In his column of March 19, Telegram columnist Russell Wangersky accurately describes the desperate state of provincial wild salmon stocks.
The headlong expansion of salmon aquaculture is likely the final nail in the coffin.
The federal government, despite their lofty words about environmental protection, is aiding and abetting by permitting the transportation of juvenile aquaculture salmon to coastal salmon feedlots.
A spring 2018 report on Canadian aquaculture, in both B.C. and Atlantic Canada, by the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development stated, “We concluded that Fisheries and Oceans Canada did not adequately manage the risks associated with salmon aquaculture consistent with its mandate to protect wild fish. Although the Department had some measures to control the spread of infectious diseases and parasites to wild fish in British Columbia, it had not made sufficient progress in completing the risk assessments
for key diseases that were required to understand the effects of salmon aquaculture on wild fish. It also had not defined how it would manage aquaculture in a precautionary manner in the face of scientific uncertainty. Moreover, the Department did not adequately enforce
compliance with aquaculture regulations to protect wild fish.”
Wild salmon of the Newfoundland South Coast are threatened according to a 2010 federal analysis.
Yet this is the area where the province is promoting a massive pre-election expansion of salmon feedlots.
Muskrat Falls 2?
Owen Myers
St. John’s.
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