On behalf of the thousands of Atlantic Canadian salmon farming employees and the hundreds of service companies that support them, the Atlantic Canada Fish Farmers Association cannot remain silent as two Department of Fisheries and Oceans scientists show anti-salmon farming bias by putting damaging slants on their research in the media.
Salmon farmers support strong and consistent financial support for DFO and independent science. Aquaculture will play an increasingly important role in ensuring Canadians and the world have a safe, secure, and sustainable food supply. Very few farmed Atlantic salmon have ever been detected in the Conne River. Bay d’Espoir salmon farms are 15-20 km away from the Conne estuary. It is a well-known fact that genetic material from Atlantic salmon of European origin is regularly found in wild salmon populations in Newfoundland and the Maritimes. This is likely part of the naturally occurring drift of wild salmon populations in the North Atlantic being influenced by well documented south to north warming due to climate change.
“Post smolt salmon tend to migrate rapidly past aquaculture sites. The risk of disease transmission or sea lice transmission from farmed salmon to wild salmon is low even when the natal river empties into the same open bay occupied by the salmon farm. While mature wild salmon typically return from sea to their native river to spawn, approximately 12 to 15 per cent of the returning mature salmon migrate to a different river,” says Dr.