Photo Credit: Douglas Ludwig
Salmon farming corporations have submitted 12 applications — including 5 from Cermaq in Clayoquot Sound — to increase production and profits. The corporations are looking to do this through a combination of increasing the size or number of the more ecologically destructive open net pen operations, and increasing the amount of fish produced at open net pen sites on the B.C. coast. Cermaq has applied to expand operations at salmon farms in Clayoquot Sound at Millar Channel, Plover Point, Dixon Bay, Rant Point, and Bawden Point.
The applications are being made despite the Liberal government’s promise to phase out open-net pen fish farms in B.C. waters by 2025. Any expansion of farm production amplifies the risks disease, bacteria and parasites pose to plummeting wild salmon stocks. Considering the salmon emergency, DFO should deny the pending applications. But with DFO’s internal contradiction to protect fisheries and salmon farming, we must make our voices heard — online, in the government halls, and on the water.
