As if we needed another problem for our dwindling salmon stocks to face, now this.
New viruses discovered in endangered wild Pacific salmon populations
— Read on science.ubc.ca/news/new-viruses-discovered-endangered-wild-pacific-salmon-populations
Filed under: fisheries, Puget Sound | Tagged: Puget Sound, Salmon, virus | Comments Off on New viruses discovered in endangered wild Pacific salmon populations | UBC Science – Faculty of Science at the University of British Columbia
Like mariners scanning the horizon from the crow’s nest, scientists have for years been on the lookout in the Pacific Northwest for signs that a dreaded salmon-killing disease, scourge to farmed salmon in other parts of the world, has arrived here, threatening some of the world’s richest wild salmon habitats. Most say there is no evidence. But for years, a biologist in Canada named Alexandra Morton — regarded by some as a visionary Cassandra, by others as a misguided prophet of doom — has said definitively and unquestionably that they are wrong.
Kirk Johnson reports. Scientists are divided over virus threat to Northwest salmon
http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20130505/NEWS/130509993/scientists-are-divided-over-virus-threat-to-northwest-salmon
See also: Fish farms allied with government, activists say
http://www.timescolonist.com/news/fish-farms-allied-with-government-activists-say-1.146182
and see the free hour long video on Alexandra and her work. Very damning to the BC Provincial and Canadian Government.
Filed under: Puget Sound | Tagged: canada, net pens, Puget Sound, Salmon, salmon farming, virus | Comments Off on Scientists are divided over virus threat to Northwest salmon – Various Sources
This is yet another reason why the fish farming industry cannot be trusted. Now that it has been proven that the Canadian government and farming industry has been lying to the public for a long time over whether the fish were getting infected, the answer has been to go after the testing facilities for scientifically proving what they said wasn’t happening.
A lab that revealed the first evidence of an infectious virus in British Columbia salmon should be stripped of its international credentials, according to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. In a letter to the World Organization for Animal Health, the CFIA urges the international agency to accept the findings of an independent audit that recommends “suspension of the reference laboratory status,” of the facility. Mark Hume reports.
Filed under: Puget Sound | Tagged: Puget Sound, Salmon, salmon farming, virus | Comments Off on Ottawa moves against PEI lab that reported virus in B.C. salmon – Globe and Mail
Two B.C. fish farms will cull their fish this week after receiving confirmation of a virus that can be deadly to Atlantic salmon. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has confirmed that infectious haematopoetic necrosis, or IHN, has been found in salmon at Grieg Seafood’s farm at Culloden Point on Jervis Inlet and Mainstream Canada’s farm at Millar Channel in Clayoquot Sound. Judith Lavoie reports.
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Virus+confirmed+salmon+farms+cull+fish/7063701/story.html
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: Canada, canada, fish farming, fish kill, IHN, virus | Comments Off on More BC Fish Farms found infected – Vancouver Sun
As the spread of INH virus keeps moving through BC salmon farms, the relationships that were put in place to work towards avoiding this very situation start to fray.
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A unique relationship meant to reduce conflict between environmental groups and British Columbia’s largest salmon farming company has fallen apart. The Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform and Marine Harvest Canada confirmed Saturday that the project, known as the Framework for Dialogue, is officially over.
Filed under: Salmon | Tagged: Canada, IHN, salmon farming, Threats, virus | Comments Off on Ties break down between B.C. salmon-farming firm, environmental coalition
Pacific Fishing, 25th May 2012
A virus has infected a Bainbridge Island salmon farm, forcing the owners to begin culling and destroying infected fish.
It’s the same disease – infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus, or IHNV – that caused a British Columbia salmon farm to destroy 560,000 fish last week. The fish ended up in a composting facility.
Another British Columbia salmon farm announced this week that it
had voluntarily quarantined itself because the disease was found in its stock.
Alan Cook is vice president for aquaculture at Icicle Seafoods,
which owns American Gold Seafoods, the operator of the Bainbridge Island salmon farm at Orchard Rocks.
“There is no human health implication,” he said. “The virus is
endemic. Wild fish have it. The disease came from wild fish to our fish, not the other way around.”
Cook said the path of the disease can be proved by DNA analysis.
Hugh Mitchell, a Seattle area veterinarian who specializes in fish, agrees. The disease “is endemic. It’s common. It’s part of the natural ecosystem.”
At the Orchard Rocks farm, diseased fish are being culled. Fish
large enough for the market are being butchered and sold, Cook said. Smaller fish are destroyed.
He declined to say how many fish were in the farm.Once the stocks are gone, the farm will be fallow for three months.
Nets will be removed and disinfected, Cook said.
The largest financial hit for Icicle will come from lost production.
“More than anything else, it’s the cost of the loss of livestock,” Cook said.
There has been a salmon farm for 30 years at that Bainbridge Island location. Never before has it been hit by IHNV, Cook said.
However, the disease was reported in salmon farms in British
Columbia about 10 years ago, Mitchell said.
The disease is part of the natural ecosystem in the North Pacific. Wild salmon species here have built some resistance to the virus. Healthy wild fish can withstand the infection.
However, Atlantic salmon used in farming have no resistance to
the disease, Mitchell said. They are made even more susceptible to disease because they live in close confinement.
“Farmed fish are way more susceptible to wild diseases,” Mitchell said.
And why did the disease made another appearance this year and
not others?
“No one knows,” Mitchell said.
http://pacificfishing.com/news/pf_20120525_virusII.pdf
Read more stories via Pacific Fishing: http://www.pacificfishing.com/
Filed under: Salmon | Tagged: IHN, Salmon, salmon farming, virus | Comments Off on Deadly virus appears in Washington state salmon farm – Pacific Fishing
Tofino is not that far away as the water flows…
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A Vancouver Island salmon farm says it has now emptied a site that was quarantined because of a virus. Mainstream Canada announced last week that tests confirmed the presence of an infectious virus known as IHN at its Dixon Bay site, north of Tofino.
Filed under: Puget Sound | Tagged: IHN, Puget Sound, Salmon, salmon farming, virus | Comments Off on Island fish farm gets rid of all its quarantined fish – Vancouver Sun
