Mark Hume

Vancouver, BC — Globe and Mail update Published on Tuesday, Mar. 02, 2010 4:52PM EST Last updated on Tuesday, Mar. 02, 2010 8:36PM EST


Ten environmental organizations have written to Fisheries Minister Gail Shea urging the federal government “to implement emergency measures” to protect wild salmon from the negative impacts of salmon farms.

The letter says new regulations the government are drafting to protect wild salmon will not come into effect until next fall, while the biggest risk to stocks is in the spring, when juvenile fish migrate out of rivers and swim past salmon farms.

There have long been concerns that sea lice spread from farmed salmon to young, wild fish as they migrate past the pens.

The groups say five farms that lie along a constricted portion of Georgia Strait should be required to harvest all their salmon, to remove the threat of sea lice infestation.

“This emergency risk management measure will reduce the pressure of sea-lice transfer in at least one passage through the northern Georgia Strait on this year's juvenile Fraser River salmon making their way to the open ocean,” states the letter.

Letter to Fisheries Minister Gail Shea

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The groups also call on the government to establish a wild salmon monitoring program in the Discovery Islands region, to determine what impact sea lice from farms are having on migrating salmon.

The groups say “the emergency measures set out in this letter are the minimum actions that are required to protect the most threatened wild salmon stocks through the 2010 migratory period.”

Among the signatories to the March 1 letter are the David Suzuki Foundation, Georgia Straight Alliance, Living Oceans Society, Outdoor Recreation Council of BC, the Wilderness Tourism Association and the Raincoast Conservation Foundation.