farmed and wild fish. Change seems expensive in the short term, but a wise investment in the future.

Submission Files:

No uploaded submissions.

Comment List

Name: Eric Becherer

Date Created: June 22, 2023

Comment:

What Research?, I can find no credible evidence of the above claim, Please attach a link to the Study/paper that claims this.

Name: Sonja Saksida

Date Created: June 25, 2023

Comment:

I authored a peer-reviewed scientific publication on the IHNV outbreak that occurred on farmed Atlantic salmon in British Columbia 2001-2003 (Saksida 2006). While I have studied fish health and IHNV extensively, I am not aware of any published research linking IHNV infection on farmed fish to declines in wild populations. Furthermore, there have been no IHNV outbreaks in farmed Atlantic salmon since 2003, making IHNV infections in farmed salmon an unlikely cause for the poor returns of the Fraser River Sockeye populations in 2009. The lack of IHNV in farm fish since 2003 has been verified through the extensive fish health audit program run by the BC Ministry of Agriculture and Lands, which visits farms selected at random, testing fish every year for IHNV (see their Fish Health reports for 2003-2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 at http://www.al.gov.bc.ca/ahc/fish_health/index.htm).

Reference: Saksida S.M. 2006. Diseases of Aquatic Organisms 72(3): 213-223.