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With the release of previously withheld information regarding the Fraser sockeye and farm salmon research, Alexandra Morton reveals why she thinks the salmon farms are the reason the sockeye runs are in decline. In her recent blog she states:
Three days ago, the lawyer for the Province of BC at the Cohen Inquiry refused to allow the fish farm disease databases to be entered as a public exhibit at the Cohen Inquiry. On Sunday night people started sending emails to Premier Christy Clark and at 2 pm on Monday the lawyer for the Province stood up and retracted their opposition and the BC salmon farm disease records became public. Finally, I can tell you why I think salmon farms have become the gatekeeper to Fraser sockeye survival.
In 1992, the salmon farms were placed on the Fraser sockeye migration route, and the Fraser sockeye went into steep decline.
But the only sockeye runs that declined were the ones that migrate through water used by salmon farms.
Exactly one sockeye salmon generation after the salmon farms were sited on their migration route, they began dying in the river in increasing numbers just before spawning and all their eggs died with them.
So many sockeye were dying that DFO tasked their scientist, Dr. Kristi Miller, to figure out how to predict how many were going to die before they opened any fisheries. Miller ran genomic profiles on the sockeye as they approached the coast and was completely surprised when her data indicated the majority of Fraser sockeye are fighting a virus weakening their immune system.
While Dr. Michael Kent was Director of the Pacific Biological Station he studied the salmon leukemia epidemic in salmon farms in the Discovery Islands. In 1990, Kent sent one of the tumours to the Smithsonian Registry of tumours (Kent and Dawe 1990). His research indicated the cause was a virus, in fact he named it Plasmacytoid Leukemia. The salmon farmers opted for a shorter name and called it marine anemia. Kent published on this disease in Cancer Journals. Most important to us Kent found it could spread to sockeye. And DFO did nothing. The salmon farms remained on the Fraser sockeye migration route.
Dr. Miller's research suggested the majority of Fraser sockeye were dying of something remarkably similar to whatever Kent found. I suspect an apparent infectious disease that causes brain tumors, similar to what was identified in salmon farms was too much for DFO. DFO has a split mandate to promote salmon farms, as well as protect wild salmon. I don't think DFO knew quite what to do. Suddenly Miller was not allowed to attend meetings. Next, the highest level of government, the Privy Council, would not allow her to speak to the press. When she attended the Cohen Inquiry she was flanked by large men in dark suites with ear pieces and still not allowed to speak to press.
In an email released at the Inquiry we saw that Miller wrote to the Provincial vet who examines the farm fish saying you don't "believe" marine anemia exists.
The DFO Fish Health Department did not want her to test farm salmon. Her funding to work on sockeye has been cut.
But despite months of enormous pressure not to speak, once on the stand she told us what she knows.
What Miller did not know came out today and this is why I think salmon farms are killing the Fraser sockeye.
Four times a year the Province of BC goes out to the salmon farms, picks up approximately five dead farm salmon and does autopsies on them. There are approximately 600,000 farm salmon/farm so this is a very small sample.
While the BCMAL vet apparently does not "believe" in marine anemia, he frequently records the symptoms of this disease in the provincial farm salmon disease database he even notes:
"In Chinook salmon, this lesion is often associated with the clinical diagnosis of "Marine anemia".
I am guessing only a handful of people have ever read this database (Exhibit #1549, 217). Miller's data suggests this disease is killing the Fraser sockeye and it is occurring frequently in farm salmon in fact according to the provincial data, it peaked at exactly when the 2009 Fraser sockeye were going to sea as smolts.
So why did we get a huge run of Fraser sockeye in 2010, and why were there enough sockeye for several commercial fisheries in 2011?
Marine anemia is a disease in farm Chinook salmon. While Kent's work demonstrated it infects Atlantic salmon, Atlantics appear less susceptible.
With the rising murmur within DFO that Dr. Kristi Miller's work pointed strongly towards marine anemia infecting the majority of Fraser sockeye, the salmon farming industry closed all its Chinook salmon farms on the Fraser sockeye migration route.
And the sockeye decline reversed itself.
I don't know how much more evidence we need. The way I see it no one wants to deal with this. I can't disregard all this evidence. Salmon farms are dangerous to wild salmon because they create a place where viruses, bacteria and parasites breed.
Premier Christy Clark could remove salmon farms from the Fraser sockeye migration route, because the Province of BC is the landlord to this industry renting them the seafloor. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
It is a huge weight off my conscience to finally be free to communicate this material. Doing something about this is up to you.
To read the entire report go to: