A salmon conservation group is worried about the high number of wild fish deaths, especially herring, linked to B.C.'s open-net fish farms. (The Canadian Press)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

mass fish deaths

‘Herring are in trouble:’ conservation group worried about wild fish dying at B.C. fish farms

Dec 6, 2023 | 4:37 PM

NANAIMO — A B.C. charity working to defend and rebuild the province’s wild salmon population is sounding the alarm on the number of wild fish being killed in provincial open net-pen salmon farms.

The report released by the Watershed Watch Salmon Society (WWSS) says over 817,000 wild fish were killed in 2022, more than five times the amount in previous years, according to reports by Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

The society’s Stan Proboszcz said one company, Cermaq, was responsible for a large portion of herring deaths at their sites in the Clayoquot Sound on western Vancouver Island.

“Last year we saw an unprecedented spike in herring kills at salmon farms. Over 800,000 were killed apparently due to some new technology that the industry is using to clean parasitic lice off their own farmed fish. So hundreds of thousands of herring were caught in this machinery.”

The federal documents were accessed by the WWSS through access-to-information legislation.

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Proboszcz said fish farming companies are required to report those deaths to DFO at the end of their production cycle, which can be as long as 18 months.

He said these delays in reporting make it difficult to hold these companies accountable and work on solutions, as the federal government delayed their plan to phase out open net-pen salmon farms by 2025.

“I think this kind of highlights the urgency around getting farms out of the water. Herring are foundational species in B.C. coastal waters. They are the connection between plankton and animals that are much larger than them. They filter-feed plankton, and they’re eaten by a whole host of different species of fish, birds, and mammals.”

In June, the federal government delayed the release of their draft plan, saying more consultations would be needed.

“Herring are in trouble, yet this industry is allowed to kill hundreds of thousands of them without any fines or penalties,” said Proboszcz. “So it begets a big problem. I think the federal government needs to get on with that transition of moving the farms out of the water.”

B.C. Premier David Eby was speaking at a press conference around marine conservation in Vancouver on Wednesday, Dec. 6, where he also urged the federal government to continue with the transition.

“For the net-pen fish farms, I think it’s safe to say the social license for those that just sit in the ocean and cause the death of other fish is expired in British Columbia. We know those have to move into closed containment systems.”

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— with files from Jon De Roo, 97.3 The Eagle

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