Background

For years, CAAR has been working diligently to the removal of all open net-cage salmon farms from coastal BC waters and a transition to closed containment technology. With both the provincial and federal governments denying the overwhelming weight of scientific evidence, it’s an ongoing and uphill battle to bring about positive change. Meanwhile, BC’s wild juvenile salmon continue to fall victim to the plague of sea-lice breeding in the net-cage salmon farms.

Something had to be done. CAAR was applying pressure to the companies to implement emergency interim measures to bring some relief to at least some of the out-migrating wild salmon.

In the spring of 2008, Marine Harvest tabled a proposal. Their plan would create alternating “fallow” routes, emptying farms along one of two key migratory corridors during the out-migration period and ensuring farms on the second route contained only sub-adult fish, which studies show have very low lice levels.

Though the initial draft plan had many shortcomings, CAAR decided there was enough potential to negotiate enhanced commitments from the company. The resulting agreement - CAMP or the Coordinated Area Management Plan - was ultimately agreed to by both CAAR and Marine Harvest in June, 2008, and the implementation planning began.

In CAMP, Marine Harvest agrees to empty all farms on the northern out-migration route of Tribune Channel and Fife Sound in odd years (2009, 2011 etc). Farms on the southern migration route of Knight Inlet would contain only sub-adult fish during the spring out-migration of wild salmon.

In even years (2010, 2012 etc), the farms on Tribune/Fife would contain sub-adult fish and the Knight Inlet route would be fallowed.

To accomplish this while maintaining current production levels (a bottom-line for the company), Marine Harvest required amendments to their licenses to give them the flexibility to implement the plan. CAAR and Marine Harvest negotiated an overall cap in total production for the Broughton region to ensure that there is no increase in the number farmed salmon being raised in this beleaguered region. In addition to this production cap, the site-based increases in licensed production are limited to the CAMP’s projected duration of six years.

CAAR’s ultimate goal remains the removal of all open-net cage farms and an industry-wide transition to closed containment in BC. To that end, CAMP also contains a commitment by Marine Harvest Canada to join CAAR in calling on the provincial government to invest in the range of $10 million dollars in the development of commercial-scale closed containment projects. Both parties also agreed to encourage a significant investment in closed containment from the federal government. Marine Harvest Canada has followed through on the initial stage of this commitment, writing to both the Province in support of the fund and meeting with CAAR and the Minister of Agriculture and Lands to urge action.

By early March of 2009, as the first young wild salmon began emerging from their natal streams, the Marine Harvest Canada farms along the Tribune-Fife corridor were harvested out and emptied of fish. Only the farm at Wicklow Point at the far western end of Fife Sound is still stocked as the company could not obtain the necessary license amendments to move the fish to the Knight Inlet route this year. Mainstream’s Burdwood Islands farm, in the heart of the channel, was also empty during the first two months of the wild salmon out-migration. Mainstream’s Sir Edmund Bay farm, to the north of the fallow route on Penphrase Passage, remains fully stocked. Given scientific research indicating the area of impact of lice from a farm can extend to 30km beyond the tenure boundary, it is possible prevailing currents could carry lice from this Mainstream farm into the Tribune/Fife fallow corridor. In fact, the field team began to see elevated lice levels in this region.

Nonetheless, for the first time since 2003, the Broughton’s wild juvenile salmon had one virtually clear pathway to the open ocean during their earliest and most vulnerable marine stage, and weren’t running a gauntlet of heavily lice-infected waters.