91% of the salmon currently raised today in BC’s fish farms is Atlantic salmon. The other 9% consists of Pacific species, chinook and coho.¹

The decision to raise Atlantics in Pacific waters largely came from the entry of Norwegian companies into the BC industry.

The report Fishy Business: The Economics of Salmon Farming In BC notes that in the late 1980s, Norwegian companies were faced with strict environmental regulations and farm size restrictions in their own country, so they decided to expand in countries where regulations were less strict (i.e. Canada, Chile). Atlantic salmon was the farm species of choice in Norway, and for decades they had invested in developing markets for this product. As a result, Atlantics were adopted as part of the Norwegian influx of companies to BC.

From 1986 to 2001, the production of farmed salmon in BC increased from 400 to 68,000 tonnes. This occurred through increased production on existing sites, and despite the moratorium that prevented expansion of the industry by the addition of new farm sites from 1995 to 2002.²

Escapes
Between 1987 and 2002, Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s own Atlantic Salmon Watch program reported that over 1.4 million farmed salmon had escaped into BC waters. The Salmon Aquaculture Dialogue Report on Escapes notes that this number could be much higher as the escape data reported by government is based solely on figures provided by the industry and information on low-level leakage from freshwater hatcheries is poor.³

In comparison to recorded escape levels in Scotland and Norway, BC’s reported escapes are very low and they do not account for “leakage”, which the industry states can be anywhere from 1-5% of annual production. Leakage occurs through small holes in the net, or when net sizes change and the smaller fish called “non-performers” can slip through the larger mesh.

If we assume that 3% of production is leaked this translates into an additional 350,000 fish per year escaping into BC's marine environment.

The escape of farmed Pacific and Atlantic salmon into wild salmon habitat poses a serious threat to indigenous wild Pacific salmon. Escapes have the potential to out-compete wild salmon for habitat and food and transfer disease and pathogens to wild salmon.

Escaped farmed salmon have been found in more than 80 rivers in BC with feral juvenile Atlantic salmon having been discovered at three locations.⁴ The WWF Salmon Aquaculture Dialogue Report on Escapes also found that escaped farmed salmon “are usually recorded within 500 km of the escape site, but have been recorded up to 2,000 – 4,500 km from the escape/release site.” ⁵

BC’s Ministry of Agriculture and Lands, the agency responsible for tracking industry reported farmed salmon escapes, reported that in 2005, only 64 salmon escaped from BC salmon farms while 70,400 tonnes of salmon was produced for market. MAL also states that in 2006, the industry reported 19,000 fish escapes during the production of 78,000 tonnes of farmed salmon.

The fact is that escape numbers are much higher in other salmon farming regions, regions where government agencies do not rely on industry self-reporting.

In Norway and Scotland, farmed salmon escape ratios average about one escape per every 300 fish in production. In BC, that number is one escape per every 122,832 fish in production based on the reported escapes from 2004-2006. The majority (90%) of BC salmon farms are operated by the same multinational corporations that operate in Norway and Scotland and use the same open net-cage technology. The only apparent difference is the lack of government monitoring in BC.

The number of farmed salmon escapes is increasing globally. Despite the cost of escapes to industry, Norway and Scotland reported increased escapees per unit of production over the past five years.

Raising farmed salmon in closed systems would reduce the risk of escapes. Find out more about closed system aquaculture.

Learn More
Volpe, J. (2001). Super Un-Natural. David Suzuki Foundation. (pdf)

Eva B. Thorstad, Ian A. Fleming, Philip McGinnity, Doris Soto, Vidar Wennevik & Fred Whoriskey (January 2008). Incidence and Impacts of Escaped Farmed Atlantic Salmon in Nature, Technical Report to the Salmon Aquaculture Dialogue. World Wildlife Federation. (pdf)

Michael Price and Alexandra Morton (2008). Discovery Islands Interim Sea Lice Monitoring Report. This report documents significantly higher lice levels on juvenile chum, pink, and sockeye salmon near salmon farms in the Discovery Islands.

References
¹ BC Seafood Industry Year in Review (2006) BC Ministry of Agriculture and Lands.(pdf)
² Marshall, D. (2003) Fishy Business: The Economics of Salmon Farming in BC. The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, p.8.
³ Eva B. Thorstad, Ian A. Fleming, Philip McGinnity, Doris Soto, Vidar Wennevik & Fred Whoriskey (January 2008). Incidence and Impacts of Escaped Farmed Atlantic Salmon in Nature, Technical Report to the Salmon Aquaculture Dialogue. World Wildlife Federation, p.5. (pdf)
⁴ Volpe, J.P., Taylor, E.B., Rimmer, D.W. & Glickman, B.W. (2000). Evidence of natural reproduction of aquaculture-escaped Atlantic salmon in a coastal British Columbia river. Conservation Biology 14: 899-903.
⁵ Eva B. Thorstad, Ian A. Fleming, Philip McGinnity, Doris Soto, Vidar Wennevik & Fred Whoriskey (January 2008). Incidence and Impacts of Escaped Farmed Atlantic Salmon in Nature, Technical Report to the Salmon Aquaculture Dialogue. World Wildlife Federation, p.7. (pdf)

Atlantic Salmon Watch Program. Jointly managed by Fisheries and Oceans Canada and B.C. Fisheries.