Fish biologist Stan Proboszcz of Watershed Watch Salmon Society published an article about the killing of more than 800,000 wild fish in 2022 by open-net salmon farms. According to federal data, this was 16 times more destruction than the last decade’s yearly average. Proboszcz says that 2022 was not an outlier, that salmon farms have a long history of killing many species of fish and wildlife.

The Watershed Watch team spent months researching incidents related to fish and wildlife casualties arising from operations of salmon farms.

Wild fish and wildlife can enter the pens and the waste, pollutants, parasites, viruses and bacteria within flow freely out into our waterways.

When you go camping in a B.C. provincial park, you must store everything that may have a scent in your vehicle or food cache when you leave your site or go to bed. That includes all your food because you’re in the wilderness and animals will become habituated to it. Factory fish farms operate in some of the most isolated wildernesses in B.C., yet they violate these rules everyday.

They deposit huge quantities of fish feed in the water. They hold hundreds of thousands of domesticated farm salmon in flow-through nets in the ocean. And they regularly have dead fish floating or at the bottom of the nets.

All these attract fish and wildlife and as a result, many are killed by the industry.

Fish Farms Kill: The long history and heavy toll salmon farms have had on fish and wildlife.

Mr. Proboszcz then lists the effects on birds and creatures of the ocean, including:

• Humpback whales,
• Orca whales,
• Seals and sea lions,
• Wild fish, including hake, sablefish, Pacific cod, wild salmon species, and sharks among others. 

One purpose of the Watershed Watch article is to encourage people to contact the federal government. After activists lobbied against fish farms for decades, Justin Trudeau promised in the 2019 election to eliminate Atlantic salmon pens in BC. However, Fisheries and Ocean Canada has been a reluctant actor. Despite the Prime Minister’s pledge, the department is seeking in 2024 to extend fish farm licenses, not for the usual 12 months, but for periods of two to six years.

Says Mr. Proboszcz,  “They’re just kind of steamrolling ahead with what they’ve always done.”