Fw: [fishermenlist] Sea Lice Secrets
Allison Huttton
Government memos reveal fish farmers pressured
government to keep sea lice drugs secret, six years before biologist Alexandra
Morton made it public
A series of government memos reveal a heated debate in
1995 over a sea louse outbreak on a farm salmon on the Fraser sockeye migration
route (Okisollo Channel). In 1995, a salmon farm requested permission to use
hydrogen peroxide to treat an extremely heavy outbreak of sea lice on their
fish. When the Ministry of Environment, Parks and Lands (MELP) informed
the company that their drug application would have to be released to the public,
the fish farmer withdrew the request. When environmental groups found out about
the sea lice outbreak, the BC Salmon Farmers Association called for an
investigation of MELP and a guarantee that fish farmers had a right to secrecy
in the future.
Sept 6, 1995 Don Peterson of MELP writes,
“The company has withdrawn their application (for hydrogen peroxide) because
they heard there was a requirement to advertise if a pesticide was going to be
applied. I guess they were either afraid of the shareholders…or the public
finding out... the company has asked that this request be kept strictly
confidential and that all correspondence on the subject be
destroyed.”
September 28, 1995 the BC Salmon Farmers
Association criticized Minister Moe Sihota (MELP): “…government has an
obligation to maintain confidentiality… Government is further prevented from
unauthorized collection, use or disclosure of information…. puts at risk …
capital investment of private citizens and individual companies…”
However, salmon farms operate in Canada’s public waters and impact
a Canadian resource - wild fish.
On October 23 Earl Warnock
of MELP writes, “I find it unconscionable that they (fish farmers) are only
prepared to undertake measures appropriate to protect their stock health and the
environment unless they can do it in a clandestine manner.... and for them and
MAFF to ask us to operate with them in this way says something about the people
we are dealing with.”
“MAFF” = Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries
and Food, now Ministry of Agriculture and Lands (MAL).
Either the
sea lice remained on the farm fish on the Fraser sockeye migration route or they
were treated without permission from MELP.
November 03,
1995, Bryan Ludwig, MELP writes: “…we are in the difficult position of being
concerned about use of pesticides for treatment of sea lice, but also wanting to
ensure we avoid a severe outbreak for fear of transfer to wild
stocks.”
These documents reveal heroes among our MELP bureaucrats
who tried to protect our wild salmon from salmon farms. Gordon Campbell
disbanded MELP as soon as he took office in 2001, and he renamed MAFF, MAL and
gave them control of allocation of Crown Land. The fish farm industry did not
develop a sea lice action plan, the public lost their government biologist
advocates, sea lice outbreaks continue with lethal infection underway today
rates on wild juvenile salmon on the Fraser migration route (Okisollo Channel)
(photos available) and Fraser sockeye stocks migrating through Okisollo
Channel are in steep decline.
October 23, 1995 Earl Warnock
MELP: “If the truth harms their integrity perhaps they need to look at
themselves…”
If we cannot save wild salmon in British Columbia, we
do not live in a democracy.
All documents available at www.salmonaresacred.org, “Breaking
News”