BCSFA work to prove farmed salmon do not harm wild

Following recommendations from the Cohen Commission, the British Columbia Salmon Farmers Association (BCSFA) on Wednesday announced it is continuing work “on gathering additional scientific evidence to further demonstrate that fish farms do not harm Fraser River sockeye.”

In the commission’s final report released in October 2012, it found there was not enough evidence to prove that fish farms were not impacting Fraser River sockeye.

As one of its first steps, BCSFA organized a workshop to bring together scientists, fisheries experts, and fish health specialists and veterinarians to review risk management approaches and define research priorities for salmon aquaculture. BCSFA’s next step is to identify the current research that is in progress and bring it together for a second workshop planned for September 2013.

“Originally, our goal was to come away with a list of research priorities – an idea of where the knowledge gap is in terms of wild fish health and what research should be done,” said Mary Ellen Walling, BCSFA executive director. “What we found was that there was a knowledge gap in terms of what research is currently being done on wild fish, who is doing the research and what it’s focusing on. There are a number of groups doing fish health research and they don’t always talk to each other, so there’s no database of that information.

“Our goal with all of this work is to have a good picture of both wild and farmed fish health. The more we know, the better informed our farm management will be.”

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