B.C. Supreme Court Justice Bruce Cohen’s judicial inquiry report The Uncertain Future of Fraser River Sockeye, concluded that there should be no more open-cage finfish aquaculture farms approved until it can be scientifically proved that they have no negative impact on wild sockeye stocks.
It is the Salmonid Council of Newfoundland and Labrador’s (SCNL) opinion that the same should hold true for open-pen finfish farming on the Newfoundland and Labrador coast with respect to our wild Atlantic salmon. There is no need to duplicate the three year, $25-million inquiry and a three-volume 1,000 page report.
Atlantic salmon stocks have been severely impacted wherever finfish aquaculture fish farms have been introduced near migrating rivers of wild Atlantic salmon.
Outer Bay of Fundy salmon stocks, destroyed; Nova Scotia salmon stocks, destroyed; in Newfoundland, Conne River’s wild Atlantic salmon stocks have been destroyed and are now listed as being “threatened” by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada. It’s the only such river in Newfoundland — and the only river where we have finfish farming at the river mouth.
We plead with the government to stop approving any additional finfish farms in Newfoundland and Labrador’s coastal waters until the aquaculture fish farming industry can scientifically prove they have no detrimental effect on wild Atlantic salmon stocks.
Don Hutchens
president
Salmonid Council of
Newfoundland and Labrador
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Sure, salmon fishing has some ethical issues and I have often struggled with them over the 20 years I have spent fishing. But this is a case of the pot calling the kettle black. I've worked in the aquaculture industry, I've spent 10 years breeding fish commercially and I've worked the front end of the pet industry and I can safely say that the pain, mistreatment and death I've seen doled out to the fish in these industries dwarfs anything I have ever witnessed on a salmon river(though I have witnessed some idiotic behavior). Your attack on Mr. Hutchens is Ad hominen and requires no refutation